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Keep IT Audits Short and Sweet
Generally within four hours on-site for IT audits, you usually figure out exactly what's going on, what should be done next, how to prioritize it, and what hardware and software and services, peripherals and other similar items they need to buy.
You'll obviously, know that you're going to be proposing a bunch of follow-up tasks, so there's plenty of time to come back and go into more depth after IT audits. When the meter isn't running, don't sit down at keyboards and do something that could end up getting you in hot water!
Your Timing Checklist
The way to keep IT audits limited to 4 hours is by coming up with a dozen or so different areas that you will look at. In that four hours, there's no way that you're going to be able to hit every PC or every issue. Here is how to allocate the timing.
o Half hour to an hour on a primary server.
o If they have a secondary server, maybe another 15 or 20 minutes,
o A few minutes on LAN hub infrastructure,
o Looking at routers, CSUs, DSUs, DSL routers, hub switches in blocks of 10 or 15 minutes, making some general notes as to how it looks on visual inspection and some things you may notice with LADs or surge protection
o Half hour to 45 minutes on a couple representative PCs
What are Representative PCs?
Who are the most important PC users in the company? Ask your main company contact. They will point you in the right direction. They might say something like, “Bob, he's the one that takes care of all the billing and accounts payable. You should definitely look at him. And you should definitely look at mine because I'm the owner of the company.”
You should be able to look at two to four PCs and get a pretty good idea as to what's actually going on there with configurations, drive mappings, network protocols, whether they're in relatively good shape or whether they're a complete mess.
The Bottom Line about IT Audits
From IT audits, you should get a pretty good idea as to what the hottest priorities are, what should be addressed within the next week or two, what should be addressed in the next month or two and then what should go into more long-range planning.
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The primary example of commercial loans that are likely to take the longest to arrange is a commercial real estate loan. Even with the quickest variation of a commercial mortgage, business owners should expect this to take 45 to 60 days (up to nine months is a possibility with some traditional banks for certain commercial mortgages). One aspect that causes this type of commercial loan to take so long is the requirement for a real estate appraisal. This requirement alone is responsible for 30-40 days of the commercial mortgage process. The example requiring up to nine months is likely to involve an environmental review and/or business plan, both of which add substantial costs as well as time to the commercial financing process. However, not all lenders will require either an environmental review or business plan, so business owners should inquire in advance about these extra requirements.
One of the quickest examples of business financing involves a business cash advance based on future credit card receipts (credit card receivables). This commercial financing can be arranged in just a few days and requires very little documentation except for credit card receipt information and is called credit card factoring. Like the example above, some lenders will require more documentation such as tax returns and financial statements. As a result for such lenders the timeline is likely to be several weeks instead of several days.
In both examples above, timing issues will be extended if the initial commercial loan attempt does not result in a successful outcome. Business owners need to realize that with relatively quick-funding possibilities as well as more time-consuming examples such as commercial mortgages, there might still be insurmountable obstacles which result in a declined commercial loan. Although there will frequently be other commercial financing options available even after a lender declines a commercial loan, such "false starts" will result in a more time-consuming process for the small business borrower.
In the end the commercial financing process will be as short as possible if a business borrower does the following before starting their commercial loan search:
(1) Determine whether they need long-term or short-term financing
(2) Perform a preliminary assessment of their cash needs, credit scores and borrowing power based on assets like credit card receivables and equity in commercial property
(3) Review potential lender requirements such as those mentioned above involving environmental reviews and business plans as well as other common lender requirements such as tax returns and financial statements
(4) Commercial borrowers should visit http://www.aexcommercialfinancing.com for an overview of strategies for avoiding problems commonly associated with commercial loans.
Copyright 2005-2007 AEX Commercial Financing Group, LLC. All Rights Reserved.