en-us https://www.intensedebate.com/users/334704 Comments by John_Reddish http://www.davidniallwilson.com/a-practical-guide-to-it-the-internet-toc#IDComment15772441 David, Your outline and the comments prior to mine bring a few things to the fore: The first is under Knowing What You Need should expand to cover (if you don't already have it in the details) identifying their business processes and information generation needs. The second (hinted at in a couple of places) is "interoperability" between software programs. Some just don't play well together. The third is information management (documents and files). For most small businesses, it doesn't take too long before file retrieval becomes a chore. Fourth, if not there somewhere, the issue of synchronization of units in the field and problems that can arise in small businesses when the boss's machine has programs and/or files needed when s/he's off traveling. I'd also agree with others that either a rent a geek or a managed services program makes sense for most small businesses (ala your Dell service agreement on the equipment side) Hope this is helpful. Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:34:51 +0000 http://www.davidniallwilson.com/a-practical-guide-to-it-the-internet-toc#IDComment15772441