April 3, 2024 • 31 mins
Many businesses ask if they should hire an outsourced IT Provider to manage their company’s information technology. This is especially true for the Legal cannabis industry which has unique challenges and hefty regulations for growers, distributors, and dispensaries in the cannabis industry. In fact, Cannabis IT Services and Solutions is fast becoming one of the largest growing areas in the IT service market.
To help us better understand why an IT provider is beneficial and what to look for in a provider we have Steve Arndt – President Cannabis Technology Partners & Silver Lining Technologies and Greg Shenefelt – Help Desk Coordinator Cannabis Technology Partners today on Small Business Talks.
Many Thanks to:
Cannabis Technology Partners 360-450-3687 info＠cannabistechnologypartners.com https://cannabistechnologypartners.com/
Have a comment or idea for a podcast, email us at nealr@mfgpa.org
Visit Our Blog : American Business Blog
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Why should I usean outsourced IT provider?
Many businesses may ask if they shouldhire an outsourced IT provider to manage
their company's information technology.
Hiring an IT provider is similarto why you would hire an outsourced
payroll provider or an accounting firm.
It lets the business focus onall the things you need to be successful
(00:21):
without having to worry about day-to-dayIT tasks or meltdowns, even if you have
a good knowledge of IT practices.
This is a Especially true forthe legal cannabis industry, which has
unique challenges and hefty regulationsfor growers, distributors, and
dispensaries in the cannabis industry.
To help us better understand why an ITprovider is beneficial
(00:44):
and what to look for in a provider,we have Steve Arndt,
President of Cannabis Technology Partners,a Division of Silver Lining's Technology,
and Greg Scheneffelt,Help Desk Coordinator
at Cannabis Technology Partners,today on Small Business Talks.
(01:06):
Today, we're going to be talkingabout IT Outsource Providers.
The big question is, why should Iuse an IT Outsource provider?
To help us walk through that and answersome of the questions about that,
we have Steve Arndt,who's President
of Cannabis Technology Partners,which is a part of Silver Lining's
technology, and Greg Schanafelt,who's the help desk coordinator.
(01:29):
So, gentlemen, Welcome to the podcast.
How are you doing today?Good.
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you.
Pleasure having you on.
So let's just start withthe question right out of the box.
Why should I use an IT outsource provider?
There's a lot of great reasonsto use an outsource provider.
Number one, it just lets you focus onall the things that you need to do to
(01:53):
make your business successful withouthaving to worry about IT day-to-day
meltdowns or tasks, even when you do havea deep-vested knowledge in IT practices.
I'll jump in and add a few things to it.
I mean, why would you hirean outsource payroll provider?
(02:14):
Or why would you hirean outsource accounting provider.
In either one of those cases, you're doingit number one to buy yourself time, as
Greg said, but also you're trying to hirean expert that can do it a lot faster and
in theory, a lot cheaper than in-house.
Again, time is money,so faster definitely helps.
(02:36):
It is even different from those thingsin that if either one of those functions
has a delay, typically, payroll,you've got one day that's really
critical, but two weeks or not.
Accounting, you've got a monthor definitely some leeway.
But with IT, you want somebodythat's there reacting to internet outages
(02:58):
and Things that are going toaffect operations right away.
So gosh, having somebody on the hookthat's taking care of those problems
right away when who knowswhat you're doing, that's gold.
That's a great statementbecause I want to ask you, what do you
do when you get the person that says,I have an IT background and an aptitude.
(03:19):
Why should I hire an outside firm?
I know it all.
Why should you?
Greg, any thoughts on that?
Well, So you should hire the outsourcefirm because these individuals are going
to have specialized tools and expertisethat you don't have access to in-house.
And it's also really nice to know, Hey,I have this critical thing happening,
(03:43):
and there's somebody on the other endthat's already responded to it.
We've got the providers involved.
We're getting the service restored,which, again, like Steve said, time
is money, and that bringsyour money maker right back up.
Can I jump in and add a fewthoughts to that, too?
I've done IT consultingfor years and years and years.
But what I've found great systemsis really for an effective IT
(04:08):
department, you need to havefour different skill sets in play.
A single person doesn't have the capacityto do and handle all of the things
that an IT department itself needs to do.
When you talk about doing it in-houseor you have an IT background, chances
are you're doing a chunk of that stuff.
(04:30):
There's probably a whole bunch of stuffthat you're not doing,
maybe compliance, maybe security,who knows, applications, that a team,
and especially an outsource team whereyou've got predictable costs, can handle
for you, and quite frankly, supplement.
It's not negative that youknow how to do it.
It's actually a muchbetter team environment.
(04:52):
I like that because I think that's oneof the things I've run across
is just in whatever area you're inis you may have somebody as an expert,
but it still doesn't mean youhave all the time dedicated to it.
Do you find a lot of companiesthat just they don't have
the bandwidth to be able to do this,and this helps offset some of those?
Absolutely.
Again, I'll go back tothe payroll or the accounting.
(05:13):
A lot of times,you don't know what you don't know.
With a good outsourced IT provider,they're going to fill the gaps
and help educate you along the way.
The minute you go through a coupleof those iterations, you go,
Gee, oh, my gosh, of course,I should have done that before.
I'm going to change the subjecta little bit, and I'm going
(05:34):
to ask and then make a statement.
Are all IT service providers the same?
I'm going to throw a little notein here that Steve wrote a book on this.
I'm going to have so that as well,something you might want
to throw in there if you want.
Well, I definitely don'tthink all are the same.
Part of it has to do with where did theycome from, what's their orientation?
(05:57):
A lot of what's called MSPs or IT serviceproviders, they grew out of this idea
that there was a strong technicalperson, and they didn't
like working for anybody else.
So they start their own company.Great.
I'm all excited about that.
But they're very narrowlyfocused on the tech itself.
So you'll hear them talk abouthow many PCs you got or how many servers.
(06:20):
And it's all about the tech.
Versus other firms, for instance,like ours, for instance,
I'm a CIO in background,and you think, Well, CIO is tech.
No, it's really business.
How does business work?
And what do you do with the techto operate effectively
in business and at cost?
(06:40):
Those themselves are two different,vastly different perspectives.
And quite frankly,there are a number of others.
Really, not all firms are the same.
