Essential Business Server (EBS): Solution for Growing Networks

We've recently had many small business customers on the edge of outgrowing their Small Business Server come to us and ask us "what's the next step?" 

Microsoft Essential Business Server is designed and priced for mid-size businesses and is flexible and scalable enough to support growing companies.  EBS is a multi-server solution that scales up to 300 PCs and multiple branch locations.  This four-server solution comes pre-configured to best practices and best yet - the simplified licensing plan only requires one server license across the entire platform. 

Many small and mid-size businesses don't have the right environment or expertise in-house to manage their own data center, or they're simply looking for ways to minimize their upfront capital investment.  For those cases, more often than not we recommend an EBS hosted solution.  It's important to consider all the costs of managing your servers in-house including: dedicated space, power, cooling, security and server management/support.  A hosted solution can provide your end users the piece of mind to securely connect to your servers without needing to hire additional dedicated resources to support your staff.

EBS allows mid-size businesses to take advantage of the robust enterprise-class features of a Windows infrastructure without the high price tag.  Not sure EBS is the right solution for your business?  We typically recommend this technology for those that fit the following scenarios:

• Close to 75 users or will soon outgrow Microsoft SBS

• Needs custom line-of-business application deployment

• Small business with fewer than 75 PCs but is on a fast growth trajectory or has more complex IT needs

• Business with a disparate IT infrastructure looking to consolidate their hardware and take advantage of virtualization benefits

Microsoft Keeps Up With the Economy: New Customer Financing Options

In today’s market budgets are getting cut, employees are laid off and most businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water.  For those who are keeping afloat and starting to see things turn around, plans for IT projects are well underway.  Microsoft has announced a new financing offer to help companies push off payments in order to move forward with the IT projects previously on-hold.

Microsoft is getting creative, but more importantly understands the demands that the economy has put on businesses of all sizes.  Slashing IT budgets during an economic downturn isn’t always the best method for success.  Companies rely on the technology that is supporting them on a daily basis - from their e-mail platform, to properly functioning workstations, to CRM and ERP systems and their underlying infrastructure.

Microsoft’s new financing plan allows organizations of all sizes to finance the entire cost of their technology solutions, including any combination of software, consulting and installation services, partner products, and hardware. Under one of their current promotions, Microsoft allows companies to push off payments for an entire six months, and then continue with monthly payments for the remainder of the loan term.

Some key points to consider for their financing promotion:

• You must be in business for a minimum of 2 years with a positive net income and an established credit history (* there is a separate program for startup companies, start-ups can apply under separate personal cover*)

• You cannot have any bankruptcy, liens, defaults or judgments on your credit record

• There is no limit on the transaction size or size of the company applying for the offer

• Additional hardware and third-party products can be included in the entire financed promotion

• No payments will be required for the first 6 months after the transaction, the financing offer will be set up with affordable monthly payments after the initial six months