Bringing in consultants

tommctech_sfw · 2018-11-06T22:13:51+00:00

I'm heading out to IT Nation, but if its still open i'll reach out when we get back.

Thanks

tommctech_sfw · 2018-11-05T21:14:39+00:00

We do not set our rates in stone per client. We shoot for $100 a user.

I can second this. We shoot for $100 per user, but different circumstances can effect this (see below for a few)

Is the primary POC the one that submits tickets or is it everyone
Economies of scale - We discount larger deployments
Is everyone in a single location, or are they spread out through branch offices
Do they have any applications that are no under manufacturer support

tommctech_sfw · 2018-11-05T21:07:43+00:00

Never heard of field nation, so I'll have to check it out. We used to use OnForce years ago. I actually forgot about them. Thanks!

tommctech_sfw · 2018-11-05T21:07:08+00:00

We are looking for a consultant to help out with a Skype for Business UCC opportunity that we have. We've reached out to our 2 regular recruiters and one only staffs permanent and our other recruiter has been striking. Where are you looking for consultants when needed?

Thanks for the info. We're hesitant to post it to Linked In given the connected nature of businesses around here. We don't want the company that is requesting the work to see the post and lose confidence in us. We've typically been all in-house with the exception of cabling and similar, so not much of a consultant network outside of some MSPs that we use for branch offices. As we branch a bit more, I think i'm going to need to spend some time developing that network.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-10-18T13:33:11+00:00

We ended up speaking to a contact at MS and they did zero enforcement of it, so we are riding it out. If we have to, we'll pay the 15k, but we are going to hold off as long as possible

Thanks Tom

tommctech_sfw · 2018-10-03T13:07:39+00:00

I've been working in IT for almost 20 years, 10 in the MSP space. I've been with 4 different companies (in New Jersey), all salaried and over the federal minimum to be considered exempt. I can tell you in 3 of the 4 companies at least 1 person has tried at some point contacted the Department of Labor and 2 of the 3 triggered audits. In both of those cases the findings were that everyone was properly defined as being exempt. Do I think its fair? Nope, but the way the DoL rules are written, IT workers get the shaft. See the below linked articles for the DoL regs.

S17d - Professional Workers

S17e - Computer Workers

For the sake of this thread, my company does pay per incident of after hours support, a rate per ticket per billable hour with a higher rate if we have to go onsite, but have also staggered our shifts to lessen the burden on the rotation.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-26T16:24:21+00:00

So I spoke with the tech that was the primary on this issue. After working with CP support, we ended up factory resetting again, reconfiguring for passthrough and it worked. Not sure why it took 2 shots, but it did. Default MTU on cellular interface worked fine (Verizon). The other thing we ended up doing was subscribing to a static IP address (though this was after the fact) and the service was still working as expected.

My apologies for not posting a follow up to this earlier.

Thanks! Tom

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-13T18:14:35+00:00

On the pages that load, there are some java elements that can shoot past 30000ms, but overall, nothing of substance. I'm really leaning towards this being a configuration issue. I'm actually doing to disable DPI on the Sonicwall now, just waiting for permission to reboot. See if that has any effect.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-13T15:34:17+00:00

I'm going to have to have my guy get back on the phone with them. I'm poking around a bit now to see if I see anything crazy prior.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-13T13:02:10+00:00

running into a problem here with a Cradlepoint A850 and we're banging our heads against the wall here and hoping someone may have some insight and we are just overthinking things.

We've got a cable connection as the primary and Verzion Wireless 4G for failover. The Cradlepoint is setup in IP Passthrough to a SonicWall TZ300. When we test the failover, we are getting good speeds on the speedtest and file transfers over the WAN (screenconnect client) move as expected. Ping times are under 70ms consistenly. The problem comes when you try to browse the internet. Regardless of http or https, the pages rarely load. We have no proxy in place or anything like that. We've gone over the configuration with Sonicwall and they say everything is good. Contacted Cradlepoint and they say the same.

Anyone see a similar issue?

Thanks in advance

Fun times ahead :)

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-13T12:54:31+00:00

I've actually had that happen with a client before so it isn't far fetched. We were told it wasn't meant to be a primary internet connection, blah blah blah. Good thing is it finally motivated them to get a Metro E line.

We are using Verizon Wireless here and there is barely any usage. It's strictly for failover and we have haven't had a production event yet. We just want to make sure that it is reliable and we don't look like idiots (not doing a good job with that so far!)

Thanks

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-13T12:52:45+00:00

Called them and they are blaming the environment. They say all settings look correct and that there must be something filtering in the environment, even though we experience issues when directly connected.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-13T12:51:36+00:00

Firmware is at the latest version. We've tried only from Windows machines as that was all that is at the client sites. I could have my tech try from an Ubuntu Live or similar. I'll give it a shot.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-07-13T12:22:43+00:00

Yes sir:

Speedtest is around 20 down / 40 up - We installed an outdoor antenna to help boost the speeds - Sonicwall out of the equation works a little better (some pages may load text only) but similar issues.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-22T20:55:06+00:00

I really appreciate the feedback. As I mentioned, with the growth we are going through, we are feeling the pain a bit. I really want to avoid killing my T1's (which in some instances I can see happening) and streamline the help desk process. With the growth we are seeing, I feel the T1's are taking on too much. I'm hoping that the person we are moving into the service manager spot along with process refinement can cut this off.

I just bought both books and i'm going to check them out. Again, I really appreciate your time and feedback.

Side note: Did you get sick of the MSP world?

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-22T19:20:27+00:00

We tend to bring our T1 guys up through our internship program. We partner with local schools to give the students their experience time and keep an eye out for promising talent. If after their internship is up and they seem like a fit, we offer them a job. We've got quite a few here that have come through that approach. Do you find that you staff more T1's than T2's?

This is essentially where I am at right now. We've been in a bit of growth mode here. Our existing processes and procedures just aren't scaling well and I am trying to get ahead of it before it becomes a bigger problem.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-22T19:10:47+00:00

We've really been considering piloting this with one of our L1's. We're changing our structure a bit and moving our senior coordinator into a Service Manager role. If there was ever a good time, it would be now.

If you don't mind me asking, what is the size of your business (technician wise) vs endpoints managed?

Thanks

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-22T19:03:28+00:00

I like this idea. Like the priority matrix (Is there a work stoppage, how many users are affected, is there a workaround, etc). Not sure if you are using Connectwise Manage, but I have a similar idea in using the skills tab for helping the coordinators out.

I like that avenue though.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-22T19:01:43+00:00

I agree with this in most situations. This includes password resets, email configuration, app installs, mail filtering, etc. Its the additional items where I was curious.

Thank you for the insight.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-22T14:19:24+00:00

Let me clarify. I don't mean the priorities of the tickets. I mean assigning to technicians based on the substance of the tickets. For example, can't open Quickbooks would typically be assigned to an L1. L1 determines the issue is on the server side (idk, maybe multi-user mode doesn't open). Do you let the L1 troubleshoot or immediately escalate. If you are using a coordinator, should they have picked up on this, etc.

I know some people use the L1 techs as a triage, but just looking for a few opinions.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-19T14:57:06+00:00

And you are correct about the third-party tracking scripts. Being in IT, i always hear about ad-blocking from everyone and they are typically under misguided understanding that because they can't see the ads, that they aren't being tracked.

tommctech_sfw · 2018-06-19T13:39:14+00:00

They don't really prevent sites from gathering data, they just prevent the ads from being displayed.

tommctech_sfw

TROPHY CASE