Really, you need to look for one thataligns with perhaps gaps that you guys
have so that they can supplement those.
Obviously, pricing is all acrossthe board, so you need to really
(07:01):
understand what the pricing is.
It may seem like one is more expensive,but perhaps they're offering security and
compliance and other things on top of itor 24 by 7 support versus another one
that you're getting bare bones, right?
And you don't really know until somethinggoes outside of those bounds
and you have to pay more for it.
(07:22):
So lots of differences.
They're definitely notall pretty the same.
Greg, do you have anythings to supplement that?
Yeah, I would say that there's definitely,like you said, there's those people
that are only focused on the tech,and then they forget about the service
aspect here, helping you alleviatepressures that you're feeling in your
(07:42):
day-to-day environment or justkeeping you ahead of those things.
It's great to go to bedat night and not worry, Hey,
is my email secure or my PC is safe?
And to have somebody just, again,get on the phone and have that human
one-on-one connection and conversationwith and it not be so tech-driven.
I want to add one other little pointthat I think is super important.
(08:07):
That's the differencebetween proactive and reactive.
There are a lot of firms that are reactivefor you, but most businesses,
don't you want somebody that's proactive?
Don't you want people that are preventingthe security flaws from coming in
rather than just reacting to them?You got to do both.
I get it, but there's a lot to be said forhaving a proactive firm as your partner.
(08:30):
What I'm hearing from this conversation isthat it also sounds like it's a little bit
on the person that's approachingan IT service provider to before just
instead of just going online,just looking at the different web pages,
that they should really have a meetingwith the company and go through and review
the things that they have instead of justpicking one because they have
(08:51):
a nice color on their website.
No question about that.
Quite frankly, in business,that's what you ought to be doing
with all your experts.
I would love to say, Oh, just IT, butgosh, I hope you're having a conversation
with your attorney and they'reeducating you on what you need and why.
Again, your accountant,your marketing person, all of those,
(09:14):
those should be value-added resources,not just transactional-added resources
for you to gain the most leverage.
Quite frankly, cannabis business is hard.
Now, this is not an easy business.
It may be easy to get into and see themopportunity to optimistic right now, but
there are a lot of business pressures andthings that are going on that you want
(09:38):
as many people on your side as possible.
That brings up a good question.
When you talk aboutthe cannabis business side of things,
that's got to have different challengesand different approaches
than would be any other type of business.
I mean, every businesshas their own unique thing, but maybe
you could describe some of the thingsthat are unique to the cannabis industry
(09:58):
in regards to IT.
Yeah.
There have been many folksthat have posited the cannabis industry
as the most regulated industry, evencompared to drug companies and such
or hospitals and things like that.
From my experience, I've seen that.
You've got, not even tobacco,you have to track the product,
(10:24):
the tobacco product from whenit comes out of the ground all the way
through to when it's produced as a cigaror a cigarette, alcohol, the same thing.
But with cannabis, we've gotto track the product all the way through.
You're regulated to do that.
But not only that, every state'sregulations are slightly different.
You've got to not just know the general.
(10:44):
You have to know Very specific,where are you operating?
Every single one of the states mandatessome surveillance of the product.
So not only do you have to track itin terms of data points and what happens,
you also have to show visual proof ofwhat took place with the product itself
(11:07):
all the way through your organization.
Those two things are huge.
And quite frankly, those arethe two things that get Most
of the cannabis organizations in trouble.
I mean, in business, you canget in trouble for a lot of things.
There are other things that certainlyare compliance requirements.
But from a technology perspective,you got to nail those two things.
(11:29):
Surveillance is the perfect example wherethe surveillance industry, as it's been
for the last 20 years, really hasn'tbeen positioned well to do that.
The traditional surveillance provideris a reseller of equipment,
an installer, and then theywalk away, hands off, it's done.
(11:51):
They also don't typicallythink of the network as a whole.
I mean, yeah, their devices siton the network, but if it's the network's
fault, again, they throw up their hands.
Having a full service providerthat understands that and isn't just going
to, well, I'm sorry, that's not our thing,but literally take ownership
(12:12):
of the technology all the way throughto this idea of making sure you're fully
compliantand responding correctly when there's
an outage or something else, that's a hugething in cannabis and a requirement.
Most people don't get that they get burnedby fines or theft or something else.
(12:34):
It's not a good lesson.
I think one of the things I was impressedwith was before our interview,
I just went out just to look aroundon the internet,
and I laughed how many companies werelike, they focus on their core IT,
and then they have one pagethat talks about cannabis.
The one thing, not to be soself-promotional, but the one thing
(12:55):
I did notice is that your focusis really in cannabis technology partners
is really about the cannabis industry.
I mean, it's reallya strong focus in there.
Yeah.
When we chose to get into the cannabisindustry, again, it goes back
to the strategic side and the big pictureside of things, the business things.
I love that and figuring that stuffout, but I'm also always
(13:20):
about taking ownership.
Number one, I don't expect our clientsto love, like, or be good at technology.
If they were, again, it goes back to thefirst question, why should you hire us?
Well, yeah, I think there's validreasons, but most of them,
these aren't the strengths, and quitefrankly, not their focus as well.
(13:40):
For us to know whatthe compliance requirements are
and to provide that information,again, that's value to our clients
to understand the full life cycle.
Cannabis is fascinating, even more sothan alcohol and some other
stuff, because quite frankly,now with infusion, in manufacturing.
(14:01):
I mean, cannabis is in everything,and not just edibles and consumables,
but health products.
You've got rubs and you've got otherthings that the product is used for.
It's like an ingredient like sugar,which ends up in everything all over.
Only now you have to track it.
You have to know where it's at,and every state's different.
(14:26):
It's fascinating.
It's a lot of fun for somebody that likeschaos, and somebody wouldn't get into
IT consulting if they didn't like chaos.There you go.
I got to ask you a question because Idon't want to say anything negative,
but I also want to say something like,what do you tell the person when they come
(14:47):
to you with a question like,Well, we're just a startup company and we
don't know if we can really afford it.
We don't know if we really need itbecause we're just starting out.
Do you need to be more maturebusiness before where you get IT?
How do you handle a personthat thinks that maybe they're not ready
for it or that that's somethingyou put down the road?
(15:07):
It's about letting themknow that it's an investment.
