BHM Biz White Papers

THE

WHITE PAPER ISSUE

FROM PUTTING YOUR BUSINESS IN THE CLOUD TO WORKER’S COMP COVERAGE, HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW

www.BHMBIZ.com

43

SPECIAL PROMOTION

BIZ

whitepaper cloud computing:

WHY YOUR BUSINESS SHOULD BE IN THE CLOUD The IT challenges you face can seriously undermine the success of your business. When you take a step back and look at your business, it is easy to see the challenges and complications that a deficient IT practice can create.

Perhaps your business is simply outgrowing your current infrastructure. Or your resources are inadequate and unable to seamlessly manage your data and applications. Or your business is growing and changing in scope and you lack the scale to truly take advantage of it.

“There are many great reasons to consider moving specific workloads or everything into the cloud, but the main ones that seem to resonate are agility, flexibility and security,” says Forrest Pachmayr, the Azure Practice Lead for TekLinks, Inc. “Being able to pay for what you use when it comes to IT is a completely new methodology for most business owners. In the past we always had to purchase expensive equipment and plan for peaks and growth. With cloud computing you still have to plan for those things but the beauty is you can scale up and scale down now, and only pay for what you are using. Cloud computing enables things that have never been achievable before, we should all look at what is possible and figure out ways to modernize how we are doing business.”

Your company’s situation is unique and it requires an expert to custom tailor a cloud-based solution to your business needs. Your journey to the cloud will help you suceed and TekLinks will guide you every step of the way.

There are many benefits to moving to the cloud including: • Reliability (99.99 percent uptime) • Best-in-class security standards • Scalability and flexibility (deliver just the right amount of IT resources where and when you need it the most) • 24/7 connectivity (from any device, anywhere)

Best of all, there is no need to invest capital resources for expensive hardware or software. So the cloud can be amazingly cost effective.

“The beauty [of cloud] is you can scale up and scale down now, and only pay for what you are using.”

“All of the major players in cloud services make it very easy to sign up and get started, but there is always the ‘now what?’

While it is easy to get started on your own, utilizing a partner like Teklinks reduces the planning time by over 60 percent and industry wide there is a 40 - 50 percent average cost savings,” says Pachmayr. “In my experience, most people/customers over provision cloud resources, meaning, they use a $200 server when they actually need $100 server. Teklinks has the tools and expertise to make sure you are getting the correct solution and not over paying or over provisioning.”

TekLinks looks at the cloud in three different ways, the public cloud, the private cloud, and the hybrid cloud.

PUBLIC CLOUD TekLinks’ Public Cloud utilizes the limitless resources of industry giants Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to ensure a business – no matter its size – sets out on the right foot on its journey to the cloud. Our expert engineers handle the planning, design, setup and ongoing maintenance of a company’s Public Cloud environment. TekLinks’ Public Cloud starter packages provide all the necessary components to extend an organization’s existing environment into the Public Cloud. Licensing, infrastructure resources, backups, anti-virus

SPECIAL PROMOTION

and monthly VPN connectivity is included. Additional options are available a la carte to meet unique requirements.

PRIVATE CLOUD Many organizations want control over their data while also utilizing the cloud but don’t want to spend the capital on hardware or in-house engineers for maintenance. TekLinks’ Private Cloud offers a highly available service that is delivered through dedicated compute, storage, and networking provided and managed by expert engineers. Private cloud can be hosted in a TekLinks data center, a business’ site or data center, or in a third-party data center. What’s the bottom line? Companies can focus on their core business while TekLinks’ experts take care of all aspect of managing their network infrastructure.

customizable Hybrid Cloud. Maybe your organization wants to keep its critical data and applications close to home in a dedicated environment, but you also want the cost-effectiveness and efficiency of a shared environment for your less critical data. Hybrid cloud is the perfect combo of a dedicated, near-premise environment and an off-premise shared environment. TekLinks has the expertise and skill-set to formulate a plan that best meets your specific company goals.

Every year, the IT industry ranks its top cloud service providers, managed service providers and value-added resellers. Out of the thousands of companies that applied, only 11 companies were ranked on all three lists, Cloud Services, Managed Services & Value-Added Resale. TekLinks was one of them. This makes TekLinks uniquely equipped to meet your IT needs, no matter where you are on your journey to the cloud.

HYBRID CLOUD Get the best of both public and private cloud with TekLinks’ We Make IT Work for Business.

TEKLINKS.COM | 877.301.3125

SPONSORED CONTENT SPECIAL PROMOTION

BIZ

whitepaper

workers’ comp coverage:

PROTECT YOUR COMPANY Fires and car accidents happen; people slip, fall, and even die. And these things can occur in your business. This is why all businesses, whether they are small mom and pop operations or multimillion dollar corporations, need workers’ compensation coverage. As a business, the myriad of coverage choices can be overwhelming and how to choose the best option is often difficult.

One of the best ways for an employer to control costs and ensure their injured workers are receiving timely and proper care is to participate in a group self-insured workers’ compensation fund. A self-insured group (SIG) is an association of employers formed for the specific purpose of providing statutory workers’ compensation coverage for companies who want to assume some control over their workers’ compensation costs.

