Don't Pay $100+ Hour for Tech Support

A small agent office (5 people) wanted to upgrade their network and PCs.   They've never had anything installed properly -- much like how we've all done...  Run to Best Buy, purchase something,  use CD install wizard, plug things in, then make a mental plan to circle back and clean up the wires, document it all... later.

I went in to assess the situation.   It was medium bad, but I had seen worse.  (Sidebar: I had seen *much* worse in data centers where I had spent many years as an IT manager at auto manufacturing plants)

Here's a good indicator of their current status.  They had wires hanging from the ceiling, those same wires suspended the network hub, the thing that supplied connectivity to the rest of the office.   Hey, it doesn't weigh all that much, so technically, that's not all that terrible.   But usually when you see this, there's lots of other issues that aren't as easily photographed.

They had plenty of issues:

- Critical data stored on PCs with no backup
- Open access on their WiFi and no firewall 
- Shared drives with no security
- No central storage -- at all

But the most alarming part:  They had no document management system.  

They would scan official client papers, convert them to PDFs and email them via public email accounts (like gmail, hotmail, yahoo...)   They never considered the very scary downside that if their network was hacked OR if a client received one of their emails, it was potentially wide open to reception by anyone sitting next to said client at any WiFi coffee shop.   This is major liability, not just an efficiency issue.

Back to not paying $100/hour for tech support...  

So what it would take to fix all these things was pretty simple.  We drafted an action list of what needed to be done.  

Now all we needed was a techno-person to follow orders and get busy.   I estimated it would take 20-30 hours to fully revamp their office.   This is Ann Arbor where there is no shortage of technical people looking for contract gigs.

I ran an ad in CraigsList and within three days I had 18 good responses.    That's more than I had expected, however, my assumption was correct:  There are lots of locals willing to do this work for ~ $20/hour.

The challenge:  If you're doing this on your own, now you have the chore of going through the 18 to find the one or two that will deliver effective services for that rate.   If you're paying someone by the hour, (which is what most computer support people want), then you need to make sure

a.) you know what needs to be done and have listed it in clear techno term

and

b.) they know what they're doing. 

I've heard plenty of stories of techies working for hours, then throwing up their hands, but still feeling fine handing you an invoice for time that produced no results.

So here's my suggestion:

First, realize you will always need a technical person to support your office.  

Second, find someone local that has a small computer practice and offer to promote their business to your clients.     If you've not tried Craigslist, give it a shot.  (Here's the ad I ran that yielded the 18 responses)

Third, in exchange for reliable, reasonable-priced services, offer to create a relationship with said techno person to promote them to your clients.   (if of course, they turn out to be a dependable hidden gem)

At least in our economy here, there are hundreds of very qualified IT people looking for opportunities, some that  are being forced into entrepreneurship because of layoffs or buyout packages.

For years I've been saying that one day soon, Michigan will become competive with outsourcing to places like India.   I'm making it official, at least in Michigan, that day has arrived.