Sure, if you're first starting out,you're a baby company,
you don't have a million dollars sittingin the bank or $20,
000 a month to spend in focus areas.
But if you focus and drill downon your IT investments, it's going
to keep you ahead of all the curves.
Anything that could happen,like Steve said, is being proactive.
(15:30):
We're going to keep all of that stuffthere in working order all the time.
And you're not going to haveto worry about as you grow and
add more things, are yougoing to have an IT meltdown today?
Is it all going to break?
Yeah, I'm going to echo that withthe simple thought that there are
so many firms that we've comein at later on that had delayed IT
(15:54):
involvement, and we're havingto redo some stuff and educate them.
Go, you didn't need to spend that muchon these licenses because you could have
deferred that or you could have donethis a different way early on.
Even in a practical sense,I think involving
a firm or even just to get some advicearound it, some good solid advice around
(16:16):
startup IT, you realizethat there's a dollar savings and also
a prioritization of when things haveto occur versus when it's sexy to occur.
Interestingly enough, I'll justgive everybody a real practical example.
Nowadays, if you're goingto start a business and you don't have
(16:38):
your own domain and your own email withthat domain, you're doing an @hotmail
or @gmail or whatever, you might as wellkiss a goodbye from a brand perspective.
You're giving it away.
You also really don't own the datathat's in those email platforms.
You think you do,but it's not your name on it.
It's gmail or hotmail or outlook.
(16:59):
Com.
That's their platform.
So simple things like thatcan really make a big difference
as you're going down the road.
And again, that's what you ought to do.
But there's so many of the things thatyou shouldn't necessarily do early on.
It may not be necessary.
Do you ever get a lot of people that say,Well, we don't have any problems,
(17:22):
so why should we hire?
Oh, obviously, I had a nerve there.
You know what I mean?
The person, Well, we don'tneed this because nothing's broken.
I know that's crazy, but you obviouslyrun across that where people do.
Yeah.
Last year, I did, honestly, a series oftalks at different events, and I pulled
(17:43):
out some statistics that I gave there.
One of them was, you realize that 31%of organizations have already
experienced a cyber attack.
31%, a third of all organizations.
43% of all cyber attacksare aimed at small business.
We keep thinking about the MGMsand all that other stuff, but almost half
(18:08):
are aimed at small business.
Ransomware attacks are now growing at350% annually, so a huge number there,
quite to the extent that cybercrimeis more profitable globally
than the entire illegal drug trade.
Oh, my gosh.Okay.
(18:30):
This is big.
66% of businesses that have been attackedby hackers, 66% weren't confident that
they could recover, stay in business.
Okay, two-thirds.
I mean, that's mind boggling in itself.
60% of small businesses go out of businesswithin six months after a cyber attack.
(18:55):
When people say, Oh, thingsare going well, we don't really
need anything complex.
Number one, we go back to compliance.
I'll tell you this, with an IT firmor an IT Department and things
are going well and they're proactiveand you know that they're taking care
of things, that's great.
You should be thankful for every cent youput in there because things are smooth.
(19:19):
But if you're not doing all those thingsand things are smooth,
all you've done is got lucky.
With the automation that hackersare using, constant attacks,
it's not if you're going to,it's when you're going to get attacked.
I don't mean to be scare tactics and allthat, but that's the world we live in.
(19:43):
It's the reality of it.
I heard a speaker once made a statementthat I really liked, was he said,
and you brought this up about,Everybody thinks it's all big business
that hackers go after.
The gentleman said,It's just like stealing cars.
They don't care if it's a Rolls a choiceor a Chevy, if the door is unlocked, i.
(20:03):
E, if you're bad security, they're justgoing to hack into it because they're not
looking for what model.
They're looking for anything available.Yeah.
No, I'm wondering,is there a real question then?
How do you know as you'reyour business safe without an IT firm?
Yeah, that's a good question.
That is a good question because I think,especially when you have those numbers,
(20:25):
obviously, people aregoing through all the questions I had was,
Well, everything's going fine because Wedon't know it, or we can't
afford it, or We're too small.
Again, I'm going to go backto that analogy, too, of accountants.
It just boggles my mind.
Almost every company I talk tohave hired an outside accounting firm.
(20:46):
You ask them, Well, do you notknow how to do your books?
Or why is that?
The response is,I'm afraid if I get audited.
What is the percentage of companiesthat actually get audited Year
after year or even over a 10-yearperiod, it's like 1 or 2%.
I mean, it's a very small number.
(21:08):
Again, I'm not saying don'tdo that, but the value of fear
to to thread is vastly different.
Here we're talking about, again,things that affect operations immediately
on a daily basis, whether it'sjust something like an Internet outage.
But boy, I would certainly want somebodyon the hook if a cyber attack occurred
(21:32):
to know exactly what to do, when to do it,how to react,
and how to recover the business,then picking up the phone and now calling
for IT help or securityhelp after the fact.
It sounds like something else that youoffer or that you're recommending also is
that when I mentioned about the smallcompany, they don't think they're ready
for something yet,wouldn't it be a good idea to have a long
(21:56):
term relationship because the IT companyis going to be able to the IT service
provider is going to grow with yourbusiness because they see the changes,
they see the things,and they can grow with you type scenario?
Yeah, I think Iabsolutely agree with that.
This goes back to picking the IT firm.
You could say that that same thingof the guy that's down the street
(22:19):
and has one person in his companyand maybe he's growing.
But does he really...
I would hope your IT firm knows and workswith companies bigger than yours already
so they can help you get to that nextstage, not just growing with you.
Does that make sense?
No, that does.
(22:41):
In fact, it's a perfect segueinto the next question, which is, if I
hired a firm, how would I know if they'reperforming or adding value to my company?
How do I know I'mgetting my money's worth?
Well, this is really easyto determine, I think.
If you are not always just thinking aboutthe numbers that they perform,
but how fast do they respondto your calls when something goes wrong?
(23:05):
Or how satisfied are youwith their day-to-day solutions?
Are you getting a solution from them andgoing, Oh, my gosh, it fixed it for now,
but it's going to break again later?
Or are you getting solutionsthat say, wow, they really thought about
this problem and solved this for us.
And then again, back to what Stevewas just saying, are they helping your
business grow in the right direction?
