As a business owner, have you ever answered this question or, for that matter, even thought about it?

Access Management Corporation (AMC) has worked with and researched the views of thousands of business owners in the SME sector. From this experience and research, AMC knows that most feel their business is still totally dependent on them and that they have no clear succession strategy.

The 2009 News Community Media / AMC SME Survey of nearly 2000 businesses highlighted that the major reasons why people went into business were to:

1. Follow my passion (27%)
2. Work/life balance (23%)
3. Be my own boss (21%)

Interestingly, money was not the key driver for SME owners with only 18% choosing "more money" as their prime reason for being in business. The key outcome from this part of the survey was that non-financial factors dominated the reasons for being in business with 71% of respondents nominating "lifestyle" factors.

So if the major reasons for being in business are factors other than money, it is time that personal objectives were integrated into business priorities. It is logical that, if we align what is important to people personally with their business strategies and direction, there is a greater probability that the desired outcome will be achieved for the person and the business.

AMC can now offer this service to business owners, professionals and executives. Through the online "Whats important to you?" (WITY) survey, report and action plan, this alignment of both the personal and professional is achievable.

If you would like to identify those things that are important to you and develop strategies in your business to achieve these priorities, contact Steven Eager on (07) 3393 2833 or seager@accessmc.com.au.

Today's powerful computer hardware was designed to run a single operating system. This, coupled with the "one server per application" model that is frequently (and for good reasons) applied to information architecture design leaves most servers vastly underutilised.

Virtualisation allows multiple virtual machines to co-exist on a single physical machine, sharing the resources of that single computer across multiple environments.

Here are my top 10 reasons for adopting virtualisation of both servers and desktop computing environments:

1. Improved Hardware Utilisation - Most networks are set up on a "one server per application model" where the server is specified with sufficient capacity to cope with the occasional peak load. This leaves most machines vastly underutilised and running, on average, at less than 10% of capacity. Running multiple virtual servers on a single physical machine greatly improves resource utilisation.
2. Encapsulation - It is still possible to get the benefits of the "one server per application" deployment model by having each application within its own virtual server. Applications can be prevented from impacting other applications when upgrades or changes are made.
3. Hardware Independence - Multiple operating system technologies can be deployed on a single hardware platform (i.e. Windows Server 2003, Linux, Windows 2000, etc).
4. Cost Savings - Implementing multiple virtual servers on a single physical server results in cost savings through:
   • reduced capital expenditure
   • reduced power consumption
   • reduced air conditioning costs for racks/server rooms.
5. IT Support Efficiencies - Improvements in efficiency of IT support occur by reducing the amount of time required to maintain servers and reduce hardware maintenance costs because of a lower number of physical devices.
6. Space Utilisation Efficiencies - By implementing a server consolidation strategy, space utilisation is improved simply through having fewer physical devices to accommodate in racks or server rooms.
7. Deployment Efficiencies - A standard virtual server build can be easily duplicated which will speed up server deployment. Adding a new server is simply a matter of copying the standard server image to a host server.
8. Reduced Downtime and Improved Flexibility - Dynamic allocation of resources to virtual servers, e.g. number of CPUs, RAM, disk space, means that virtual servers can be altered dynamically with no need to stop the virtual server. Thus, server upgrades can be conducted with a minimum of interruption to users.
9. Ease of Backup - The entire server can effectively be backed up by taking a copy of the virtual image.
10. More Efficient Disaster Recovery - Recovering from a physical failure on the host server or local network is simply a matter of mounting the most recent server image file on another virtual host. Instead of taking hours or days to recover from a major disaster, servers can be completely recovered in the time it takes to load the image file onto a new host.

For advice on virtualising your server environment, contact Robert Andrews on (07) 3393 2833 or randrews@accessmc.com.au.

The launch of the My School website has, for many schools and their leadership teams, changed the ground rules for their engagement model with parents, students, teachers and their community generally.

While the media and other interested groups have argued the positives and negatives of the information provided by the My School website, nobody can ignore the message.

If the My School website has demonstrated anything to the education community, it is that parents have an insatiable appetite for information about the school that has the responsibility for their children's education.

It is now more important than ever to engage directly and in a meaningful way with all the key stakeholders: parents, students and staff.

Accountability is, of course, nothing new. It can just take different forms. For example, registered non-government schools are required by law to prepare an annual report on a range of performance measures and policies. One of the common requirements is to report on the satisfaction of parents, students and staff. The challenge is how to capture these views cost effectively and in a manner that enhances the reputation of the school.

In 2009, Access Management Corporation (AMC) conducted satisfaction and attitudinal surveys with more than 6,000 parents across Australia and New Zealand. As a cohort, parents rated the following as the top 3 performance areas and the bottom 3 performance areas of schools:

1. Learning environment (Score of 4.11 out of 5)
2. Leadership and direction (Score of 4.07 out of 5)
3. Values and culture (Score of 3.97 out of 5)

1. Learning and extension (Score of 3.37 out of 5)
2. Student transition (Score of 3.49 out of 5)
3. Homework (Score of 3.65 out of 5)

In addition, AMC has developed a unique program for helping independent schools address their reporting requirements and engagement obligations with their School Results Surveys (SRS). The SRS is an online tool now being used throughout schools in Australia and New Zealand. It is simple to use, cost effective and provides high quality data and reports. Most importantly, it takes minimal time to administer and is a very valuable marketing and feedback tool.

If your children attend an independent school or if you are on the Board of an independent school, this will be of interest to you. For further information, to read testimonials from participating schools in 2009 or to undertake a tour of the School Results Surveys, please contact Jenny Eager (Senior HR and Education Consultant) on (07) 3393 2833 or jeager@accessmc.com.au.