Help finding an IT professional.

[linktoinsanity]

If you'd pay £1200 for that then you're a bloody fool.

£300 laptop, £100 to set it up unless he's fannying around, then bill support on top of whatever retainer she's paying him as and when it's needed, he's already the IT guy - why should he charge for support which probably won't be needed in advance?

Not to mention, to then go "Yeah it cost so much because I specced up the ram" sort of nails the coffin of this cowboy.

The spec sounds closer to £500 to be honest. If you get a business laptop which will last much longer than the cheap home alternatives...

Plus it takes 2 hours to setup a computer system for most clients, at the IT industry going rate of £75 per hour that is another £150.

Then there is specialist software installs, lets say that takes another 2 hours of fannying around trying to get the blasted old software working on the new computer system, there's another £150.

It comes to around £800 and that's not including the markup for the laptop or the Office licensing costs. An office license costs around £200.

Add the markup to the £1000 it already costs, around £1200 does not really seem all that extortionate. But this is the problem with the vast majority of users, they want things as cheaply as possible and to do that corners would have to be cut...

Basically it does not sound like your mum was ripped off for a business laptop, at least not by all that much. But yeah if you no longer trust your current IT guy, move on elsewhere. Just don't be surprised if they're either the same, or the quality of your IT support dwindles.

 

[matt_fsr]

Frankly, it's not for my mum to say how much retention needs to be for it to be viable, which is why, when you pay for a service you expect to have a good response when called on.

Well, it may not be for your mum to decide on how much retention to pay, but you claim it's her business, therefore she makes the decision about what kind of IT support she needs, correct?

And as for expecting a good response for £150 a month, ha! Stick a zero on that figure, and you could expect a good response.

This has not been the case on more than one occasion, where it's been weeks for him to return calls due to going on holiday and not letting her know etc.

Seeing as you missed this bit out of your OP, I wasn't aware of it. Yep, it is fairly unprofessional and obviously doesn't meet your businesses needs.

It may be old, but it is perfectly suited to her business. She's looked into having a new database developed but the discussion has always hit a dead end due to IT not having a clue how feasibly implement a new system (financial/time implications) . It's essentially a case of don't fix what isn't broken.

Sounds like more of a case of 'don't want to pay to fix what is a massive liability' - Don't take this as a personal dig, it certainly isn't. Many businesses run this same way, and nothing us IT lot say will change that.

It sounds like you would have a better idea of what's needed going by your fantastic evaluation of her database of which you know very little?

Maybe wind your neck in a little? I'm no database guru, but I guarantee anything in Access 97 will be a dog's breakfast, and a serious business risk.

What's your mums business's data backups like? Would it survive an equipment theft? Fire? Flood? How reliable is the off-site backup, and when was this last tested?

^ Even if we're only talking about a single Access DB, these things should be considered. The ZIP disk illustration above proves it perfectly.

(P.S. Where I work, if there's a fire detected in the machine room by the air particle monitors, £10,000 worth of fire suppressant gas gets dumped into the room automatically. Yeah, I don't think we'll lose any data.)

 

[JonJ678]

If you'd pay £1200 for that then you're a bloody fool.

I don't think I'd be willing to spec, buy, setup, repair, maintain & support a laptop for less than that. Would you?

(P.S. Where I work, if there's a fire detected in the machine room by the air particle monitors, £10,000 worth of fire suppressant gas gets dumped into the room automatically. Yeah, I don't think we'll lose any data.)

Can the servers keep running while surrounded by the inert gas? I like the idea of trying to maintain uptime while the building is on fire.

 

[matt_fsr]

Can the servers keep running while surrounded by the inert gas? I like the idea of trying to maintain uptime while the building is on fire.

I don't see any reason why they can't. There's no requirement for Oxygen for a server to run. That said, it's likely that mains power will be cut and the UPS's will kick in, so things will start auto-powering down to maximise the life of the UPS batteries, which are only there to ensure graceful shutdown really, in the event of a fire.

 

[stealthgeek]

We have something similar, although I thought it was quick-setting foam like stuff. You have a limited time to evacuate the server room before becoming a Hutt's wall decoration

 

[Ben Stuart]

I don't think I'd be willing to spec, buy, setup, repair, maintain & support a laptop for less than that. Would you?

You are misunderstanding the case, £1200 covered the cost of the laptop, not the setup and maintenance. That is all extra over.

 

[Svack]

Used to be halon in those things, not sure if they are allowed these days due to CFCs getting banned in almost everything!

 

[m4cc45]

It's all inergen now a days.



M.

 

[Simmy]

I operate in Bristol and I'm happy to discuss the issue with your mum if they still need help

Here is my website www.smg-computers.com

 

[Ben Stuart]

Well, it may not be for your mum to decide on how much retention to pay, but you claim it's her business, therefore she makes the decision about what kind of IT support she needs, correct?

And as for expecting a good response for £150 a month, ha! Stick a zero on that figure, and you could expect a good response.



Seeing as you missed this bit out of your OP, I wasn't aware of it. Yep, it is fairly unprofessional and obviously doesn't meet your businesses needs.



Sounds like more of a case of 'don't want to pay to fix what is a massive liability' - Don't take this as a personal dig, it certainly isn't. Many businesses run this same way, and nothing us IT lot say will change that.



Maybe wind your neck in a little? I'm no database guru, but I guarantee anything in Access 97 will be a dog's breakfast, and a serious business risk.

What's your mums business's data backups like? Would it survive an equipment theft? Fire? Flood? How reliable is the off-site backup, and when was this last tested?

^ Even if we're only talking about a single Access DB, these things should be considered. The ZIP disk illustration above proves it perfectly.

(P.S. Where I work, if there's a fire detected in the machine room by the air particle monitors, £10,000 worth of fire suppressant gas gets dumped into the room automatically. Yeah, I don't think we'll lose any data.)

I find your attitude quite frustrating. I never said she believed her database to be cutting edge, merely perfectly suited to her needs. I have since asked her what issues she has had with it and apparently it's incredibly stable. With this in mind, It's hard to justify implementing a new IT system that will no doubt go through teething problems. On top of that, you're looking at 6 plus employees that will then need training on new software.

I understand your position must give you a clear insight as to how the IT industry works, but I myself run a company as well as my Mum which is why I am sympathetic to her issues/the fact that updating a database isn't purely a financial decision.

As for how safe her database is, it's backed up daily on cloud as well as a HDD that comes home with her. I believe she used to have zip drives? Anyway, she isn't Mi5 so she isn't worried to the extent of fitting rape alarms and sharks tooled up with lasers or whatever it was you were suggesting.

 

[Energize]

Used to be halon in those things, not sure if they are allowed these days due to CFCs getting banned in almost everything!

Halon isn't used anymore because of it's toxicity, Argon/Nitrogen is used these days to deplete oxygen levels because it's cheap and non-toxic, and when setup properly will not suffocate people in the room.