Shocked and surprised!

We received a phone call yesterday morning – a clients Sage machine has given up the ghost AND it’s the year end.
A typical Murphy’s Law scenario! :razz:

Off I pop to the far side of York (My home town :) ), only to be told, when about 10 mins away, that the previous incumbent of the support had dialled in and ‘fixed’ it. (The PC was saying the license couldn’t be verified – that’s cos it’s NOT a valid license!! )
I had ulterior motives for going, so I continued on the way…
Gets there – does what is needed (we are going to do a full license and systems review) – finds all sorts of licensing anomalies – informs client.
I estimate they are looking at a £25,000 – £30,000 bill to rectify this!

It looks very much like the client trusted a ‘profesional’ IT guy to provide their IT systems company wide – he did so, using illegal unlicensed software (using product keys ‘stolen’ from the Internet). The client is now facing potential huge fines and even a prison sentence!

I REALLY hope they decide to ‘dob’ the supplier in!!

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Unhappy with YOUR IT services?

It seems to be very obvious to me at the moment, that businesses in general are getting more and more unhappy with the state of their services.
I have heard 4 separate instances of businesses that are unhappy (to say the least in two cases) with the quality of their IT services in particular.

In one case, it looks like it’s going to cost approx £20,000 to fix the errors the previous company caused – that is EXCLUDING my costs!

Maybe it’s a sign of the times – businesses cannot keep paying for shoddy service and are becoming more savvy about what is out there. In our case THIS CAN ONLY BE A GOOD THING!

It’s about time the It industries had a little ‘cleaning up’ session and started getting rid of those rogues.
It’s something I feel passionate about.
Bad IT service costs ALL the professional IT people. I spent approx 16 YEARS to qualify to do what I do (I am an Electrician, did Electronics for 3 years, and am hardware AND software qualified – this all takes time!)

With this in mind I had an uncomfortable meeting with a client and had to tell them the bad news about the reality of their situation – suffice to say it wasn’t fun and the client isn’t happy (with their previous support people)

:neutral:

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It's like looking at a mirror

A bit of an odd meeting today – we met ourselves!
We had a meeting with someone who would naturally be a competitor, but fr the fact she’s in a different town.
Whilst we were chatting, we were noticing similarities between our two businesses. Both of us had the same goals and philosophies – though she is a little smaller (and younger in business terms).
It was strange (and kind of nice :) ) looking at a business much like our own…

On the downside, we are taking some serious steps with a new network we had been asked to join.
The events were supposed to start LAST NOVEMBER!
Surprise surprise, after they STILL haven’t started, we’ve asked for a full refund – which hasn’t materialised.
Looks like court proceedings may follow as the people in question aren’t returning calls or emails etc….

You might have noticed the links to the RSS and ATOM feeds here – feel free to subscribe using those links if you wish :)

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Night night - sleep tight

Two of the bu**ers, fighting outside (It’s EARLY again – check the post time…)
Noisy effin’ little…

Anyway…

Another sleepless night, and I have to do some driving tomorrow (that should be today!)
We are going to do some baby visiting – a family member has just popped. :)

Time for the men to step back and the women to ‘coo’ and ‘ahh’ for a while.
Luckily the father is quite into Mario Kart on the Wii – a God send!

Whilst the girlies go gaga – we’ll be online driving stuff.

Great

Think I’d better try to get some kip…

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You'll never take me alive!!

Today, for the first time EVER, I was stopped by the Police! :eek:
Not strictly true, but I DO like a touch of the dramatic

I popped over to a client’s office to collect my coat (I had stupidly left it at the directors home after performing my usual technical wizardry). The traffic was RIDICULOUSLY slow.
Pressing buttons on the Sat Nav (henceforth to be known as ‘Daniel’), he (you can’t beat a bit of anthropomorphism!) directed me away from the teeming masses and on into a quaint little estate.
The Police were lying in wait for just this!

After passing one or two roads with a ‘Access Only’ signs on, I proceeded down a street WITHOUT the aforementioned label attached.
Police at bottom of road waved me over.
“Where have you come from?”
“Leeds Road”
“Where are you going”
“Bingley”
“Ah, following your Sat Nav? Because this area is Access Only. It’s JUST a warning today…”
“Not according to the road I came down officer – there WAS signs on these two roads [pointing] but NOT the one I came down”
#Slightly puzzled expression from Police guy# – “Hmm, I’ll get that fixed then…”

A Police warning for nothing! Even Daniel was unimpressed.
Oh dear…

Further News…
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