@scottalanmiller said:

As my teacher friends have pointed out.... a free hamburger isn't free unless they eat it and poop it for you.

That's gross. If that's how it works, I'm never touching free software again. 😉

You are on her tablet, fire an email to the helpdesk while the app is installing.

FreePBX for VoiP PBX

You might implement OTRS for job (Ticket) creation / tracking billing. You might setup a Zentyal for the other business systems, Domain, Email, Network Shares and join your "user" systems to it.

You might implement PayMaster for payroll systems. Checks etc.

@MattSpeller said:

@RojoLoco Every now and again I miss the wild west cowboy shit I used to get away with. Then I remember the liquor and ... other worse stuff.

No doubt.... {incriminating comments removed}

Start with the single point of what they want, in this case two servers to cover the lost off one, then explain that the likeliness of a power failure is higher than the server failing, that the AC failing is higher than a single server failing, that perhaps a tornado or other natural disaster is higher than the server failing. Of course you'll have to find all of the stats as they relate to you.

Then explain that it's pointless in covering the server if you don't take care of those things first.

I'm not sure where it came from but Scott said that Dell server have a 4 hour out of 8 year expectation of down time.

I use Freshbooks, for the super tiny amount I need it.

@scottalanmiller said:

@Dashrender said:

Is it because of to many failures, so people feel the need to save for bad time?

No idea, maybe. The great depression generation famously lost all of their money to inflation because they hoarded rather than investing. It's a weird paranoia that causes financial recklessness while feeling oddly like being conservative.

Same bad emotional reaction that causes people to buy bonds instead of stocks.

People seem to forget to invest in ammunition... that is the best investment in a collapsing economy. Pieces of paper won't bring you dinner once they are only worth the paper on which they were printed.

@Dashrender said:

It's really boiling down to you only hire consultants to do research or provide options/opinions for you that are in your best interest.

Then you act upon those opinions with your own decision... that could be hiring experts... but those experts aren't learning the tech.. they are learning your setup.

No, that's not what we are saying. We are saying that every situation is unique, every one. Assuming that it is possible to hire someone with all of the requisite knowledge and experience isn't a good idea - it can't reasonably ever happen. Consultant ALL of them are the same as internal IT, they have to learn how the technology interacts in the specific instance. Learning is a necessary part of IT, always.

@Stephen said:

For me, social media is the good platform to remain updated with the world through communication, diverse updates etc. For business purpose, it is one of the best resource to expand business very easily in the market.

Hey @Stephen welcome to MangoLassi!

Definitely more complicated than IaaS, which is complicated enough. Many fewer players, though.

For this particular client, it is probably too late. No wonder they were happy with the price, they are getting you as an outsourcing firm to accept all of the risk and overhead of the work for less than they probably spend to have an employee to do the same work per hour. Companies pay a big premium to outsourcing firms because the firm takes on huge risk and is only paid while working whereas an employee has to be paid when there is work or not. But in this case, you are so cheap that they can't possibly turn you down.

Assume that this client is a lost cause, they will never be okay paying real rates, the rates needed to keep eating while doing this kind of work, after getting you for this price. Nearly everyone does this with the first client or two. Sadly, it's a burned bridge, but it is good learning. Most of any IT consulting is the business side. There are plenty of good IT people out there to do the technical work. It's the business setup, marketing, sales, billing, accounting, etc. that is hard to get and what makes all of the difference.

@IRJ No. I don't this nk they have a free version.

@Hubtech said:

@Breffni-Potter said:

@Aaron-Studer said:

Stay away!

Because? 🙂

because he said so!

Is it an NDA thing or a can't-get-x-amount-of-my-life-back thing?

The gist of the article though is that as soon as you impose tighter controls/credit terms the scammer gets flustered and runs away.

I know a few companies who run on a credit of trust, if you are brand new, you get no credit, so you start with the most restrictive terms.

If you are a known, reliable client, you get the more lenient credit terms.

The scammers balk at the terms, the cheapskates who will nickel and dime you to death decide to leave early and the genuine stay behind to do business with you.

I missed this thread 2 months ago somehow.

Being from St. Louis, I have never heard of these guys.

Same with us. We talk to the vendors, place the orders, review the specs, deal with everything - but we don't do the reselling so that we can be neutral. I think that there are more people doing that than vendors realize and a lot of business shifts to vendors that work well with that ecosystem.

Meraki, for example, gets almost no attention from vendors like us because they try so hard to take over the whole thing. They basically cut us out of the process leaving the customers without any means to deal with them because we are the only ones that handle that stuff.

We've just been approved to sell our Dell 12th Gen (13th Gen coming soon) systems with full Dell Pro support warranty, even if we change the configuration from how we received it from Dell. Prior to this we would have to cover anything changed from the original configuration ourselves.

This should help those of you out there who are squeamish about getting a server without full manufacturers warranty. That is no longer an issue or viable excuse for why you have to purchase "new."

@scottalanmiller You're right. I think I need to talk again to my client 🙂 Thank you.