(23:26):
It's every day that I talk to oneof our smaller clients and the relief
they feel when I go, Hey, we coulddo this to save you some money, or, Hey,
preemptively, we should do this thing.
It'll get you ahead.
It's nice for them to know at the endof the day that I'm already
thinking about these things for them.
I'm going to also add bits to thatbecause clearly a company needs to
(23:52):
provide you data on what's happening.What are they doing?
And again, the best data is to come backand say, Look, we upgraded We
had your firmware every month.
We had 12 tickets,but there were no incidents.
You go, Well, great.
I'm paying for those results.
But there's also, again, this mentorshipand partnership that, again, just
(24:17):
a pure computer geek may not give you.
You go to Geek Squad, they're goingto focus on the computer.
Again, as we said before,are they adding business value?
Are they adding business value?Are they adding business value?
Are they adding business value?Are they adding business value?
Are they adding business value?Are they adding business value?
There's many times that I've cometo a client and said, You're not ready.
You don't need to spend money on this yet,or there's a different alternative
(24:37):
to solve the problemthat may be less expensive.
Because, again, I'm pretendinglike I own your company.
Do I do.I don't want to spend money?
No, I'm cheap as anybody else.
I want to get value outof the things that are there.
So again, that proactive.
I'm going to make one little point becausesometimes this, this gets lost in sight.
(25:03):
This is going to sound weird,but from a help desk perspective,
pure help desk, that's almosta no-win scenario to break even.
What I mean by that is, well,think of payroll, for instance.
Nobody thinks about all of the workthat goes into payroll as long
(25:23):
as they get their paycheck.
But the minute they don't gettheir paycheck or it's wrong, that
That damn payroll department, they can'tget anything right, blah, blah, blah.
I mean, it's just the world's ending.
So help desk is like that.
We or anybody, tries to mitigate that bybeing, number one, very responsive,
solving the problem in it in what a userwould feel like as a timely manner.
(25:48):
But if you're doing that all the time,there is always going to be something
that slips through or somebody thatit wasn't as fast as they thought it
should be, or, Dang it,they thought that their mouse Twittering
was more important than an internetoutage, and I can't believe
that you didn't respond to that.
My point is help desk is break even.
If that's all you're getting,then you're going to have to measure
(26:11):
one company's in terms of satisfaction.
But really where the valueof IT is that whole other layer
of, again, business side.
Well, are you runningthe right applications?
Do you have the right internet speeds?
You're asking those questions, do wehave the right security things in place?
Is the right for this?
Or how do we do these other things?
(26:32):
All those business-changing questions,that's where the real value is.
That's the gold.
That's what you're looking for,and that's what you need.
Even if you know IT,you know that's what you need.
For people that have some interestin what they're hearing, what's
a good way for a new personthat's never had an IT provider before?
(26:55):
What's a good step for themto be able to go to a IT provider
and an IT service provider,and what's the path they're taking?
In other words, should they have certainthings set up or should they have things
prepared to talk about, or should theyjust call up and say, What do you do?
I think the onus is on you to askreally good questions, not necessarily
(27:19):
know the answers or have a preconception.
Again, if you're a startupbusiness, somebody comes to me
and says, Well, I'm getting readyto open a cannabis retail store.
What should I do?
My answer is going to be, Well,number one, if you're going
to open a store, we know that there'ssome compliance requirements around it.
You're going to haveto have some security cameras.
(27:41):
Obviously, you're goingto run applications, so we need
to have applications in a network.
Some things that may or may not be in.
Do you want a telephone?
There are a lot of businessesnowadays that actually don't
have a telephone or they're operatingoff of a cell phone, which is fine.
But maybe Maybe they want a businessnumber that's not tied to a person,
(28:04):
but not necessarily a telephone system.
So now we reserve the number and point itto somebody's cell phone and that person.
So there's a lot of thingsthat I'm going to ask back.
And I think, really,to answer your question,
you go in and ask lots of questions.
And I'm hoping, and what you shouldbe looking for is somebody that's going
(28:24):
to ask as many questions backat you and challenge you on how
your business should how you want itto operate, what your end goals are.
If you're not being challenged about that,maybe that should be a red flag.
Does that answer make sense?Yes, that does.
That does quite a bit.
(28:45):
Everything that we've talkedabout has been incredible.
I mean, this has been a really greatpodcast and a lot of some great answers,
a lot of, I think, knowledge to peoplethat maybe are new to this or even maybe
have experience in this area.
I'm going to leave the last two minutes upto both of you Is there anything else you
feel that we didn't cover or somethingthat maybe you'd like to share with
(29:06):
people that they're hearing about this,why you need an IT management provider?
Anything that we missed Yeah,I think that I would just want
to say that the relationship that youcan build with an IT firm is invaluable.
I think having the ability to justshoot somebody a text or an email
(29:28):
and say, Hey, I have this idea.
Is there a limit or is there a waywe can make this happen?
Being able to just figure out what's new,what keeps me ahead, what keeps me fresh
at any time, it's priceless.
I guess I'm going to jump in and emphasizethat within Any business relationship
where you're involving a partner,and again, legal,
(29:50):
accounting, IT, whatever it is,construction, I
think you want to look for a person ora team that owns the issue and is
accountable to the issue,that doesn't shy away and start making
excuses about this thing or the other.
I want people that are responsibleand accountable that work for me, whether
(30:13):
they're internal, external vendorsor anything like that, and that's going
to help you be successful.
I think that sounds excellent.
That sounds like a great idea.
Well, again, gentlemen, Steve,Greg, thank you very much for
sharing your knowledge and helping uslearn a little bit more about all the
intricacies that we need to know about.Yeah.
Is there any way- Thanksfor having us, Neil.
(30:35):
Is there any way we canget in touch with you?
Sure.
Our website is cannabistechnologypartners.Com.
You couldemail sarnedt@cannabustecnologypartners.
Com.Sales at canabustecnologypartners.
Com.
If you don't want to talk to me and wantto talk to Greg, then gshenefelt,
(31:01):
G-S-H-E-N-E-F-E-L-T@cannabustecnologypartners.
Com, and you'll reach us.
That's probably the best way to.We're back quick.
We'll put the informationin the show notes at the bottom
of the podcast as well.
Fantastic.
Well, gentlemen, thank you very muchfor all your information.
