🔒 Patreon Special

IT Pros: exclusive shows await you on Patreon, focusing on the more challenging aspects of running your practice and working with clients and employees.


325: Interview With John Moder of Crisp Solutions, LLC - Part One

Topics:

-This week we are pleased to welcome John Moder, owner of Crisp Solutions, LLC in Des Moines, IA

-Jerry asks John about his choice going to Synology after moving away from macOS server 

-John discusses his small team and his decision to move off on his own

-Crisp Solutions operates out of a co-working space

-Customer service is John’s focus and a building a “not transactional” relationship 

-Building a relationship with clients is of critical importance 

-Response time and letting the customer know you are aware of their situation makes a massive difference

-Jerry wonders about competition in John’s market and he talks about his relationship with them as well as with the Apple Store in Des Moines

-Building a rapport with the store is an art form that differs for each of us. Strategies are discussed. 

-With Ashleigh’s iPhone needing a replacement, Joe learns some interesting tips about repair costs and trade in values. 

-John is a very active participant on the MacAdmins Slack

-John runs into an odd issue in a Ubiquiti UniFi Deployment with a USG that would periodically stop communicating. He polls the hosts about what their next steps would be. 

-Synology backup solutions and cloud syncing tools are kicked around. John has been testing Synology’s own cloud backup solution, called C2. The thing to be aware of is that the data is stored in Germany. 

-Jerry picks John’s brain about managing Wi-Fi implementations as part of a monthly managed fee

-Ping monitoring and being proactive leads into a story about John’s ability to replace a dead AP before open of business for a customer

-John talks about keeping meticulous notes and making full rates known, even for MSP customers, to remind them just how valuable your services are

-Do you charge for notes or proposal creation? An important topic that you may need to consider. Listen to the crew and their take on the subject.

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

Thank you to our Patreon sponsors!

324: Update Your Gateway, We're Not In Kansas Anymore

Topics:

-Jerry compares a client to an itchy mosquito bite. He also references one of our old favorite methods of troubleshooting - removing items in the /var/folders directory.

-While working on an iMac, Jerry hears that “pop” sound and immediately knows that it is the stand hinge has snapped. One method of repair is from “The Mac Hack”:
https://themachack.com

-Joe questions the organization and direction of icons on the Mac. Sam compares it to a direct opposite of Windows desktop icons.

-The Ubiquiti UniFi initial splash screen raises unnecessary alarm bells

-Ever since diagnosing the Cloud Key disconnects as being power related, Joe’s team has had major strides in stability of the gen 1 Cloud Key by connecting to power as opposed to relying on POE.

-Sam has some follow up on using his offsite controller and adopting his client devices into sites

-Although discussed before, figuring out how to sell additional services like UniFi monitoring to existing clients is a challenge

-Autofill options in Safari were prompting for Keychain credentials with one of Joe’s clients. After some research, he found similar instances with a laptop in clamshell mode. The odd fix was to disable Touch ID for use in Safari.

-As regular listeners are aware of, Jerry has recently located. He has an odd story of unmarked trucks making deliveries from Amazon. With enough pushback, he was able to push for a change to licensed drivers and companies.

321: Green Acres

Topics:

-Special thanks to Puelle Design in Portland, Maine for hosting Joe's mobile recording studio this week.

-Joe is in the Northeast! He is visiting family for some milestones before heading on the road again

-Jerry is in the midst of a move to a new home and new headquarters of MacWorks.  He calls it the reverse Green Acres.

-After having a car mishap, Jerry discovers CarPlay in his rental car

-A recurring theme for our show has been value based billing and, of course managed services plans.  Joe & Jerry share ideas about their formulas for monthly billing.  Ideas like billing per user or per device, preset hours per month, and services used are among the topics of discussion.

-Prepaid discounts are an enticing way for clients to buy in to ongoing services.  “Monthly check-ins” are also something that clients seem to be drawn to.

-Do you install Watchman Monitoring on client devices for free as a “loss leader” or break even point?  What happens if you end the relationship?

