General Consultant Discussion

What have you tried (or presently do) in order to reach out to customers who are nearing their maintenance renewal? I'm not doing anything and my rates seem about typical - we lose one or two a year due to attrition. If there's management turnover and a new CFO comes on board then we are usually at risk for ROR. I'm wondering if I could add more value if for my customers on a Schulz Access Agreement -- I went out with a portable USB drive and did a backup once/twice per year during my visit and left it with them. Total cost would be in the $50 range and since I'd only do this for customers on plan it seems like it would be a decent value add. I can't imagine any customers (other than those with IT staff that have inflated egos) denying this. In most cases I would not have to even access the server or bother IT - simply plug into the customers USB and once everyone is out copy off the system. In all cases I'd leave the USB drive with the customer (preferably the owner) and NOT take it with me. Anyone tried this or a variation - or something different - which worked? Didn't work?

What about something more elegant. Find one of the dozens of online backup companies that will allow you to setup a lot of machines and a lot of data at a reasonable price and as part of a Schulz client, your MAS data (and other data for a minor extra fee) will get backed up into the cloud. If you leave Schulz, no more cloud backup. From: do-not-reply@socialcast.com [mailto:do-not-reply@socialcast.com] On Behalf Of Wayne Schulz Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2012 7:41 AM To: Mark Chinsky Subject: [90 Minds Consulting Group] What have you tried (or presently do) in order to reach out to customers who are nearing their maintenance renewal? I'm not doing anythin...

I tried that earlier this year. Worked well initially, but there are many competitors, which put margins at grocery store levels. I used Mozy Pro, but found that you need to buy a lot of capacity to make it worthwhile. Mozy initially had a 25 GB minimum, and as Comcast and others rolled it into their web services, they ended up increasing the minimum to 100 GB. Then, there are the issues with long backups, often stretching into the workday, followed by the support calls (because I installed it). The whole thing became a PITA and I was happy to hand it off to the customers IT vendor.

I'm looking for something where I would not have to involve the IT department. A quick and dirty extra backup where I could at least be sure that we did a copy of the entire /MAS90 folder to the drive and then set it aside.

@MarkKotyla Relative to this 'freebie' idea, if you only backed up the MAS directory, I don't think you'd run into the speed issues.

@MarkChinsky You're probably right, but there's the ""might as well"" problem. Need to backup MAS 90 folder, paperless, FRx, SMI, Starship, Access database, etc. Oh, and while you're at it, don't forget the incoming/outgoing faxes and document management database. Then we have this other software...

Excellent points @MarkKotyla . I'm still intrigued by the USB portable device. While out there document where everything is stored then back it up to portable. The only thing I don't want is to be seen as guaranteeing that this is the best backup system -- in other words I want to portray it as a backup to the backup and only valid in an extreme emergency. The part I like is that this ia a value add to the customer versus me calling to say ""hey can I come out and review your Sage renewal""? If I did this I'd initially do it for my larger customers, probably create a permanent type file (location of files, etc) that I stored for each of them in Basecamp (which I badly need) and then evaluate as to whether it is valued by the customer. In all instances I want to avoid having to interact with IT to the greatest extent possible.

I think this would be a high value add for the customer -- and might be of use for us too in terms of support where the customer hoses their FRX SYSDATA or has some other issue with a system control file. Definitely agree with Mark that you don't want to become responsible for backing up the entire network or serving suddenly as the unpaid support department for remote backup! You'll probably run into issues making a backup while on-site unless the customer is very small. So maybe the goal is to get the customer comfortable plugging in the USB drive to their computer and you document where all files are and remotely kick off the backup - Robert might even help write an XCOPY for it...

Unless the USB device is in a locked closet/computer room, it may be more ""portable"" than you'd like (along with clients data). It's part of the solution, but not the solution. I wasn't trying to back up the entire network, but quickly realized that it was more than just the mas90 folder. Other issues were related to backup software itself. Some days I'd get confirmation e-mail stating it failed. Now you have to troubleshoot why, then try the backup the following night. Perhaps another error or one that asks you to reinstall the entire backup software. Perhaps no confirmation e-mail is sent? Most apps push updates just like GotoAssist, so between them and Windows updates, you soon find yourself spending many hours troubleshooting. Many of these issues can't be resolved during work hours either. Multiply this by half dozen clients, and you've got a part-time job (unpaid or at reduced rates... cause IT can do it for $120 or less). Then the ""network throttling"" feature the software promised doesn't work quite right, which earns you a call because your backup software just brought the network to it's knees. Or client creates 15 test companies and quickly runs out of storage... which means you have to define inclusions/exclusions for what you back up, then teach the client cause each saved history company (at year-end, quarterly payrolls or during month-end closing) will have to be manually added to the backup set. Other than that, it's pretty solid.

LOL -- the observation about the portable-ness of the USB drive has me rethinking because I think unless you leave this with the owner that you indeed may be assisting a CFO or other employee with walking out the door with the data. Perhaps it's a good opportunity to communicate with the owner on the backup issues. I bet most owners would be delighted that we are proactive and come to them with this concept. Definitely limit the scope for all the reasons you pointed out. Heck maybe some customers would ask for a higher level of service if we came in 4 times a year to make this backup and provide the owner with the USB drive? Just a thought - and your observations are right on.

Perhaps it's a good opportunity to communicate with the owner on the backup issues. I bet most owners would be delighted that we are proactive and come to them with this concept."" That was my assumption as well. Unfortunately, it's like discussing politics. Unless you find an owner the likes of Chinsky (peace, man... it's a compliment), nobody cares. I'll let IT handle it so I can focus on BI and CRM.

I think you're right - it's probably only effective on people who have already suffered a data loss which cost them money.

There are backup apps that backup to the USB device with some pretty strong encryption that only you and the CXO should have. From: do-not-reply@socialcast.com [mailto:do-not-reply@socialcast.com] On Behalf Of Wayne Schulz Sent: Wednesday, November 21, 2012 8:37 AM To: Mark Chinsky Subject: Re: [90 Minds Consulting Group] What have you tried (or presently do) in order to reach out to customers who are nearing their maintenance renewal? I'm not doing anythin...