1. I don't understand exactly what you do, what your service delivers. Could you explain it to me again?

In a nutshell, we use technology to monitor technology. Computers are much more reliable, and less expensive, than people for monitoring processes. Computers never sleep, never get ill, and when deployed in a redundant manner never miss what they are monitoring. S.O.N.’s system, known as “Hydrogen,” recognize problems immediately, automatically fixes them if possible, and notifies a S.O.N. technical expert if human intervention is required.

This real-time monitoring self-fixing architecture is what makes us unique. It allows us to deliver non-stop 24x7x365 coverage for your business at very affordable rates…. $15.00 per day, per location. Try finding an hourly consultant or full-time employee who’ll work for that amount.

2. How would I know if my hourly consultant is overcharging me?

This is a very difficult question to answer without knowing your situation, reviewing your contract, and their activity work-sheets. We encourage you to talk to us if you have concerns. We’ll help you assess the situation.

In general however, here are some indicators that you may be overpaying:

• Do problems take too long to resolve?
• Once “fixed” does the same problem recur over-and-over again?
• Are you too involved in technical problem resolution versus having finished solutions delivered to you?
• Do you find yourself throwing money at every technical problem (I.e. - more hardware, software, etc.)?
• Are there extended periods of time where outages impact business due to your consultant’s “researching” of solutions?
• Are you paying recurring fees for processes that could be built-once then automated?
• Is your consultant less clear when you try to understand your system problems?
• Does your consultant rarely offer a complete solution that will end recurring problems once and for all?

3. How can you give full-time support by a team of experts for $15.00 per day? There must be a catch. If this is so easy to do why isn’t everyone else offering this?

There’s no catch. As stated in response to question number one we automate system monitoring to limit the number of expensive humans in the process. Our efficient use of manpower combined with “time sharing” our experts across multiple clients allows us to keep costs low and pass the savings on to our customers. We’ve essentially solved the problem small business owners have of wanting a full-time staff but not having enough activity to keep them constantly busy. Our “Virtual I.T. Department” model works, is considered a good value by clients, and has given us a 100% retention rate since 1998.

4. I have a desktop support person, will your service replace him?

Not necessarily. We have many clients who employee a desktop support person to deal with day-to-day issues at the user level. Think of us as a complimentary offering to deal with bigger, harder, more systemic technical issues. Desktop support personnel have an in-depth understanding of your specific end-user applications that will be hard to replace.

We add-value on complex multi-vendor, multi-system issues that desktop people are simply not prepared to address. If you lose communication with a remote location for example, and a combination of factors are involved (network provider, application issues, hardware failures), this is where S.O.N.’s world-class System & Network Administrators excel.

5. I am uncomfortable with remote support. I like having someone to talk with in-person when I have a problem.

That’s a natural reaction for small business owners. Major corporations do not share this concern having already outsourced or “virtual officed” much of their tech staff. The key to securing world-class tech support for small businesses today is not proximity. The key is finding the best resources available at the most affordable rates.

Consider this… Every interaction you have with a computer is “remote.” When you type on a keyboard, view your monitor, or move your mouse you have a remote relations ship with your PC. You are sending instructions to the CPU via a cable. S.O.N.’s services work the exact same way. Whether we are in the same room as the computer, or monitor it remotely, the exact same processes occur when there is a problem.

You can “buy” our team of subject matter experts for the cost of a couple Starbuck’s coffees per day. Our West Coast based team is virtually there with you at all times, and is only a phone call away if you need an immediate consultation.

6. I have long-term relationships with my hardware and software vendors. How do you work with them?

S.O.N. services and personnel work and play well with others. We will partner with your current vendors to assure a seamless, and painless, integration of all components of your technology infrastructure.

7. How do I know you will not misuse my data?

Several reasons you can rest assured that your confidential will stay secure… First, your business critical data never leaves your premises. All data remains on-site behind your firewall. Second, we’ve been supporting needs of companies like yours since 1998 with a 100% client retention rate. No client has ever had critical data compromised by S.O.N., and none ever will. We have process and procedure in-place to assure the integrity and confidentiality of your data.

