Check your references!

Something that I see more and more of in the Perth IT industry is the project remnants of people trying to save a dollar.

What does this look like?

Projects suffering from this syndrome are inherently unfinished, they are badly coded, badly connected, backwardly functional and normally over-complicated.

I also have the good fortune of seeing projects that have been well defined, shown constraint and been staged effectively to ensure user adoption is maximised and functionality and money is not wasted.

What do these projects look like?

These project look neat and tidy, the users are informed and know the system, the functionality is simple and useful, the functions are positive and time-saving, and, the client generally gets a little smug smirk when you ask them how it's going.

"at Evolve IT we are putting

our name to the work the

way a builder does to a house

or a musician does to a concerto"

Being in infrastructure we complete projects in this way and we see our counterparts complete them in both ways. The hardest thing is that we will see what's happening early. In most instances we will inform the client of our opinion of the work, however often our clients have been bamboozled by functionality and "more for less" sales techniques rather than being provided with a list of happy clients and told to call them.

I really think that this is key. At Evolve IT we can provide our prospective clients with a list of references from Perth and all over Australia from Broome, Melbourne and even New Zealand confirming the fact that we provide top quality products and do great work.

Many sales people concentrate on the sale, however at Evolve IT we like to have a relationship with our client because we are not just installing a server, or a new PC; we are putting our name to the work the way a builder does to a house or a musician does to a concerto.

We want our clients to say "Evolve IT did our network and we would recommend them every day and twice on Sundays!"

And how does this benefit Evolve IT?

Well apart from the obvious advantage of being able to sell to other clients, it also means that the clients that are happy with us come back to us for procurement, support, new projects and advice on other areas of the business.

For Evolve IT this means that we spend more time making our clients happy and less time out selling to new potential clients.

So, whether you are here looking for our services, or just having a read to see what you can learn, this is the biggest thing:

"Evolve IT did our network

and we would recommend them

every day and twice on Sundays!"

Check your references!

Make sure that your supplier has a good reputation for providing top quality products and high quality work. I recommend three references and the more recent the better. You want to ensure that it's remotely the same team doing the work on your place that won the award for the work on someone Else's.

So that's it - get references and that will prove the level of work that you are likely to get.

That will be all you need in the end.