And again, thank youfor being on the podcast.
(31:22):
Great.Thank you for having us, Neil.
Thank you for listening to our podcast.
Our mission is to bring informationand insights to small businesses
to help you succeed.
We don't monetize our podcastwith advertising and ask that if you like
the podcast, to please subscribeto our channel and tell a friend.
If you have a question or an ideafor a topic, please contact us
(31:44):
at the email link in the show notes.
Why should I usean outsourced IT provider?
Many businesses may ask if they shouldhire an outsourced IT provider to manage
their company's information technology.
Hiring an IT provider is similarto why you would hire an outsourced
payroll provider or an accounting firm.
It lets the business focus onall the things you need to be successful
(00:21):
without having to worry about day-to-dayIT tasks or meltdowns, even if you have
a good knowledge of IT practices.
This is a Especially true forthe legal cannabis industry, which has
unique challenges and hefty regulationsfor growers, distributors, and
dispensaries in the cannabis industry.
To help us better understand why an ITprovider is beneficial
(00:44):
and what to look for in a provider,we have Steve Arndt,
President of Cannabis Technology Partners,a Division of Silver Lining's Technology,
and Greg Scheneffelt,Help Desk Coordinator
at Cannabis Technology Partners,today on Small Business Talks.
(01:06):
Today, we're going to be talkingabout IT Outsource Providers.
The big question is, why should Iuse an IT Outsource provider?
To help us walk through that and answersome of the questions about that,
we have Steve Arndt,who's President
of Cannabis Technology Partners,which is a part of Silver Lining's
technology, and Greg Schanafelt,who's the help desk coordinator.
(01:29):
So, gentlemen, Welcome to the podcast.
How are you doing today?Good.
Thanks for having us.
Yeah, thank you.
Pleasure having you on.
So let's just start withthe question right out of the box.
Why should I use an IT outsource provider?
There's a lot of great reasonsto use an outsource provider.
Number one, it just lets you focus onall the things that you need to do to
(01:53):
make your business successful withouthaving to worry about IT day-to-day
meltdowns or tasks, even when you do havea deep-vested knowledge in IT practices.
I'll jump in and add a few things to it.
I mean, why would you hirean outsource payroll provider?
(02:14):
Or why would you hirean outsource accounting provider.
In either one of those cases, you're doingit number one to buy yourself time, as
Greg said, but also you're trying to hirean expert that can do it a lot faster and
in theory, a lot cheaper than in-house.
Again, time is money,so faster definitely helps.
(02:36):
It is even different from those thingsin that if either one of those functions
has a delay, typically, payroll,you've got one day that's really
critical, but two weeks or not.
Accounting, you've got a monthor definitely some leeway.
But with IT, you want somebodythat's there reacting to internet outages
(02:58):
and Things that are going toaffect operations right away.
So gosh, having somebody on the hookthat's taking care of those problems
right away when who knowswhat you're doing, that's gold.
That's a great statementbecause I want to ask you, what do you
do when you get the person that says,I have an IT background and an aptitude.
(03:19):
Why should I hire an outside firm?
I know it all.
Why should you?
Greg, any thoughts on that?
Well, So you should hire the outsourcefirm because these individuals are going
to have specialized tools and expertisethat you don't have access to in-house.
And it's also really nice to know, Hey,I have this critical thing happening,
(03:43):
and there's somebody on the other endthat's already responded to it.
We've got the providers involved.
We're getting the service restored,which, again, like Steve said, time
is money, and that bringsyour money maker right back up.
Can I jump in and add a fewthoughts to that, too?
I've done IT consultingfor years and years and years.
But what I've found great systemsis really for an effective IT
(04:08):
department, you need to havefour different skill sets in play.
A single person doesn't have the capacityto do and handle all of the things
that an IT department itself needs to do.
When you talk about doing it in-houseor you have an IT background, chances
are you're doing a chunk of that stuff.
(04:30):
There's probably a whole bunch of stuffthat you're not doing,
maybe compliance, maybe security,who knows, applications, that a team,
and especially an outsource team whereyou've got predictable costs, can handle
for you, and quite frankly, supplement.
It's not negative that youknow how to do it.
It's actually a muchbetter team environment.
(04:52):
I like that because I think that's oneof the things I've run across
is just in whatever area you're inis you may have somebody as an expert,
but it still doesn't mean youhave all the time dedicated to it.
Do you find a lot of companiesthat just they don't have
the bandwidth to be able to do this,and this helps offset some of those?
Absolutely.
Again, I'll go back tothe payroll or the accounting.
(05:13):
A lot of times,you don't know what you don't know.
With a good outsourced IT provider,they're going to fill the gaps
and help educate you along the way.
The minute you go through a coupleof those iterations, you go,
Gee, oh, my gosh, of course,I should have done that before.
I'm going to change the subjecta little bit, and I'm going
(05:34):
to ask and then make a statement.
Are all IT service providers the same?
I'm going to throw a little notein here that Steve wrote a book on this.
I'm going to have so that as well,something you might want
to throw in there if you want.
Well, I definitely don'tthink all are the same.
Part of it has to do with where did theycome from, what's their orientation?
(05:57):
A lot of what's called MSPs or IT serviceproviders, they grew out of this idea
that there was a strong technicalperson, and they didn't
like working for anybody else.
So they start their own company.Great.
I'm all excited about that.
But they're very narrowlyfocused on the tech itself.
So you'll hear them talk abouthow many PCs you got or how many servers.
(06:20):
And it's all about the tech.
Versus other firms, for instance,like ours, for instance,
I'm a CIO in background,and you think, Well, CIO is tech.
No, it's really business.
How does business work?
And what do you do with the techto operate effectively
in business and at cost?
(06:40):
Those themselves are two different,vastly different perspectives.
And quite frankly,there are a number of others.
Really, not all firms are the same.
Really, you need to look for one thataligns with perhaps gaps that you guys
have so that they can supplement those.
Obviously, pricing is all acrossthe board, so you need to really
(07:01):
understand what the pricing is.
It may seem like one is more expensive,but perhaps they're offering security and
compliance and other things on top of itor 24 by 7 support versus another one
that you're getting bare bones, right?
And you don't really know until somethinggoes outside of those bounds
and you have to pay more for it.
(07:22):
So lots of differences.
