One thing nearly all small businesses suck at is documentation of their inventory and processes. Unless they are a major chain managed and operated retail outfit, their documentation consists of postits and invoices kept somewhere by someone.

So what is a small business more likely to value – something overpriced that they can’t understand or value (“We defrag your Exchange store every weekend so it’s faster”) or (“We base all your technology decisions on knowing everything about your network and we’re an asset, not an expense”) – nearly all businesses have no problem paying for a cleaning crew to come through the place every night.. the same businesses that don’t want to pay for a business line T1.

So Karl says, sell them on Network Documentation.

And I shamelessly copy Karl. But many don’t. Why? It’s too hard. A document is outdated the moment that it is printed. It sits in a dusty folder on the shelf. There is a process for the process of keeping documentation.

No wonder it sucks.

Now, here is the Monkey way. Easy access, easy management, easy updates. Or so I optimistically hope. From any Shockey Monkey display select New, Documentation.

It presents the following screen to add a new document. Name and comments are self-explanatory. The email part binds the document to the particular user, it is smart and uses AJAX search to make sure the document gets associated with the right company in much the same way that your assets do.

The attachment can be marked private – hidden from the client. This is good if you are uploading documents that the clients should not be aware of or have access  to. For company eyes only you know.

Finally, where do the documents sit. Well, go to either the Company tab or the Contact tab and look under the Documentation link.

So how complex is the process of documentation management now? Well, once Karl hooks you up with the Network Documentation book, or the SLA book, or Erick’s MSP book (remember kids, theft is wrong!) and you adapt them to your business, the documentation upkeep process is simple.

1. Find the company or contact you’re working with.
2. Click to open the documentation from the web site.
3. Save changes, upload file.
4. Done.

I bet you it takes less than a minute. The documentation process magically no longer sucks anymore.

What’s more, this is something that can be sold in a number of ways. First, and most obvious one, we don’t kill a bunch of trees every time we upgrade Quickbooks for the R16th time.

Second, the data is always up to date. Where is the data? It’s under your profile in our portal. You know, that place you keep on going to so you can get our help every step of the way. That place we use to consolidate all your IT operations so we can save you money, eliminate confusion and work in an open an honest way.

The Karl way.

P.S. Always be pimping. Shameless whoring, or SMB IT leaders working together to bring you solutions designed for this market. It’s all in the perception I guess. But one thing is for sure, never ever ever take pictures with a slimy vendor when he gives you a free tshirt. You know you’re going to end up in the advertising clipart sooner than later.

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