Hi All,
It’s me, Steve Boullianne. IT Services Helper.
Yesterday I was talking to Len, and discussed ‘really good’ IT and ‘really bad’ IT.
The best deal is to partner with loving people, who have skill and talent, they recommend the right amount of proven tools, at a price that works for everyone.
Great clients get the FOUR major HICCUPS (too):
Hiccups:
- Snowtires: Means we tell the client “please do this” (like anti-hack stuff), and the client says “NO, we don’t need it”. Then the problem happens (ie. purchasing is hacked) and befuddled, the client asks “why didn’t you make us do that”. We say, “Snowtires. You went skiing and you crashed because you needed snow tires. Before, you didn’t need snowtires and so you refused to get them…Today, you need snowtires.” Let’s install them now. One can only push so hard.
- Silver Bullets: Clients often wonder… “How come I pay $200/hour for 20 minutes and $100/hr for 5 hours. Shorter should be cheaper, right?”. The fact is that silver bullets cost more than tin bullets, and one shot by a talented person using a silver bullet kills the werewolf, so it’s gonna be more expensive. Remember the Pied Piper…He was the master of the silver bullet.
- Cheap-Ass monthly Payments: Usually they’re not cheaper. Monthly services are great if you absolutely know you’re going to ditch them soon. Take O365 for example. $15/mailbox. 300 employees. $60,000/yr for email. $400,000 over 6 years (add in maintenance) but no-backups VERSUS An exchange server. $30,000 new and installed. $11,000/yr to maintain, backup, and administer. $96,000 over 6 years.
- LOVE: We are love. We love to love. In 1997, we rolled out policies around love, respect, and honor; Love is the topic of every Staff Meeting. We look for a loving personality in new hires. We ask each other how to love more. A new client recently said, “That love stuff is nice, but those guys are cheaper”. I recently analyzed that cheap competitor. They offer $125/hr. But to get the cheap rate… each computer and server must be monitored for $80/mo. You wind up paying a fortune to get at slightly cheaper rate. And when you call, you call a 3rd world messaging service, and later on someone techy up the food chain should call you. Love does not scheme, bait, or switch.
Alas, these four hiccups are human conundrums. There is no way around them. We humans want cracker-jack people caring for us at a deal; we want the best products at the perfect time without paying for them before we need them.
We get ripped off by Comcast, ATT, Wallmart, Apple, CostCo, all those big companies that sell us tons of crap we don’t need (like 12 avocados when we only want 3), or land line phones that we’ll never use. We fight constantly for the best deal, but we lose sight of what a ‘best deal’ actually is.
The best deal is to partner with loving people, who have skill and talent, they recommend the right amount of proven tools, at a price that works for everyone.
Be Well,
Love,
Steve