They're definitely notall pretty the same.
Greg, do you have anythings to supplement that?
Yeah, I would say that there's definitely,like you said, there's those people
that are only focused on the tech,and then they forget about the service
aspect here, helping you alleviatepressures that you're feeling in your
(07:42):
day-to-day environment or justkeeping you ahead of those things.
It's great to go to bedat night and not worry, Hey,
is my email secure or my PC is safe?
And to have somebody just, again,get on the phone and have that human
one-on-one connection and conversationwith and it not be so tech-driven.
I want to add one other little pointthat I think is super important.
(08:07):
That's the differencebetween proactive and reactive.
There are a lot of firms that are reactivefor you, but most businesses,
don't you want somebody that's proactive?
Don't you want people that are preventingthe security flaws from coming in
rather than just reacting to them?You got to do both.
I get it, but there's a lot to be said forhaving a proactive firm as your partner.
(08:30):
What I'm hearing from this conversation isthat it also sounds like it's a little bit
on the person that's approachingan IT service provider to before just
instead of just going online,just looking at the different web pages,
that they should really have a meetingwith the company and go through and review
the things that they have instead of justpicking one because they have
(08:51):
a nice color on their website.
No question about that.
Quite frankly, in business,that's what you ought to be doing
with all your experts.
I would love to say, Oh, just IT, butgosh, I hope you're having a conversation
with your attorney and they'reeducating you on what you need and why.
Again, your accountant,your marketing person, all of those,
(09:14):
those should be value-added resources,not just transactional-added resources
for you to gain the most leverage.
Quite frankly, cannabis business is hard.
Now, this is not an easy business.
It may be easy to get into and see themopportunity to optimistic right now, but
there are a lot of business pressures andthings that are going on that you want
(09:38):
as many people on your side as possible.
That brings up a good question.
When you talk aboutthe cannabis business side of things,
that's got to have different challengesand different approaches
than would be any other type of business.
I mean, every businesshas their own unique thing, but maybe
you could describe some of the thingsthat are unique to the cannabis industry
(09:58):
in regards to IT.
Yeah.
There have been many folksthat have posited the cannabis industry
as the most regulated industry, evencompared to drug companies and such
or hospitals and things like that.
From my experience, I've seen that.
You've got, not even tobacco,you have to track the product,
(10:24):
the tobacco product from whenit comes out of the ground all the way
through to when it's produced as a cigaror a cigarette, alcohol, the same thing.
But with cannabis, we've gotto track the product all the way through.
You're regulated to do that.
But not only that, every state'sregulations are slightly different.
You've got to not just know the general.
(10:44):
You have to know Very specific,where are you operating?
Every single one of the states mandatessome surveillance of the product.
So not only do you have to track itin terms of data points and what happens,
you also have to show visual proof ofwhat took place with the product itself
(11:07):
all the way through your organization.
Those two things are huge.
And quite frankly, those arethe two things that get Most
of the cannabis organizations in trouble.
I mean, in business, you canget in trouble for a lot of things.
There are other things that certainlyare compliance requirements.
But from a technology perspective,you got to nail those two things.
(11:29):
Surveillance is the perfect example wherethe surveillance industry, as it's been
for the last 20 years, really hasn'tbeen positioned well to do that.
The traditional surveillance provideris a reseller of equipment,
an installer, and then theywalk away, hands off, it's done.
(11:51):
They also don't typicallythink of the network as a whole.
I mean, yeah, their devices siton the network, but if it's the network's
fault, again, they throw up their hands.
Having a full service providerthat understands that and isn't just going
to, well, I'm sorry, that's not our thing,but literally take ownership
(12:12):
of the technology all the way throughto this idea of making sure you're fully
compliantand responding correctly when there's
an outage or something else, that's a hugething in cannabis and a requirement.
Most people don't get that they get burnedby fines or theft or something else.
(12:34):
It's not a good lesson.
I think one of the things I was impressedwith was before our interview,
I just went out just to look aroundon the internet,
and I laughed how many companies werelike, they focus on their core IT,
and then they have one pagethat talks about cannabis.
The one thing, not to be soself-promotional, but the one thing
(12:55):
I did notice is that your focusis really in cannabis technology partners
is really about the cannabis industry.
I mean, it's reallya strong focus in there.
Yeah.
When we chose to get into the cannabisindustry, again, it goes back
to the strategic side and the big pictureside of things, the business things.
I love that and figuring that stuffout, but I'm also always
(13:20):
about taking ownership.
Number one, I don't expect our clientsto love, like, or be good at technology.
If they were, again, it goes back to thefirst question, why should you hire us?
Well, yeah, I think there's validreasons, but most of them,
these aren't the strengths, and quitefrankly, not their focus as well.
(13:40):
For us to know whatthe compliance requirements are
and to provide that information,again, that's value to our clients
to understand the full life cycle.
Cannabis is fascinating, even more sothan alcohol and some other
stuff, because quite frankly,now with infusion, in manufacturing.
(14:01):
I mean, cannabis is in everything,and not just edibles and consumables,
but health products.
You've got rubs and you've got otherthings that the product is used for.
It's like an ingredient like sugar,which ends up in everything all over.
Only now you have to track it.
You have to know where it's at,and every state's different.
(14:26):
It's fascinating.
It's a lot of fun for somebody that likeschaos, and somebody wouldn't get into
IT consulting if they didn't like chaos.There you go.
I got to ask you a question because Idon't want to say anything negative,
but I also want to say something like,what do you tell the person when they come
(14:47):
to you with a question like,Well, we're just a startup company and we
don't know if we can really afford it.
We don't know if we really need itbecause we're just starting out.
Do you need to be more maturebusiness before where you get IT?
How do you handle a personthat thinks that maybe they're not ready
for it or that that's somethingyou put down the road?
(15:07):
It's about letting themknow that it's an investment.
Sure, if you're first starting out,you're a baby company,
you don't have a million dollars sittingin the bank or $20,
000 a month to spend in focus areas.
But if you focus and drill downon your IT investments, it's going
to keep you ahead of all the curves.
Anything that could happen,like Steve said, is being proactive.
(15:30):
We're going to keep all of that stuffthere in working order all the time.
And you're not going to haveto worry about as you grow and
add more things, are yougoing to have an IT meltdown today?
