357: Interview WIth Chad Keith Of Atlas Solutions

Topics:

-Chad Keith of Atlas Solutions joins the show

-Chad originally called his company “Behind The Mac” but decided to change the name to work well with Apple Business Manager and the Apple Consultants Network

-A listener since the early days of the show, he shares how moved to a monthly services model and hearing fellow consultants was very encouraging.

-At one time, Apple had run a ‘Behind the Mac’ ad campaign: https://9to5mac.com/2018/06/14/apple-behind-the-mac-ad-campaign/

-Chad discusses how it did not take much convincing for most of his clients to move to the MSP model, explaining how the even keeled billing approach appealed to them.

-Calculating monthly pricing for new clients can be difficult and needs ongoing attention

-Having mentors that have been through this is key to developing a plan for pricing

-With clients reaching out, defining a point of contact will help streamline requests

-In the current climate, Chad discusses how his business has been affected with support and travel

-He also talks about how local businesses and communities are affected by COVID-19

-If you haven’t seen John Krasinski’s “Some Good News” broadcasts, you are missing out: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5pgG1M_h_U

-Joe shares some ideas for contactless food distribution

-Jerry goes to get pizza dough for the family and quickly changes his mind after seeing the conditions

-A short discussion brews about the loans available from the Small Business Association: https://www.sba.gov/page/coronavirus-covid-19-small-business-guidance-loan-resources

-The healthcare industry has changed through all of this and technology has been making more possible while keeping our healthcare workers safer

-Chad Keith has a podcast of his own called “Overcoming Average” http://overcomingaverage.libsyn.com

-Link Tree is where Chad has all his available contact and social media information: http://linktr.ee/atlascarolina

356: The Mean Sister

Topics:

-Jerry starts a roundtable discussion about accessing remote computers using TeamViewer

-MDM has some answers but not everything is automated: https://community.teamviewer.com/t5/Knowledge-Base/How-to-control-a-Mac-running-macOS-10-14-or-higher/ta-p/44699

-Joe talks about burning technical capital when working with a new client

-Some of these situations remind Sam about an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGXWjyGP4KY

-Jerry & Joe don’t let Sam off the hook when attempting to clarify questions related to rogue MDM enrollment

-Nit wit, numbskull, imbecile - great descriptions for certain types of clients

-Joe uses the term “inelegant” to describe allowing remote access & MDM enrollment

-Moving away from the remote discussion, Sam decides to spin his own yarn about a Windows based client that caused a lot of grief for him and his team

-A good relationship can quickly turn uncomfortable when a problem is not resolvable in short order

-This problem manifested itself as slow internet speeds

-Sam finds multipe unmanaged switches hidden underneath desks

-Focusing on the ISP, they decide to switch to the backup ISP as the first priority and the cable ISP as the failover.  But the problems only get more complicated from there

-Both Joe & Jerry hone in on weather related issues with relation to Optimum Online and external lines

-What was the resolution?  Listen to find out!

355: Spreading The Love With Watchman Monitoring

Topics:

-Sam was on a Zoom conference with family and it could only be described as mayhem

-Jerry has a gripe about LinkedIn

-Command+Q and remote sessions

-Support call experience surveys set Jerry off

-Take out precautions as well as any other outside contact is discussed

-Joe wanted to know if Sam received responses from his newslette

-Sam has concerns about clients that may choose to suspend services, especially as his automated monthly invoices go out.

-Although it’s been discussed before Joe starts a dialogue about installing Watchman Monitoring in situations even when clients are not paying for ongoing services

-Jerry wonders about the value that clients may comprehend in something like Watchman Monitoring since it often times runs in the background

-Jerry’s not looking for trouble

-A client facing report is on Jerry’s wish list

-Sam gives Joe a shout out for a couple of scripts in Addigy that adjust Watchman Monitoring settings like Time Machine alerts (https://prod.addigy.com/#/macmanage/community/scripts/5ce312c25ff0a156d5654c24) and root capacity warnings (https://prod.addigy.com/#/macmanage/community/scripts/5ce3121c5ff0a156d55446b0)

-Watchman can now gather the correct age of a Mac computer since they had to make changes after Apple began randomizing serial numbers

-With users working from home, how are backups being handled?

-Joe recommends this G-Tech portable drive: 
https://www.amazon.com/G-Technology-G-Drive-Mobile-Portable-External/dp/B07DK2LPDD/?tag=cmdctrlpwr-20

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

353: Interview With Adam Engst Of the TidBITS Content Network

Topics:

-Thank you to all of our newest Patreon sponsors:
Daniel Carroll
Tim Hannon
Sikko Lucas
Nick Harvey
Sara Gepp - Close to the Earth IT
AJ Protebka - Campfire Technology Group
Remie Cremers - Tesla Pro Tips

-We welcome Adam Engst from TidBITS back to the show!

