010: Managed Services discussion with Luis Giraldo

This week, Sam, Jerry, and Joe are joined by Luis Giraldo of Ook Enterprises Ltd., based in Vancouver.  Luis employs a business model based almost exclusively on offering Managed Services, as opposed to hourly billing.  In addition, services outside the scope of his Service-Level Agreement (SLA) tend to be billed on a project basis rather than hourly.

Topics:

- Managed Services requires a change of mindset: it's a value-based approach to billing, not time-based

- references: Value-Based Fees, The Consulting Bible, and Million Dollar Consulting Proposals by Alan Weiss

- strategies for migrating break/fix clients to managed services model

- importance of trust, educating the client, and setting expectations

Memorable Lines:

"This is the amount of money we charge per month and it includes these services" - Luis

009: Backups

Followup:

- Sam's Office365 email migration

Topics:

- enlisting help from outside consultants; no one does things the way you do; importance of communicating with clients

- social media for professionals; how to gain followers; who do you want to follow you? great way to get support from vendors; advice from Allen Hancock: want great followers, post nice things about vendors

- ACN Locator Ratings and Reviews; Google Places, Google Plus

- best mobile workstations: MacBook Air 11-inch vs. 13-inch; remote support from iPad

- Tile: product for locating objects

- Leap Motion: looks cool!

- Backup: mirror vs. clone; examples of backup strategies: Time Machine, Carbon Copy Cloner, Archiware P5 (formerly PresSTORE), CrashPlan; the 3-2-1 rule of backup; is needing two forms of media an outmoded idea? reference: the DAM book by Peter Krough

008: Clients in the Cloud

Topics:

• pros and cons of cloud-based solutions
• clients don't understand the cloud
• storage issues with people moving to flash storage with limited space (e.g., MacBook Air with 64/128 GB)
• backing up locally vs. to the cloud
• Mail Service on Mac OS X Server; backup and restoration considerations
• Kerio Connect and Microsoft Exchange; built-in backup and restore options
• private cloud services
• DropBox security considerations, and secure alternatives
• get comfortable with saying "no" by repeating it to yourself
• charging for the discovery process and protecting yourself when writing a proposal; offering a free introductory hour
• clients stumbling on support from rogue third-party companies when trying to find first-party support
• clients accidentally moving the Microsoft User Data folder or iPhoto database; iPhoto used to allow iPhoto Library to be in the Trash!
• Time Machine does not back up the Trash, but some clients store data there
• question from the audience: "What part of your job, as an Apple consultant, do you enjoy most?"

Memorable lines:

"I see people actually look up when they talk about the cloud." – Sam

Mentions:

RackSpace, GetSyncd, SherWeb, MigrationWiz, DropBox, Box, CloudSafe, DocumentsToGo, QuickOffice, Microsoft Office365, Kerio SamePage, Synology, Drobo, WatchmanMonitoring

007: App development with ACN Justin Esgar

This week, Joe, Sam, and Jerry are joined by fellow ACN, Justin Esgar of Virtua Computers and Autriv Software Development, maker of the SignMyPad app, the Magnetic Stylus, and more.

Topics

We discuss aspects of app development including working with contractors, outsourcing, and providing end user support, and explore some pitfalls including user confusion and bias toward negative reviews.

Naturally, we also manage to talk shop. Jerry shares his encounter with permissions issues after migrating from a Time Capsule backup to a new Mac that came home from the Apple Store with a new user account, and Joe describes similar permissions issues when migrating from a clone of a corrupted Time Capsule backup.

We also discuss the importance of protecting sensitive data with FileVault 2, and compare it to PGP Whole Disk Encryption and legacy FileVault.

Plus, a live calendar check with three consultants!

Mentions

guru.com
alibaba.com

Memorable Lines

Justin: "Don't make an App."

006: Consultants in the Field - Alan McCullough, CV Rao, and Colleen Beale

As ACN Advanced Camp wrapped up last week in Austin, Sam Valencia interviewed three more colleagues in the Apple Consultants Network.

First we hear from Alan McCullough of Zen IT as he and Sam reflect on Advanced Camp, followed by a group discussion panel featuring CV Rao of TechOne Centre and Colleen Beale of Data Networks.

005: Consultants in the Field – Craig Cohen, Kok-Yong Tan, Brian Mortensen, and Jeff Satterwhite

Sam was kind enough to record these "man in the street" interviews with four of our colleagues,  including master trainer Craig Cohen of HCS Technology Group, who helped organize the technical content for the Apple Consultants Network Advanced Camp.

Features a pro tip for fixing broken network jacks from expert Network Wrangler and Delouser, Kok-Yong Tan of Reality Artisans, and the answer to the question on everyone's mind: "Tan, what's in the vest?" 

Also includes feedback about ACN Advanced Camp from Brian Mortensen of BFA Technologies, Inc. and Jeff Satterwhite of Post Mod Tech.

Thanks to Craig, Tan, Brian, and Jeff for participating. Enjoy the last day of camp!

Update: check out this great photo of Sam interviewing Tan at ACN Advanced Camp, taken by Arek Dreyer.