They benefit from the cost savings that self-insurance provides, but do not have the size or financial capacity of a larger business to self-insure on their own. They were developed in the 1960s as a way for small businesses to obtain the benefits of self-insurance, with the protection that a level of anticipated loss would be assumed by the group with layers of catastrophic loss above to be transferred to an excess or reinsurance market.

A SIG is designed to benefit its members by controlling costs, limiting accidents through loss control, providing aggressive claims management and returning dividends to each participating employer and is typically made of employers from like industries. They provide a means for employers to gain control over their losses and claim costs as they provide substantial pools to share in the cost of claims and related expenses.

Currently, there are 17 group funds with an estimated 60 percent of the market covering more than 29,000 employers in Alabama alone. SIGs save members millions of dollars which allows them the opportunity to invest more money in their core operations. Over the years, these bottom line savings helped fuel Alabama’s economy and have the added benefit of creating jobs and increasing productivity.

In addition, many costs associated with traditional workers’ compensation insurance obtained on the commercial market such as premium taxes and residual market charges,

do not apply to SIGs which can amount to significant savings to members. Contributions to the SIG are the premiums paid by members to pay for covered losses, claims administration, and other administrative expenses associated with the management of the group. Examples of these expenses are loss control services, actuarial, legal, and accounting services as well as excess insurance. Any surplus generated in a coverage term year is eventually returned to the members in the group participating in that specific year as a dividend or retro payment. A surplus can be generated from well-managed claim or expense results, and investment returns. The calculation of an individual employer’s dividend is based on guidelines set by the Board of Trustees which manage the SIG. However, there is some fine print that employers must be aware of and that is that the Department of Labor requires that a Joint and Several liability clause be included in a SIG agreement which means that while each member shares in the excess funds generated, each member is also responsible for any deficit that occurred during the years they were a participant of the group.

Members are required to sign a form obligating them to this requirement prior to joining the group. It is important to research the financial of any SIG to determine their financial viability and the risk involved.

Another distinction of SIGs is their aggressive claims management through lower adjuster caseloads than commercial insurance companies. This allows an adjuster the time to proactively handle the claims thus reducing the overall claim costs and to effectively communicate with employers about potential issues. A well-managed fund will use predictive analytics to determine trends to identify and evaluate patterns typically found in high-cost claims. By identifying these claims early, proper interventions can take place quickly and better outcomes can be achieved for the injured worker.

Bad things happen to good companies and the right insurance coverage can protect against catastrophic results.

Participating in a SIG has tremendous potential benefits to employer members. SIGs can lower costs, achieve better injury outcomes and result in improved cash flow. Selecting the right SIG is key to making this happen!

Bad things happen to good companies and the right insurance coverage can protect against catastrophic results.

Participating in a SIG has tremendous potential benefits to employer members.

P.O. Box 59509, Birmingham, AL 35259 I 205.868.6900 I www.asiwcf.org

SPECIAL PROMOTION

BIZ

whitepaper

Men’s Fashion

DRESS FOR SUCCESS Remon Danforah stands in the middle of his men’s clothing store at The Summit, surrounded by racks and shelves of the finest in clothing. The things that make a man stylish, that make him feel confident and comfortable, are found within this beautiful and well-stocked store.

Remon had the vision and determination to create this oasis of style, and the hard work and determination to make the vision a reality. When you spend your life making men look their very best, you become an expert in understanding the building blocks of style, the unique signature items that can make a man feel confident in the way he presents himself to the world.

This is the skill at which Remon excels.

Merchandise from the finest men’s clothing label—Hickey Freeman, Nikky, Coppley, Jack Victor, Barbour, Zanella, David Donahue, Martin Dingman, and Robert Talbott—make Remon’s the destination for fine men’s wear.

More casual clothing from labels like Peter Millar, Southern Tide, Southern Point, St. Croix and Scott Barber are great choices for rounding out the wardrobe of the well-dressed man.

Remon Danforah came to Birmingham in the 1970s with a dream, an eye for quality, and a skill as a tailor learned from a very early age. What I have learned from Remon is that a seemingly modest set of attributes is actually enough to build a successful business.

Danforah stands in the middle of his men’s clothing store at The Summit, surrounded by racks and shelves of the finest in clothing. The things that make a man stylish—the shirts and suits and shoes that make him feel confident and comfortable—are all around.

Danforah had the vision and determination to create this oasis of style, and then he put in the hard work to make this vision a reality. “If there is one thing that makes a difference in life, it is understanding that you have to work at it every day,” he says.

“What really matters is the customer,” he continues. “How do they look in the clothes? How do they feel about the way they look? And how can you help them feel good? Because

When you spend your life making men look their very best, you become an expert in understanding the building blocks of style, the unique signature items that can make a man feel confident in the way he presents himself to the world. when you feel good, brother, there is nothing you can’t do.”

Merchandise from the finest men’s clothing labels have made Remon’s a destination for fine men’s wear, first at his store downtown and now at his place at The Summit. More casual clothing from labels have rounded out the merchandise offerings at Remon’s, making his store at The Summit a place for both the casual and the more formal dresser.

“What we find at The Summit is that we sell young men nice casual clothes when they are in school, and then they come back to us for the suits they need for work after they graduate,” Danforah says.

“You have to know your customer and understand what they need,” he says. “Then you can sell them exactly the right thing.”

123 SUMMIT BLVD. | BIRMINGHAM, AL 35243 | 205-977.5512 | REMONSCLOTHIER.COM