-Adam comes in to discuss the current times and finding ways to adapt your work life to this new environment

-Things have moved quickly in a short amount of time

-Joe actually headed out west shortly before many of the recent events and had to self quarantine

-Drive through testing for COVID-19 is available but not in all areas

-Adam describes how hard it has been to concentrate on work lately

-This has also affected his local runner’s club events

-Adam’s never had an office and life working from home has been normal for him.  But for others, it’s not the norm and it presents its challenges.

-Another unexpected part of this, as Jerry & Sam have experienced, is working with children at home, who have their own work to accomplish.

-It is important to take breaks!

-Sam has a client move to complete that may not be able to shift dates.  He is trying to figure out how to deal with that.

-If you do go out, it is advised to change your clothes.  But as Adam mentions from an emergency responder, it matters how you take those items off.

-Joe has hardware labor to complete and is contemplating various methods of exchanging equipment, like “dead drops”.

-Take Control Books has a new free book called “Working From Home Temporarily” by Glenn Fleishman: https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/working-from-home/

-Adam’s son attends Cornell University and they, along with other colleges and universities, have their own situations to deal with

-Restaurants are another industry that is taking a major hit and some have shut down operations preemptively since they cannot afford to lose that much business

-Currently, IT consultancies are in demand to support clients with remote support and home office setup.  But how long will that last if businesses do not have the money to move forward?

-A discussion brews about newsletters and what we should be said and how much should you push services

-Adam has been pondering what the theme of April’s TidBITS Content Newsletter (https://tcn.tidbits.com) should be.  Working remotely will be a prime focus

-Some advice from Adam: Offer something new to your clients if possible

-An amazing product that Adam recommends is called Otter: https://otter.ai - which offers real time transcription and can integrate with a service like Zoom.  

-Do your research and get information from verified locations like World Health Organization, CDC, Johns Hopkins University: https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

-It’s nice to see people and neighbors offering to help those that may not be able to get their own supplies for one reason or another

-Adam wraps up with some excellent tips about how other countries have dealt with this and what we can do

-In tech news, Apple released new products, including the new MacBook Air!  This is discussed on the TidBITS site: https://tidbits.com/2020/03/18/new-macbook-air-features-magic-keyboard-and-lower-price/

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

352: Update - March 15, 2020

Topics:

-Jerry & Sam sit down to talk about how current times are affecting our businesses

-Next week we will have Adam Engst from The TidBITS Content Network to talk more about tips for operating our businesses during trying times

-Sam describes reaching out to monthly clients to make them aware of remote support for the next couple of weeks

-Speaking of TidBITS Content Network, Jerry talks about reaching out to clients with information

-Sam is very curious about how our fellow consultants are handling the situation

-Due to a Jamf 200 class coming up, Sam has to be in New York City this week and expresses his concern. But it does make him think about how to handle interactions

-Misinformation on social media aggravates Sam tremendously

-Supply availability is a very real issue in Jerry’s parts

-Jerry has small client visits this week that he is keeping on the calendar as of now

-Remote access has been a feature that is keeping some of us very busy

-Chrome Remote Desktop is a decent alternative for remote access that can be used in smaller environments: https://remotedesktop.google.com

-Syncing a local Synology NAS with a cloud service can make access to data simpler

-While Sam has not sent out a message to all of his clients but Jerry has taken the step of keeping his clients informed

-ACEs Conference has been postponed until October 20-21, 2020.  Justin & team are working to hold a virtual conference May 19-20 and Command Control Power will be a part of it!  10% of ticket sales are being donated to No Kid Hungry.  Stay tuned for more information.

-If you have topics or something you would like to discuss on the show or mail in to the show, let us know!

351: Mirros Accross Devices

Topics:

-Deliveries is a great app from JuneCloud to track shipments for your business or your clients from any carriers
https://junecloud.com/software/iphone/deliveries.html

-Very top of mind is the delay of shipments from China due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak

-It is reminiscent of the shortage of SSD drives from Taiwan due to extreme weather

-Conferences like Google IO, Facebook F8 have been canceled due to virus concerns as well

-Joe suggests to run a report to see where core equipment and hardware come from to make sure you have stock in case of shortages

-Jerry recently had to do a big restore from BackBlaze.  Both Joe & Sam suggested having a drive sent.  But Jerry proactively prepared the backup overnight and then restored all 70 GB before arriving to the client site. 

-After struggling to unzip the data using multiple GUI tools, Jerry was able to use the command line to extract the data

-All this reminds the hosts how many end users don’t think to backup their Mac

-DollyDrive anyone?

-With the uncertainties about data integrity on Catalina, listener Chris Hart writes in to provide his workflow for migrating to Apple’s latest OS.  Steps include booting from an external volume and using Carbon Copy Cloner

-Another option for comparing files that Joe suggests is using the ‘diff’ or ‘rsync’ commands

-Any listeners have their own methods for migration to mitigate the risks of data loss?