8. What platform is your service built upon?

Our core “Hydrogen Server” is based upon a variant of UNIX. UNIX is an industry standard platform renown for its flexibility, security, and inherent immunity to the viruses that plague other operating systems. UNIX has been around for almost thirty years and is regarded by industry experts as extremely stable. It is used by government, defense contractors, and Global 100 Corporations for their mission critical applications. It is much more powerful than off-the-shelf Microsoft based server products. It is also much more secure. The Hydrogen Server allows us to protect you and your data but its operation is transparent to the end-user. Users run their existing applications, and perform their regular duties, as they always have. Nothing changes from their perspective.

9. I like buying Microsoft server product because they are a big stable company. Can you work in that environment?

We do work in that environment. But, we caution you against building your entire infrastructure on pre-packaged server products. Microsoft makes some wonderful products for the PC. Unfortunately every hacker in the world focuses on their server products. The vulnerabilities are well known and there is an endless series of patches required to keep you updated. This quickly becomes a system management nightmare. Many small business vendors push Microsoft products because they are an easy sale. They are however far from the best product available for small business.

10. My current vendors required leased-lines for their applications. Explain how you can move me to the Internet to save money without blowing-up my business?

In most cases expensive leased-lines can be replaced with Internet based (TCPIP) transport. The cost savings can be massive. The increase in speed can be equally large. Additionally, inexpensive Internet connectivity allows for redundancy in the event of outages that would be impossible with leased-lines… at least cost-effectively impossible.

11. You talk about additional business expense reductions. What are some examples?

One of the most significant cost reductions can be achieved through voice over IP telephony (VoIP). If you have significant long-distance telephone bills we our Hydrogen Server supports technology that can make them go away. There are other areas we’d be happy to discuss with you. Give us a call.

12. Why sell “Fortune 500” solutions to small businesses when there’s a lot more money selling to bigger companies?

We chose this market because there’s great need and it is definitely underserved. It’s clear to us that there are far too many small businesses relying upon pricey hourly consultants to keep their technology running. More often than not these companies are getting gouged when it comes to services and billing. We thought that being the “good guys” in this space would be a good foundation to build a business upon.

13. My PC’s are constantly corrupted. What could cause this? How could you prevent it from happening?

There are far too many potential causes to answer this question in a general way. Anything from viruses to hardware failures, and everything in-between, could cause systems to be consistently unstable. We need to know more about your environment. We would be happy to discuss your situation with you and give a free diagnosis. Please note though that this type situation is exactly what S.O.N.’s services are designed to prevent. Once our Hydrogen Server is up-and-running, and we have cleared all legacy issues, there will be no recurring stability problems.

14. Will your service help me eliminate expensive software maintenance fees? We spend a lot annually simply for telephone support.

• No, this is not what we our services are designed to do. You will need to get application specific support from the vendor who provides the product.

We can eliminate costs for:

• Hourly technology consultants
• Leased-lines charges
• Long-distance telephone bills (Optional VoIP service)
• Additional hardware purchases by sharing access to printers, network, etc.

15. I'm fairly technical, can you show me a technical overview of your architecture?

This diagram is an example of a two locations environment with remote access from home for a senior executive or remote employee. All of the technologies implemented by S.O.N. are integrated within this environment. Remote locations are connected using the Internet and Virtual Private Network (VPN). With VPN your data is always protected... even when traveling across the Internet. Office resources (internet connection, files, printers, scanners, faxes, etc.) are shared using server-side software. VoIP telephony and network surveillance can be implemented to fully utilize your Internet connection. Data is being backed up routinely in encrypted form - to protect data integrity and privacy. Each location is protected by Firewall to prevent unauthorized access to your internal network.

This architecture easily scales to any size without significant modifications.