Is it all going to break?
Yeah, I'm going to echo that withthe simple thought that there are
so many firms that we've comein at later on that had delayed IT
(15:54):
involvement, and we're havingto redo some stuff and educate them.
Go, you didn't need to spend that muchon these licenses because you could have
deferred that or you could have donethis a different way early on.
Even in a practical sense,I think involving
a firm or even just to get some advicearound it, some good solid advice around
(16:16):
startup IT, you realizethat there's a dollar savings and also
a prioritization of when things haveto occur versus when it's sexy to occur.
Interestingly enough, I'll justgive everybody a real practical example.
Nowadays, if you're goingto start a business and you don't have
(16:38):
your own domain and your own email withthat domain, you're doing an @hotmail
or @gmail or whatever, you might as wellkiss a goodbye from a brand perspective.
You're giving it away.
You also really don't own the datathat's in those email platforms.
You think you do,but it's not your name on it.
It's gmail or hotmail or outlook.
(16:59):
Com.
That's their platform.
So simple things like thatcan really make a big difference
as you're going down the road.
And again, that's what you ought to do.
But there's so many of the things thatyou shouldn't necessarily do early on.
It may not be necessary.
Do you ever get a lot of people that say,Well, we don't have any problems,
(17:22):
so why should we hire?
Oh, obviously, I had a nerve there.
You know what I mean?
The person, Well, we don'tneed this because nothing's broken.
I know that's crazy, but you obviouslyrun across that where people do.
Yeah.
Last year, I did, honestly, a series oftalks at different events, and I pulled
(17:43):
out some statistics that I gave there.
One of them was, you realize that 31%of organizations have already
experienced a cyber attack.
31%, a third of all organizations.
43% of all cyber attacksare aimed at small business.
We keep thinking about the MGMsand all that other stuff, but almost half
(18:08):
are aimed at small business.
Ransomware attacks are now growing at350% annually, so a huge number there,
quite to the extent that cybercrimeis more profitable globally
than the entire illegal drug trade.
Oh, my gosh.Okay.
(18:30):
This is big.
66% of businesses that have been attackedby hackers, 66% weren't confident that
they could recover, stay in business.
Okay, two-thirds.
I mean, that's mind boggling in itself.
60% of small businesses go out of businesswithin six months after a cyber attack.
(18:55):
When people say, Oh, thingsare going well, we don't really
need anything complex.
Number one, we go back to compliance.
I'll tell you this, with an IT firmor an IT Department and things
are going well and they're proactiveand you know that they're taking care
of things, that's great.
You should be thankful for every cent youput in there because things are smooth.
(19:19):
But if you're not doing all those thingsand things are smooth,
all you've done is got lucky.
With the automation that hackersare using, constant attacks,
it's not if you're going to,it's when you're going to get attacked.
I don't mean to be scare tactics and allthat, but that's the world we live in.
(19:43):
It's the reality of it.
I heard a speaker once made a statementthat I really liked, was he said,
and you brought this up about,Everybody thinks it's all big business
that hackers go after.
The gentleman said,It's just like stealing cars.
They don't care if it's a Rolls a choiceor a Chevy, if the door is unlocked, i.
(20:03):
E, if you're bad security, they're justgoing to hack into it because they're not
looking for what model.
They're looking for anything available.Yeah.
No, I'm wondering,is there a real question then?
How do you know as you'reyour business safe without an IT firm?
Yeah, that's a good question.
That is a good question because I think,especially when you have those numbers,
(20:25):
obviously, people aregoing through all the questions I had was,
Well, everything's going fine because Wedon't know it, or we can't
afford it, or We're too small.
Again, I'm going to go backto that analogy, too, of accountants.
It just boggles my mind.
Almost every company I talk tohave hired an outside accounting firm.
(20:46):
You ask them, Well, do you notknow how to do your books?
Or why is that?
The response is,I'm afraid if I get audited.
What is the percentage of companiesthat actually get audited Year
after year or even over a 10-yearperiod, it's like 1 or 2%.
I mean, it's a very small number.
(21:08):
Again, I'm not saying don'tdo that, but the value of fear
to to thread is vastly different.
Here we're talking about, again,things that affect operations immediately
on a daily basis, whether it'sjust something like an Internet outage.
But boy, I would certainly want somebodyon the hook if a cyber attack occurred
(21:32):
to know exactly what to do, when to do it,how to react,
and how to recover the business,then picking up the phone and now calling
for IT help or securityhelp after the fact.
It sounds like something else that youoffer or that you're recommending also is
that when I mentioned about the smallcompany, they don't think they're ready
for something yet,wouldn't it be a good idea to have a long
(21:56):
term relationship because the IT companyis going to be able to the IT service
provider is going to grow with yourbusiness because they see the changes,
they see the things,and they can grow with you type scenario?
Yeah, I think Iabsolutely agree with that.
This goes back to picking the IT firm.
You could say that that same thingof the guy that's down the street
(22:19):
and has one person in his companyand maybe he's growing.
But does he really...
I would hope your IT firm knows and workswith companies bigger than yours already
so they can help you get to that nextstage, not just growing with you.
Does that make sense?
No, that does.
(22:41):
In fact, it's a perfect segueinto the next question, which is, if I
hired a firm, how would I know if they'reperforming or adding value to my company?
How do I know I'mgetting my money's worth?
Well, this is really easyto determine, I think.
If you are not always just thinking aboutthe numbers that they perform,
but how fast do they respondto your calls when something goes wrong?
(23:05):
Or how satisfied are youwith their day-to-day solutions?
Are you getting a solution from them andgoing, Oh, my gosh, it fixed it for now,
but it's going to break again later?
Or are you getting solutionsthat say, wow, they really thought about
this problem and solved this for us.
And then again, back to what Stevewas just saying, are they helping your
business grow in the right direction?
(23:26):
It's every day that I talk to oneof our smaller clients and the relief
they feel when I go, Hey, we coulddo this to save you some money, or, Hey,
preemptively, we should do this thing.
It'll get you ahead.
It's nice for them to know at the endof the day that I'm already
thinking about these things for them.
I'm going to also add bits to thatbecause clearly a company needs to
(23:52):
provide you data on what's happening.What are they doing?
And again, the best data is to come backand say, Look, we upgraded We
had your firmware every month.
