A Proactive Approach To IT

By Daryl Thomas
Wednesday - July 07, 2010
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By Daryl Thomas
Vice President of BlackBird

I’ve worked in various fields of the information technology profession over the last 14 years. I started out as an engineer, moved over to sales and marketing and even had my own consulting firm. Each of these experiences helped me understand what IT means in Hawaii, but I always felt there was something missing. There had to be a better way.

But it didn’t all come together until I met business owner Larry Heim. We both knew the “break-fix” model was outdated and saw this as a great opportunity to share our unique vision with the people of Hawaii.


 

That vision is BlackBird. BlackBird is a managed service provider. Before MSPs, the only way for small and medium-sized businesses to outsource their IT services was through the break-fix model. Simply put, when something breaks, you call someone and they come fix it for you. Sounds reasonable, but it was clear to us that this wasn’t a viable long-term solution. The longer you sit around waiting for something to go wrong with your network or hardware, the more you pay and the more your business suffers.

What does BlackBird, as a MSP, do for businesses? Think about it like this: If you’ve ever owned a car you know that taking it to the shop for regular checkups and maintenance is going to save you more money than repairing it when something goes wrong, because as a result of one problem being ignored, other problems have formed. Similar to a responsible car owner, BlackBird takes a proactive approach. By giving your network and hardware a little bit of attention now, you’re rewarded later.

The BlackBird staff

And there are no surprises. We charge the same fee every month. If we have to drive out to fix a problem, we don’t charge you extra. You don’t get that kind of service from a break-fix company. It would charge an outrageous hourly rate just to come out and tell you one of your servers needs replacing. And why do you have to replace it?

Because it hasn’t been managed proactively.

But why do we charge less and provide more value? It’s simple. By taking a proactive approach and constantly performing minor tasks, we avoid major disasters, making our clients happier and saving ourselves time and resources. As a result, we’re able to work faster and take on more clients than a break-fix IT company can.


I always knew I was on the right career path but I wasn’t sure where it would lead me.

Following my ideals and vision led me to joining BlackBird, which allowed me to become not part of just a team, but a family. I now provide my clients with an efficient, cost-effective IT solution that improves their technology and in turn, their business.

With BlackBird, for the first time in my career I’m a part of something I truly believe in.

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