-Jerry has a couple of funny client anecdotes with his classic impersonations

-He also has his fair share of gripes

-Joe's client had an issue in Calendar on her Mac: "The server responded with an error. There is insufficient storage space for "event title" in "calendar name" in account "iCloud". The choices were Try Again, Ignore, or Revert to Server. He removed a calendar she didn't need that only had a few events on it, and it solved the problem. Then we added a few tests, and she seemed to hit the limit again. We then moved a calendar with a lot of events to a local On My Mac calendar for archival purposes, and instructed the client to move needed events back onto a calendar on the server. Hasn't happened since.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202158

Thanks to our Patreon Sponsors!

Thanks to our Patreon Sponsors!

317: Working On & Working In

Topics:

-Joe kicks off the show bringing up leisure time and time management 

-Working ON the business vs working IN the business

-A challenge for Sam is meeting interruptions that occur when clients reach out. Not just for him but for his staff

-Sam may be on the lookout for a new hire but does he look for an admin or a tech?

-The CCP crew are very appreciative of the collective audience and their feedback/advice

-“This is not for everyone”. Sam comes to the realization that running a business isn’t something everyone can handle. 

-A continual question for Sam is taking on Windows clients. 

-Joe explores marketing new services to current clients as a method of increasing revenue. For instance, offering Ubiquiti installations for clients in need of upgraded Wi-Fi. 

-QuickTime screen recording to the rescue for Sam as he tries to see a message that quickly disappears on his screen

-Joe has some follow up to how he sets up his clients with individual Ubiquiti UniFi controllers. While Sam is moving to a central controller, specific logins per client is something they agree on. 

-Cloud Key stability has plagued all of us. After some research, Joe has dug up information about the Mongo database and how it is prone to failure during a power loss. To combat this, Joe discusses his backup power plan for the Cloud Key. 

-After a recent discussion with Christopher Stout on Episode 311, Sam is looking to setup a closed system like UniFi, Synology Surveillance Station or Security Spy

-Sam learns some interesting details from a SonicWALL vendor about true throughput 

-Friend of the show, Weldon Dodd points out a great write up by Rich Trouton on his site, Derflounder. It’s an interesting piece about enabling Touch ID for sudo commands.

316: Wi-Fi On A Stick

Special Thanks To Our VIP Sponsors!

Topics:

wifistick.jpg

-Sam has a first run working with the ”Wi-Fi on a stick” method of mapping out Wi-Fi. He uses a product from wifistand.com and NetSpot to create a map":
https://wifistand.com

-Joe brings up a great tool called Magic Plan to create floor plans on iOS:
https://www.magicplan.app/en/

-The nanoHD is a particular Ubiquiti model that same used and likes to deploy

-Joe warns of things to be aware of when scouting out an environment for Wi-Fi

-Another new monthly service that Sam is offering is hosting a UniFi controller in his environment to manage firmware updates and alerts. Joe weighs the responsibilities that comes with such an offering.

-Joe throws Sam a curve ball explaining how he has a singular login for his clients

-Another issue in the long line of networking troubles that Sam has experienced: finding incompatibility between a SonicWall and WAN connection at a NYC client. The fix? A dumb switch!

-That story rings a bell for Joe who has a similar story to tell about a Zywall and WAN connection that turned out to be a multi pronged problem.

Thanks to our Patreon Sponsors!

Thanks to our Patreon Sponsors!

315: The Skeleton Just Popped Up!

Topics:

-Jerry has a “non-technical” gripe about health bowls he wants to share

-Drink every time Joe says açaí

-To bring it back to technology, Jerry has issues with the motivational announcements on the Nike Run app

-Client perceptions and marketing terms often are deceiving

-clients that won’t spend money are nothing new. But Joe & Jerry dive deeper into the disfunctional relationships that persist through time.

-The “computer friend” is a red flag

-A potential customer approaches Jerry about doing project work or “cost plus” work before establishing an ongoing relationship

-A move to G Suite ends up being a challenge for Jerry as he gets bounced around support.

-Joe flips the conversation to show when clients can be correct and prove us wrong

-A shoutout to TidBITS Content Network (https://tcn.tidbits.com)

and all that they provide to us on a regular basis, as well as the bonus material during Apple announcements

-Joe compares directing a client to your blog to explain something as a customized “Let Me Google That For You”

-Sam wishes he was a part of the conversation as Jerry & Joe have a good ole’ fashioned gripe session about client habits

WWDC Skeleton.jpg

-“Oh no the skeleton popped up” - One of Joe’s clients saw Apple's branding for WWDC on apple.com and thought it was a result of her recent hacking, calling it a skeleton