We had 12 tickets,but there were no incidents.
You go, Well, great.
I'm paying for those results.
But there's also, again, this mentorshipand partnership that, again, just
(24:17):
a pure computer geek may not give you.
You go to Geek Squad, they're goingto focus on the computer.
Again, as we said before,are they adding business value?
Are they adding business value?Are they adding business value?
Are they adding business value?Are they adding business value?
Are they adding business value?Are they adding business value?
There's many times that I've cometo a client and said, You're not ready.
You don't need to spend money on this yet,or there's a different alternative
(24:37):
to solve the problemthat may be less expensive.
Because, again, I'm pretendinglike I own your company.
Do I do.I don't want to spend money?
No, I'm cheap as anybody else.
I want to get value outof the things that are there.
So again, that proactive.
I'm going to make one little point becausesometimes this, this gets lost in sight.
(25:03):
This is going to sound weird,but from a help desk perspective,
pure help desk, that's almosta no-win scenario to break even.
What I mean by that is, well,think of payroll, for instance.
Nobody thinks about all of the workthat goes into payroll as long
(25:23):
as they get their paycheck.
But the minute they don't gettheir paycheck or it's wrong, that
That damn payroll department, they can'tget anything right, blah, blah, blah.
I mean, it's just the world's ending.
So help desk is like that.
We or anybody, tries to mitigate that bybeing, number one, very responsive,
solving the problem in it in what a userwould feel like as a timely manner.
(25:48):
But if you're doing that all the time,there is always going to be something
that slips through or somebody thatit wasn't as fast as they thought it
should be, or, Dang it,they thought that their mouse Twittering
was more important than an internetoutage, and I can't believe
that you didn't respond to that.
My point is help desk is break even.
If that's all you're getting,then you're going to have to measure
(26:11):
one company's in terms of satisfaction.
But really where the valueof IT is that whole other layer
of, again, business side.
Well, are you runningthe right applications?
Do you have the right internet speeds?
You're asking those questions, do wehave the right security things in place?
Is the right for this?
Or how do we do these other things?
(26:32):
All those business-changing questions,that's where the real value is.
That's the gold.
That's what you're looking for,and that's what you need.
Even if you know IT,you know that's what you need.
For people that have some interestin what they're hearing, what's
a good way for a new personthat's never had an IT provider before?
(26:55):
What's a good step for themto be able to go to a IT provider
and an IT service provider,and what's the path they're taking?
In other words, should they have certainthings set up or should they have things
prepared to talk about, or should theyjust call up and say, What do you do?
I think the onus is on you to askreally good questions, not necessarily
(27:19):
know the answers or have a preconception.
Again, if you're a startupbusiness, somebody comes to me
and says, Well, I'm getting readyto open a cannabis retail store.
What should I do?
My answer is going to be, Well,number one, if you're going
to open a store, we know that there'ssome compliance requirements around it.
You're going to haveto have some security cameras.
(27:41):
Obviously, you're goingto run applications, so we need
to have applications in a network.
Some things that may or may not be in.
Do you want a telephone?
There are a lot of businessesnowadays that actually don't
have a telephone or they're operatingoff of a cell phone, which is fine.
But maybe Maybe they want a businessnumber that's not tied to a person,
(28:04):
but not necessarily a telephone system.
So now we reserve the number and point itto somebody's cell phone and that person.
So there's a lot of thingsthat I'm going to ask back.
And I think, really,to answer your question,
you go in and ask lots of questions.
And I'm hoping, and what you shouldbe looking for is somebody that's going
(28:24):
to ask as many questions backat you and challenge you on how
your business should how you want itto operate, what your end goals are.
If you're not being challenged about that,maybe that should be a red flag.
Does that answer make sense?Yes, that does.
That does quite a bit.
(28:45):
Everything that we've talkedabout has been incredible.
I mean, this has been a really greatpodcast and a lot of some great answers,
a lot of, I think, knowledge to peoplethat maybe are new to this or even maybe
have experience in this area.
I'm going to leave the last two minutes upto both of you Is there anything else you
feel that we didn't cover or somethingthat maybe you'd like to share with
(29:06):
people that they're hearing about this,why you need an IT management provider?
Anything that we missed Yeah,I think that I would just want
to say that the relationship that youcan build with an IT firm is invaluable.
I think having the ability to justshoot somebody a text or an email
(29:28):
and say, Hey, I have this idea.
Is there a limit or is there a waywe can make this happen?
Being able to just figure out what's new,what keeps me ahead, what keeps me fresh
at any time, it's priceless.
I guess I'm going to jump in and emphasizethat within Any business relationship
where you're involving a partner,and again, legal,
(29:50):
accounting, IT, whatever it is,construction, I
think you want to look for a person ora team that owns the issue and is
accountable to the issue,that doesn't shy away and start making
excuses about this thing or the other.
I want people that are responsibleand accountable that work for me, whether
(30:13):
they're internal, external vendorsor anything like that, and that's going
to help you be successful.
I think that sounds excellent.
That sounds like a great idea.
Well, again, gentlemen, Steve,Greg, thank you very much for
sharing your knowledge and helping uslearn a little bit more about all the
intricacies that we need to know about.Yeah.
Is there any way- Thanksfor having us, Neil.
(30:35):
Is there any way we canget in touch with you?
Sure.
Our website is cannabistechnologypartners.Com.
You couldemail sarnedt@cannabustecnologypartners.
Com.Sales at canabustecnologypartners.
Com.
If you don't want to talk to me and wantto talk to Greg, then gshenefelt,
(31:01):
G-S-H-E-N-E-F-E-L-T@cannabustecnologypartners.
Com, and you'll reach us.
That's probably the best way to.We're back quick.
We'll put the informationin the show notes at the bottom
of the podcast as well.
Fantastic.
Well, gentlemen, thank you very muchfor all your information.
And again, thank youfor being on the podcast.
(31:22):
Great.Thank you for having us, Neil.
Thank you for listening to our podcast.
Our mission is to bring informationand insights to small businesses
to help you succeed.
We don't monetize our podcastwith advertising and ask that if you like
the podcast, to please subscribeto our channel and tell a friend.
If you have a question or an ideafor a topic, please contact us
(31:44):
at the email link in the show notes.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.