Tech consulting in Newcastle, NSW: plain advice on the tech you already pay for.

Somebody independent looking at what your business runs on, what it pays for, what it actually uses, and telling you what to change and in what order.

It is a review rather than an arrangement. Somebody looks, writes down what they found, and gives a list. What happens next is the business's decision.

What it looks at

• What you pay for. Every subscription, who pays it and what it is for. This list alone usually pays for the exercise.
• What you actually use. Which of those tools people open, and which were bought for a project that ended.
• What is missing. The gaps being filled by a spreadsheet, a person's memory, or nothing at all.
• What is risky. Where the copies are, who has access, and what would happen on the day a laptop is lost.

The result is a short list in order, not a strategy document. Something the business can start on without anybody explaining it again.

Because the person who supplies your technology is not the right person to ask whether you need it. An independent look is a different question to a support arrangement.

Support and advice are different purchases. Support keeps what you have working. Advice asks whether you should have it, which is a question nobody selling it can answer neutrally.

In a small business the second question rarely gets asked at all. Tools accumulate, somebody sets them up, the person who chose them leaves, and the subscriptions carry on.

We supply technology too, which is exactly why it is worth saying that a review regularly ends with a short list and no work for us. That is a good outcome and it happens often enough to be worth naming.

Subscriptions nobody uses, features already paid for and never switched on, accounts belonging to people who left, and a backup, which is a saved copy you can put back, that nobody has ever tested.

The findings repeat across businesses of every kind, which is why the review is worth running even when nothing feels wrong.

What comes up

• Paying twice. Two tools doing the same job, usually because two people each solved the same problem.
• Features already owned. The thing somebody was about to buy is often included in a subscription the business already has.
• Accounts of people who left. Still active, still costing, still able to log in.
• A backup nobody has tested. Running is not the same as working. A restore that has never been tried is a belief rather than a backup.
• Everything in one person's name. The accounts registered to an individual rather than the business, which becomes a problem on a specific day.

The Australian Cyber Security Centre's small business basics covers the risk half of that list in plain language, and it is a short read.

Check whether you already own it. The feature a business is about to pay for is regularly included in something it has been subscribed to for years.

Software gets sold on the problem rather than on what you already have, so it is worth doing this check before signing anything.

What to check first

• What your existing subscriptions include. Most business plans carry more than the person who bought them realised.
• Whether anybody has tried it. A tool nobody could get working is a different problem to a tool that does not exist.
• Who would own the new one. The business, in its own name, not somebody's personal account.
• What happens to the old thing. Buying the replacement without turning off the original is how a business ends up paying twice.

List what you pay for, ask what people actually use, look at where the risk sits, check what you already own, then get a short list in order.

1. List everything you pay for

From the bank statement rather than from memory. This is the step that surprises people and it takes an hour.

2. Ask what people actually use

The people doing the work, not the owner. The gap between what is paid for and what is opened is the finding.

3. Look at where the risk sits

Backups, access, and whose name things are in. Not a security audit, a look at what would hurt on a bad day.

4. Check what you already own

Against whatever the business was about to buy. This step regularly pays for the whole exercise.

5. Get a short list, in order

Starting with the free changes. Something that can be started on Monday without anybody explaining it again.

6. Decide what you want help with

Some of it, all of it, or nothing. The list works whoever does the work.

The review is short: days rather than weeks for a small business. Acting on the list runs on its own timeline, and the free items are usually done in the first week.

The order it happens in

• What you pay for gets listed. From statements, not memory. An hour, and it produces most of the findings.
• The people get asked. What they use, what they avoid, what they type in twice.
• The list comes back. Short, in order, free items first. What happens next is the business's decision.

This is deliberately a piece of work with an end. If it turns into an ongoing arrangement, that is a separate decision made afterwards rather than the point of it.

Ask whether they sell what they will recommend, what the output is, whether they need access to anything, and what they would tell you not to change.

We do this work in Newcastle, so we are not neutral. These are the questions we would want asked of us.

• Do you sell what you will recommend? Sometimes, and it is worth knowing before the recommendation. We name it when a finding leads to something we supply.
• What is the output? A short list in order that the owner can read. A long report is easier to produce and harder to act on.
• Do you need access to my systems? Ours does not, for the review itself. The list comes from statements and conversations.
• What would you tell me not to change? A reviewer with nothing on that list has not looked properly.
• Am I locked in? This is a piece of work with an end. Anything ongoing afterwards runs month to month, like everything else we do.

A business that already has somebody looking after its technology and is happy with them does not need this. The reason to run one is usually a suspicion that the bill and the benefit have drifted apart.