013: Easing into Managed Services with Allen Hancock

Joe, Jerry, and Sam are joined by Allen Hancock of The Orchard Solutions and Watchman Monitoring to discuss Allen's "hybrid" Managed Services model.  Allen offers a "Personal Support" option including unlimited quick phone calls and emails for $25/month per person.

Topics:

- Sam discusses some of the stresses associated with Apple Professional Services (APS) projects; normally as consultants we have flexibility and can work directly with clients to address unforeseen issues; but in the case of APS, due to travel and other agreements, APS gigs must be completed in the allotted timeframe which adds pressure

- Sam updates us on his hiring process; interested consultants in the CT-NY-NJ area should contact @IAMSamValencia

- Jerry reports difficulty with Find My Mac on machines with a static IP address; to be continued

- Jerry brings up the pitfalls of full disk encryption using FileVault 2 on an unattended server; in case of an unexpected or soft restart, the system will boot to the FileVault 2 unlock screen, prompting for the encryption password before the system starts up or any services start; this prevents any kind of remote access via screen sharing or remote login; Apple provides a command line tool (fdesetup authrestart) to perform a one-time restart that bypasses the initial unlock; however, this doesn't help if the machine has lost power or become unresponsive; a KVM-over-IP device can solve that, but typically requires a Java app on the client machine to access the remote machine

- Allen identifies a common problem for consultants: how to track and bill for all those random emails and quick phone calls

- Allen's solution: "Personal Support" @ $25 per month, per person; includes unlimited quick emails or phone calls. He estimates this part of his Support Agreement earns him about $2500/month after 1.5 years, based 100 people who subscribed.

- Clients paying monthly for unlimited quick questions encourages them to call on a whim; this leads to billable work too, since anything over 15 minutes would be a billable consultation

- He also offers a Proactive Monitoring service: collecting $10/month per computer; ($15/month for all the computers in a house) results in more billable work as machines report issues to consultant and consultant notifies client with recommended resolution

- His monitoring service received much more uptake; 350 monitored computers bringing in an additional $3000 a month.

- Had two techs on staff at the time.

Mentions:

- ProSoft Data Rescue

Memorable Lines:

- "Death by a thousand 5-minute emails" – Joe

012: Welcome new members - part 2

An extended water cooler chat with Jerry, Sam, and Joe, discussing issues facing new ACN members, featuring tips from seasoned pros.

Followup:

- iPhone 5S: Joe doubles down on prediction from Episode 002 that new iPhone would be called iPhone 5S, the S for Secure. Last week, iOS 7 beta 4 leaked a new folder called “BiometricKitUI" including strings containing VoiceOver text describing a "photo of a person holding an iPhone with their left hand while touching the Home button with their thumb"; home button fingerprint scanner + passcode = two factor authentication, iCloud Keychain providing seamless integration with Safari on the Mac

Topics:

- sending clients to the local Apple Stores for good will and possible referrals vs. earning extra cash for your referrals through the Apple Business Affiliate and Apple Store Affiliate programs

- the added pressures of actively selling your services and promoting a solution vs. passively offering to help

- Jerry does a client impersonation

- what not to do: don't bash a previous tech

- what to do: trust your gut; trust your instinct; let a new client know about the fee in advance and get paid at the time services are rendered; carry a Square card reader and take credit card payment using your iPhone; don't let too much time go by before collecting accounts receivable; document everything; get paid; get a good read on a new client and don't be afraid to say no

- ACN Plus membership; ACN Member Store coupons

- ACN Company membership; multiple locations

- Terms of Service

Memorable lines:

"Don't bash a previous tech." – Sam

Mentions:

- LightSpeed

- Daylite

- Highrise

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."