With the end of 2007 fast approaching, I want to take this opportunity to thank all of our customers, partners and especially our handful of employees for making this year a very successful one.

Our focus in 2007 was to grow our Managed IT Services business and create awareness. And that we did. By acquiring key accounts in two other verticals, Health-care and Construction, we are now positioned to expand and build on these in 2008. We are also hopeful that yet another large and eventually a key Airline customer agrees to fully outsource (co-source) their Help Desk and Network Management operations to IT Vizion by the end of the year.

IT Vizion has grown in bodies as well. Besides some growth in software development staff, Pat Nhou joined our Executive staff as a Sales Director. Pat will focus on continuing our growth momentum in Managed IT Services. At the same time, Pat will be responsible for bringing our product ONE2ONE Manager to market, in the second quarter of 2008. I wish Pat much success in his new and challenging position.

This past year IT Vizion has become a strategic software development partner for a few large, international organizations. By partnering with IT Vizion, these firms are benefiting from our dedication to our customers’ success and reliable, skilled resources. Congratulations to our development team for keeping up the quality of the software products they deliver, while being on time and within budget.

2008 for IT Vizion will be a very important year. As a team, our intention is to grow the company business by yet another 50%. Challenging? Yes. Doable? Absolutely (we’ve done it over the past three years!!!). What’s the strategy? Simple. By continuing to focus on our customer’ needs and their ultimate success, our company will achieve its own good fortune.

2008 will see IT Vizion entering the non-profit / Donor Management / Direct Mail / CRM software arena with our powerful yet affordable, ONE2ONE Manager software product. Read more about it here. I strongly believe in our product to deliver on it’s promise of ‘breaking complex processes into simple tasks’. The product is currently in use for about half-a-dozen customers. The idea is to make them more successful in raising funds, using a personalized response system and also tracking partner history. It’s an integrated piece of software that combines Direct Mail functionality, CRM, and fundraising management. Full speed ahead team!

That summarizes my personal vision for 2008 and a high level review of 2007. Thanks once again to our dedicated employees, and I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a Happy & Successful 2008!

Ok, I’ll admit it. We are not the cheapest IT firm around. And I don’t want us to be either.

Remember the old saying, “You get what you pay for”? It couldn’t be truer then in today’s fast moving IT landscape. Our company is built on our reputation of excellent IT know-how, business savvy employees, and most importantly going beyond the call of duty to deliver what we promise. Indeed, IT Vizion, is not the cheapest IT consulting firm. Any project we undertake gets our full attention, from the initial project kickoff through project completion, and through the post-implementation support. We are comprised of a team of seasoned specialists that have been around the block a couple of times. We do not have any entry-level engineers “practicing on your systems”. We do hire top-talent, and require a minimum set of skills and verifiable domain expertise. In return, we are able to guarantee our work and provide total customer satisfaction.

I’m discussing this topic today because we had just lost (well, yesterday now) a good prospect that was in dire need of IT direction and ongoing systems/network management to sustain their dynamic growth. Ultimately, they chose to go with a cheaper firm then a more reliable, long term partner.

They had a real problem with “something always going wrong” and their current IT provider had to send an engineer on a weekly basis to put out fires. Because of this competitor’s misrepresentation of what Managed Services is all about, preventive maintenance, the prospect assumed that all IT companies work the same. They charge a set amount for a number of hours to be used (use it or lose it approach) every month for on-site support. Having IT problems was - expected.

How are we different? IT Vizion provides a best practices approach and an integrated set of automated tools to monitor systems and networks, perform auditing, desktop or server provisioning, patch management, security checks, help desk ticketing and of course backup/recovery that work around the clock (24/7). We don’t standby “waiting” for something to happen. We take a proactive approach to managing our customer’s networked systems. We can say that we really work for our money.

I don’t believe this prospect fully understood the benefits and differences of working with a Managed Services firm, compared to a break-fix unit. I assume it’s because over the past 3-years or so, they were mentally “trained” to expect problems to come up that required an IT specialist be on-site. They completely missed the point of what our business model is all about. It’s about taking a preventive approach to managing a network and its systems, in turn avoiding over 80% of issues that could impact their operations. And those problems that do come up, can be typically resolved remotely with a click of a button.

Good luck Mr. Prospect, and thanks for the opportunity.