Whether you're a business leader who fully understands and values the positive impact Information Technology has on business, or if you simply view IT as an expensive necessary evil...there's no denying that IT is driving the way people will conduct business in the years to come. A recent Gartner study states that American businesses are expected to increase their IT budgets by 5.3% in 2010. But a harsh reality is that most companies don't have an experienced IT advisor to assist them in allocating those dollars to projects and IT solutions that will increase their bottom line. This leads businesses to pouring additional dollars into IT in an attempt to somehow create more value, or to cut back on IT spending because their dollars don't seem to be meeting their current expectations.  Few companies seem to be sure how much they should be spending on IT, and many don't have a formalized budget. Why is this?

Budgeting for IT is a daunting task. There are so many variables to consider such as the cost of: equipment, maintenance and repair of equipment, personnel, ongoing training of personnel, having a reliable data backup solution, protection against data theft or even accidental deletion of files, having a proven backup disaster and recovery plan in the event of a flood/fire/or tornado, the downtime you experience when a system fails or crashes and you're waiting for parts and labor while your employees' productivity levels flat line. These and other similar challenges keep most companies from ever formulating a budget for IT, or at least one that protects their business while providing a competitive advantage.

A new trend in IT management is the concept of "managed services". What exactly are managed services? Simply put, it is a combination of technology and service that allows specific IT capabilities including all the design, deployment, maintenance, and life cycle costs to be packaged into a fixed fee offering. Having a known cost for hardware, application licensing, email, backup, service, support, etc. makes budgeting easy and eliminates surprise expenses. And when these managed services are well designed and delivered, the expertise of the provider and economies of scale combine to offer far more value to an organization than attempting to "do it in-house."

Guidant Partners removes the headache of planning and budgeting for IT. We provide our clients full service IT solutions for a flat monthly fee. We don't just focus on routine maintenance of computer systems, our IT Advisors will educate and guide you in ways that technology will help you better communicate with clients, mitigate business risk, and drive revenue. With over 23 years of experience, Guidant Partners will show you how to receive improved ROI from your IT dollars and deliver you a fail proof solution to budget for your IT expenses. How do we do this?

Guidant Partners has set a new standard as an industry leader in technology solutions. We go against the grain and take a proactive approach to IT. Instead of being a "fix it when it breaks" company that charges $150 an hour and has no incentive to keep a client's systems running, our clients pay us a flat monthly fee to ensure systems downtime and failure DO NOT  occur. Our clients truly use their IT dollars to pay for value and uptime, rather than to react to a problem that is already costing them money due to downtime. How is the flat monthly fee determined, and what services will your business receive for this fixed fee?

Every business is unique in the applications and hardware they use. Our flat monthly fee is based on the size of each client's infrastructure. This "flat fee IT" approach provides our clients with new computers and servers, monitoring and maintenance of their equipment, a four layer security solution to protect all their electronic data, a data backup and recovery solution, a simple and secure way to access their company's network remotely, storage of their business critical data in our state-of-the-art data center, a single source to manage their other technology vendors, and an unlimited 24x7x365 help desk. And if something breaks or needs repair, we simply fix it or replace it at no additional cost to our client.

Are you tired of unplanned system failures, or paying costly hourly rates every time you need a questioned answered or a machine worked on? Our flat fee IT approach provides you with new equipment and eliminates surprise bills, bringing you peace of mind and the opportunity to set a concrete budget for all of your IT expenses. Our Flat Fee IT solution is the most cost efficient way to increase productivity and ensure systems uptime for your business. If you want to remove the headache of planning and budgeting for IT, contact Guidant Partners today at 615.327.9111 or submit a request at www.guidantpartners.com through our "contact us" portal.