Andrew Allentuck highlights the benefits and cost savings
of Eastbay's remote desktop support.
Keeping computers of others running
-- October 20, 2003
In a niche of the computer-services industry, Toronto's
Eastbay I.T. Consulting Inc., a firm with eight employees
and $500,000 in annual revenue, is making a business
of keeping the computers of other small companies running.
Headed by Jeff Ridout, the company specializes in the
PC desktop, PC networks and Microsoft operating systems
and software. This is not the mid-range computing niche
where larger information-technology consultants tune
up Unix or Linux or mainframe computers.
Smallness is the key, Ridout says. "We are affordable.
We bill in 15-minutes time increments. We do remote
servicing so that our people don't even have to go
to a customer's site, and we service small offices
and home offices. Small companies don't have the resources
to have IT staff, so we are the staff for our base
of a few hundred customers. And we specialize in the
biggest problem today, viruses and worms, with our
staff of MS-certified engineers."
One of Eastbay's clients, Chairman Mills Inc., a
supplier of seating and supplies for big events and
meetings, has been a client of Eastbay for four years,
says Laurel McHale, the company's office manager.
"We don't have the time to worry about virus
problems and not everybody on our staff is an IT person.
So we use Eastbay as our IT staff.
