If you need IT help but don’t want to spend on consultants or a bigger staff, you can find reliable relief — if you know where to look.
Web sites
Here’s some great sites to look for free online help:
Baselinemag.com — The Web site for Baseline Magazine offers IT news analysis, case studies, tutorials and tools, plus calculators that can help your company determine ROI for tech projects.
Informationweek.com — InformationWeek‘s Web site provides a broad picture of what’s going on in IT.
Smallbizresource.com — A free resource for small businesses, this site gives advice on what to buy, what software works best for specific tasks, plus analysis of the latest technologies.
Government
Even the feds can lend a helping hand when it comes to your IT needs.
Small Business Development Centers (partially funded by Small Business Administration in D.C.) are available in every state and can be a tremendous tech resource.
Colleges and Universities
When you want something done cheaply, enlisting the help of starving college students is always a good idea — especially for smaller, non-critical projects.
The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis is a great example. The university paired up 30 grad and undergrad students with nine small companies to help with cyber-security consulting and tech-security plans.
The best part? It didn’t cost these lucky companies a thing.