Help finding an IT professional.

Have you thought of moving them to Office 365 instead? Then they can access apps/data from anything, anywhere. My other half pays about £45 per year for hers, for 6 it might work out at around £270ish? Then you take a large portion of the support (networking machines in a workgroup, setting up users, etc) out of the equation.

The collaborative features are quite good and made for small setups like this.
 
Get her to pay to move the database to a proper platform. Saves money in the long run, but not cheap in the short term.

That Access "database" is a disaster waiting to happen.
 
stealthgeek said:
Have you thought of moving them to Office 365 instead? Then they can access apps/data from anything, anywhere. My other half pays about £45 per year for hers, for 6 it might work out at around £270ish? Then you take a large portion of the support (networking machines in a workgroup, setting up users, etc) out of the equation.

The collaborative features are quite good and made for small setups like this.
Click to expand...

An Access "database" isn't going to work in Office 365!
 
As a side note i used to do small business support and HATED it.... ( not saying you're mum is like this op by the way )

They nearly always wanted things for cost price... would ALWAYS moan at installation costs

"but i BOUGHT it off you!... surely installation is included!!!"

Well no you bought it THROUGH me at pretty much cost price because you argued when i quoted you a package that you know... actually covered my costs and made me a modest profit...

They would scour online prices when i quoted a pc/laptop and demand i match prices and kick off when i wanted paying for my time setting it up.

Most small business's do see IT as something that should be paid for ONCE and never again... it goes wrong due to user error or hardware failure after 3 or 4 years its suddenly MY fault and

"what do you mean PAY??? i got it off you 4 years ago!!"

The best ones were when i responded to an emergency call out.... phone before to make sure i am still needed... arrive only to find "dave sorted it" and then the argument when i wanted a call out fee!

The only thing worse is primary school support.... how some of those teachers managed to get washed and dressed in a morning i have no idea :p

:rolleyes:

edit: i remember a good one.... an accountant who had 2 secretaries.. so small place. He got broken into and the pcs robbed and lost a lot of data. I sorted him, well the ladies, new pcs and a nice zip drive ( external ) to back up the database each night. I teach all 3 of them how to back up using a one button solution before the end of each day and told them clearly to TAKE THE ZIP DISK HOME!

Anyway about 6 months later they get broken into again and of course the lot gets stolen. He is going nuts about his data and i smile and reassure him that it should be safely backed up on the zip disk... i get to the office and am met by him and the two women asking how they can restore the backup if the disc was stolen!.... erm well of course you CANT you dumb morons!

Yup they were leaving the zip disc in the drive each night and of course it got stolen. Who gets the blame? me of course :(
 
Last edited:
Sorry but it sounds like no-one will touch it (properly) with a barge pole.

To me it sounds like a combination of a bit of remote infrastructure support, application development that is no longer supported, IT hardware as and when needed, backups and I also imagine things like virus / malware protection... all for peanuts
 
Attempting to rehire the guy would seem a reasonable way forward considering the above.

Is £1200 for a £300 spec really that unreasonable? The guy expects to have to support it, so if he has any wits it's from a relatively reliable brand and likely to have cost closer to £500. Persuading a Windows 8 machine to run whatever collection of software the business is using (also slightly stunned by access '97) will have taken some time. There may also be a license cost for Office in the price.

Perhaps three hours initial setup. It'll probably break at some point in the next year, requiring another couple of hours to resolve. An expected six hours or so of time is likely to be charged at £300 or so. If there's a chance it'll be used for many years, or if the guy doesn't really want to support the new laptop, then £1200 starts to sound quite cheap to me.
 
I wouldn't even take on that job, more hassle than it's worth. I would recommend migrating to an actual database framework like MySQL server rather than using 17 year old software that was never a proper database system to begin with...

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...

Access 97 is very broken, it is not suitable for any modern business it is dangerously unreliable and insecure, and it is very cheap and quick to migrate to a proper DBMS. This is what you are supposed to be hiring someone for, no?

When you expect support for niche or legacy systems you can expect costs to be greatly increased because it is more specialised.
 
Last edited:
JonJ678 said:
Is £1200 for a £300 spec really that unreasonable? The guy expects to have to support it, so if he has any wits it's from a relatively reliable brand and likely to have cost closer to £500. Persuading a Windows 8 machine to run whatever collection of software the business is using (also slightly stunned by access '97) will have taken some time. There may also be a license cost for Office in the price.

Perhaps three hours initial setup. It'll probably break at some point in the next year, requiring another couple of hours to resolve. An expected six hours or so of time is likely to be charged at £300 or so. If there's a chance it'll be used for many years, or if the guy doesn't really want to support the new laptop, then £1200 starts to sound quite cheap to me.
Click to expand...

After seeing the way the companies I've worked for over the years have worked, yes that seems extortionate!

We'd have the cost price for the laptop, plus a markup. We'd then charge a couple of hours to set it up and then a set price per month to include into the support agreement. There's no way £300 would suddenly become £1,200 for the invoice.
 
Liquidfox said:
After seeing the way the companies I've worked for over the years have worked, yes that seems extortionate!

We'd have the cost price for the laptop, plus a markup. We'd then charge a couple of hours to set it up and then a set price per month to include into the support agreement. There's no way £300 would suddenly become £1,200 for the invoice.
Click to expand...

Well exactly, especially seeing as he charges his normal rate per hour plus visit charge to install the new machines (which is where I would expect him to make most of the money from) and then the monthly retainer on top.
 
from my limited experience of access I seem to recall there may be some issue with macros between versions, normally means someone who is fairly access savvy would need to convert the macros to work with the latest version of access,
I may be wrong but similar stuff has occurred at the college I work at when we have upgraded and all the computing tutor's marking spreadsheets stop working!
 
JonJ678 said:
Attempting to rehire the guy would seem a reasonable way forward considering the above.

Is £1200 for a £300 spec really that unreasonable? The guy expects to have to support it, so if he has any wits it's from a relatively reliable brand and likely to have cost closer to £500. Persuading a Windows 8 machine to run whatever collection of software the business is using (also slightly stunned by access '97) will have taken some time. There may also be a license cost for Office in the price.

Perhaps three hours initial setup. It'll probably break at some point in the next year, requiring another couple of hours to resolve. An expected six hours or so of time is likely to be charged at £300 or so. If there's a chance it'll be used for many years, or if the guy doesn't really want to support the new laptop, then £1200 starts to sound quite cheap to me.
Click to expand...

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.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom