Help finding an IT professional.

Ben Stuart

Ben Stuart

Ben Stuart

Associate
Joined
10 Apr 2013
Posts
13
So in short, I need to find an IT professional that can maintain an office of 6 computers.

It's for my mums business, they mainly use simple office software and a networked database (Microsoft Access). Essentially she's been thoroughly let down by her IT guy (on a £150 a month retainer) so is now trying to find someone to replace.

Now I've had a look online, I can't for the life of me figure out how to go about finding someone?

Can anyone help? She is based in Bristol, close to the end of the M32.
 
I've had a scan and all I seem to find are training companies and recruitment companies? Perhaps I'm not being specific enough with my search.

Thought you guys might be interested to know, the old guy got the boot when he had my mum purchase a laptop for herself through him for over £1200! Genuinely, she still uses office 97 due to her database only working on the old version of access! Total overkill and this guy flat out denied rinsing her.

Spec wise, it was a third gen i5, 4 gig of ram, and a 500gig HDD. Integrated graphics too. Needless to say I was less than pleased with him.

He even had the cheek to claim he had gotten a good deal as he had the ram specked up!
 
Ben Stuart said:
Now I've had a look online, I can't for the life of me figure out how to go about finding someone?

Can anyone help? She is based in Bristol, close to the end of the M32.
Click to expand...

Try googling for 'it support companies Bristol' that should bring up several companies that offer that kind of service.
 
Ben Stuart said:
I've had a scan and all I seem to find are training companies and recruitment companies? Perhaps I'm not being specific enough with my search.

Thought you guys might be interested to know, the old guy got the boot when he had my mum purchase a laptop for herself through him for over £1200! Genuinely, she still uses office 97 due to her database only working on the old version of access! Total overkill and this guy flat out denied rinsing her.

Spec wise, it was a third gen i5, 4 gig of ram, and a 500gig HDD. Integrated graphics too. Needless to say I was less than pleased with him.

He even had the cheek to claim he had gotten a good deal as he had the ram specked up!
Click to expand...

That's a rubbish spec.

Anyway, what did you expect him to do? Go out and get something from 97 and use that? Maybe she should think about upgrading her crap old Access dB and get with the times?
 
.... and herein lies the problem.

Business of 6 people wants to pay peanuts for IT support for 6 staff, and so does so, to someone who needs to have lots of these businesses on a retainer just to be able to survive.

Business then baulks when a (admittedly excessive) profit is made on a hardware provision, and hence dumps dirt-cheap IT support.

Business now incurs cost of finding new IT support provider, which may well be a LOT more than £150 a month!

Not saying what he did is right, but he's priced his business model accordingly.

Genuinely hope you do find some suitable IT support, but don't be surprised if no-one will support Access 97.
 
matt_fsr said:
.... and herein lies the problem.

Business of 6 people wants to pay peanuts for IT support for 6 staff, and so does so, to someone who needs to have lots of these businesses on a retainer just to be able to survive.

Business then baulks when a (admittedly excessive) profit is made on a hardware provision, and hence dumps dirt-cheap IT support.

Business now incurs cost of finding new IT support provider, which may well be a LOT more than £150 a month!

Not saying what he did is right, but he's priced his business model accordingly.

Genuinely hope you do find some suitable IT support, but don't be surprised if no-one will support Access 97.
Click to expand...

I don't recall specifying any issue where by not being in a position to pay more as a retention?
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. 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.
 
Do the holidays coincide with just after a purchase of IT hardware? :D

That really is bad. At the very least I'd of expected a courtesy email saying he wont be available.
 
randomshenans said:
That's a rubbish spec.

Anyway, what did you expect him to do? Go out and get something from 97 and use that? Maybe she should think about upgrading her crap old Access dB and get with the times?
Click to expand...

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.

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? :)
 
How is this being licensed? That would be my main concern here. I very much doubt there is any legit way to license the software whereby she isn't breaking any rules and breaking these rules can get really expensive, really quickly.
 
It sounds to me like everything is being done on the cheap.

IT typically are a resource to fix and implement things not to develop. The databases suggests you need someone with Database development skills rather than IT who can install Windows for example.

The holiday situation is problematic but what agreement did you have? £150 a month is not even an average price. It pays for a couple of hours work per month in my opinion.

If you want someone good and avoid all of the previous points you've mentioned then you'll need a small company. One man bands will go on holiday, be sick, etc. In Bristol as well it's not going to be cheap if you want good service.



M.
 
You'll have a hard time getting a support agreement for EOL software because that means the support vendor can't palm you off and say it's with the software supplier, it means they'll actually have to work on it themselves.
 
Ben Stuart said:
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.

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? :)
Click to expand...

It sounds more like the cost of upgrading to supported products is higher than she's willing to pay, or the people looking at it don't have the necessary skills to do it. Migration to a newer version is fairly standard stuff and certainly achievable (for a cost).

Agree his costs for a new machine were high but if he is supplying it then he will have additional costs which are incurred (time and effort to source it, install it, providing a hardware warranty etc). She should have also considered quotes from other companies and buying direct. It's the same as when you need to replace a boiler, for example. You get several quotes.

Sadly most people don't appreciate the value of IT to their business and simply see it as a cost rather than a business enabling investment. So they try to scrimp on the cost and therefore service.

EDIT: Out of interest who "booted" him? Your mum or you? Either way it is always good business sense to put a replacement plan in place, whether IT or something else, before ending the first plan. What happens now if she has a critical failure?

ALSO: I assume from this "on a shoestring" approach that she is likely to have a poorly worked out business continuity plan (again for both IT and non-IT parts of her business)?
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom