Tech consulting in Newcastle, NSW: plain advice on your tech.

It is somebody independent looking at what your business runs on, what it pays for, what it actually uses, and saying what to change and in what order.

It is a review rather than an arrangement. Somebody looks, writes down what they found, and hands over a list. What happens after that is the business's decision alone.

What it looks at

• Everything the business pays for.

  Every subscription, who pays it and what it is for. That list on its own usually pays for the exercise.

• What people actually use.

  Which of those tools people open, and which were bought for a project that finished two years ago.

• What is missing entirely.

  The gaps currently filled by a spreadsheet, by one person's memory, or by nothing at all.

• Where the risk is sitting.

  Where the copies are, who still has access, and what would happen on the day a laptop goes missing.

What comes back is a short list in order, not a strategy document. Something a business can start on without anybody having to explain it again.

Whoever 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 at all, which is a question nobody selling it can answer neutrally.

In a small business almost nobody asks the second question. Tools accumulate, somebody sets them up, the person who chose them leaves, and the subscriptions carry on regardless.

spareday supplies technology too, so it is worth saying that a review regularly ends with a short list and no work at all. 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, meaning 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

• The business is paying twice.

  Two tools doing the same job, usually because two people each solved the same problem separately.

• Features already owned and never used.

  The thing somebody was about to buy is often included in a subscription the business has had for years.

• Accounts belonging to people who left.

  Still active, still costing money, and in many cases still able to log in to things.

• A backup nobody has ever tested.

  Running is not the same as working. A restore that has never been tried is a belief rather than a backup.

• Everything sitting in one person's name.

  Accounts registered to an individual rather than the business, which becomes a problem on one 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 the business already owns it. The feature somebody is about to pay for is regularly included in something that has been subscribed to for years.

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

What to check first

• What the existing subscriptions include.

  Most business plans carry considerably more than the person who bought them ever realised.

• Whether anybody has actually 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, rather than somebody's personal account with a personal card behind it.

• What happens to the old thing.

  Buying the replacement without switching off the original is exactly how a business ends up paying twice.

List what the business pays for, straight off the statements. Ask the people what they actually use, look at the risk, and check what the business already owns. Then a short list comes back in order.

None of it needs access to any system, which is why it can start the day it is asked for.

1. List everything the business pays for

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

2. Ask the people what they use

The people doing the work, not the owner. The gap between what the business pays for and what anybody opens is the finding.

3. Look at the risk

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

4. Check what the business already owns

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

5. A short list comes back, in order

Starting with the changes whose only price is time. Something that can be started on Monday without anybody explaining it again.

6. Then the business decides what it wants help with

Some of it, all of it, or none of it. The list works whoever ends up doing the work.

The review itself 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 inside the first week.

The order it happens in

• First everything the business pays for goes on a list.

  From statements rather than memory. About an hour, and it produces most of the findings on its own.

• Then somebody asks the people.

  What they use, what they avoid, and what they end up typing into two places.

• Then the list comes back.

  Short, in order, and free items first. What happens next is entirely the business's decision.

This is deliberately a piece of work with an end. Where 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 actually is, whether they need access to anything, and what they would tell you not to change.

These are worth asking of any consultant, including this one, so the answers given here are underneath each question.

• Do you sell what you will recommend?

  Sometimes, and it is worth knowing before the recommendation arrives. The list says so wherever a finding leads there.

• What is the output?

  A short list in order that the owner can read. A long report is easier to produce and much harder to act on.

• Do you need access to my systems?

  Not for the review itself. The list comes out of statements and conversations rather than logins.

• What would you tell me not to change?

  A reviewer with nothing at all on that list has not looked properly at the business.

• Am I locked into a contract?

  This is a piece of work with an end.

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