How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off with your IT Expenses. Steve McEvoy May 8th, 2018 Washington, DC

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1 How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off with your IT Expenses Steve McEvoy May 8th, 2018 Washington, DC

2 Taking Advantage Out of necessity you have to trust your IT people The Vast Majority live up to that trust Some can exploit it Let s Discuss How

3 Software Licensing Rip Offs Do you own all the licenses for software you use? Who is responsible for having proof of software licensing? All it takes is a disgruntled employee, competitor or old IT person to turn you in.

4 Typical Microsoft Licenses Windows OS on your PCs Office on your PCs Server OS License PLUS CALs One Client Access License for every PC SQL License PLUS CALs If you have remote Office Remote Desktop License for every remote PC Specially licensed Office version for every remote session.

5 Typical Microsoft Licenses A 10 computer network with Server then: 10 Windows 7/8/10 licenses 10 Microsoft Office licenses 1 Server 2016 License 10 Server 2016 CALs 1 SQL Server License 10 SQL Server CALs This is about $8,000 in licenses!

6 Missing Proof of Ownership You need to tangibly hold the license certificates A receipt for purchase does NOT count Here s the scam They sell you the license, install the software, but don t actually provide you the proof of license (bootlegging). How are you to know?

7 Proof of Ownership Formats

8 What to do about it? Ask your IT person to do a license audit Ask them to find all the licenses Help them with the search Ask them to SHOW you all the COA s Discuss what s missing and inquire why? Judge what you are hearing Develop a policy to ALWAYS ASK for COAs Designate a place to Store them all They are Valuable!!

9 Selling Hardware For Profit When your IT person recommends purchasing a new computer, is it because you need it or is it because they make a profit on it? Is their recommendation compromised in someway by profit motive? This can lead to issues.

10 Selling You Used Hardware Selling you used/refurbished PCs as new How could you tell?

11 Selling You Unnecessary Hardware

12 Incomplete Work Half installing something and giving up before delivering on the promise They don t have the skills needed They don t have the time needed How could you tell?

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14 Hand Built PCs They profess that this gives them maximum flexibility and your best value I profess it gives them maximum profit

15 The Issues with Hand Built PCs No warranty other than through them This is a Hook to keep you as client Do they store replacement parts for years? Dell and HP inventory massive amounts of parts to guarantee that you can get immediate like for like repairs during warranty period When a bit inside dies they just replace with another generic part of the day. Frankenstein! PC s shipping today don t share almost ANY parts with those from 4 years ago.

16 Avoid Hand Built PCs The possible savings aren t worth it ASK for major brand name hardware with 3 year onsite service warranties Dell, HP, etc. Even more important for Servers

17 Homegrown Offsite Backups The IT company offers an Offsite Backup solution Similar to a Cloud backup Suggesting that it eliminates the need for your staff to change out a backup drive each day and take it offsite (which is a mistake BTW) They may claim it is HIPAA compliant They charge what they can get away with As much as $1,000 per month!!!

18 A Look Behind The Curtain

19 A Look Behind The Curtain Can be an Amateur Solution Band-Aids and Bubble Gum No Monitoring No Testing Set and Forget stops working The risk is YOURS if that backup is needed to recover from Ransomware or Server failure.

20 A Good Business Internet Backup Adds depth to your recovery strategy Retention of at least 30+ days Is HIPAA Compliant BAA is available Carbonite Server Plans $599 per year for 250GB of space Sold in blocks of space Each additional 100GB costs $99 per year You can combine servers and workstations

21 Questions?

22 Encrypted

23 Encrypted Expense Practices are motivated by HIPAA (fear) to seek a HIPAA compliant encrypted solution IT company offers their own solution to this and presents an outrageous price for the service Practice signs up because they don t know any differently

24 Encrypted Expense One Practice was paying $820 per MONTH for 10 encrypted accounts. $9,840 per year for !!!! You should be paying about $6 per month per mailbox for encrypted Office 365 with Azure encryption Protected Trust Send Inc.

25 Managed IT Services Where you pay them a fixed monthly fee* to take care of everything* Usually billed as a lump sum each month based on the number of computers and the promise* to deliver certain services for that price.

26 Managed IT Services Practices often seek this out to fix their IT expenses into a predictable monthly fee They want an All Inclusive cost without surprises Does this really happen?

27 Managed IT Services* They always contain asterisks* - Limitations on what they will actually do. May exclude certain types of issues like Ransomware May require extra fees for onsite visits Suddenly these fixed expenses aren t Share your Experience?

28 Managed IT Services Are the actual promised services done? Onsite visits to blow out the computers Patch Management Monitoring for issues Offsite Backup How would you know that everything promised is being done?

29 Managed IT Services Often sold based on number of computers and servers. The Fees and the services provided for them vary wildly amongst the IT providers $50 per computer per month plus $100 per Server For 12 PCs and Server ~$700 per month

30 Managed IT Services Profit Maximization? Have the most PCs in the pool (income) and then do the least possible work to support them (expense) Have the least expensive labor pool possible

31 Managed IT Services Priced Like an Insurance scheme They have to overcharge everyone on average to have reserves to cover the few that need more than the average share. Offices with good equipment and well trained staff (needing less support) subsidize the Practices with crappy equipment and poorly trained staff

32 A-la-Carte IT Services Pay as you go use what you only need Usually available at an hourly rate ($125-$200 per hour) Usually a minimum charge Monthly fee ranges from $0 to???? Rewards the Good Practices Costs nothing in a month where don t need help May cost a few hours in a month where help is needed

33 A-la-Carte IT Services Profit Motivation Simple Selling more hours Potential Problems Techs taking longer than necessary to address and issue Paying for learning experiences Customers not asking for help with issues as a false economy Don t call them, it costs us money when they help

34 What s Best? No simple answer Evaluate your situation, examine the services offered and how they will likely apply to your Practice Often comes down to selecting the IT person or company you Trust, and then just going with their billing model I prefer to pay for just what I need

35 Cost of a Business PC

36 Lifespan of a $400 PC Happiness Factor $400 PC Age of Computer

37 Problems with a $400 PC Configured as a loss leader It will run, but there are many items that are compromised to make the price point Needs to be configured as a business PC Upgrading later a bad strategy

38 Lifespan of a Business PC Proper Business PC Happiness Factor Tune-up Loss Leader Age of Computer

39 Cost of a Business PC Invest in the right PC to start with, and it will provider a better experience and last longer Lets consider a Dell OptiPlex 5050 Business Class PC

40 Dell Optiplex 5050 Starting Price with a 3yr Next Business Day Onsite Warranty Still Configured for lowest price, not ready for the long haul

41 Processor The Brain of the Computer that cannot be upgraded later. Spend your money here. Sweet Spot

42 Operating System Windows 10 Professional 64-bit Don t forget to check your Apps are compatible

43 Memory (RAM) 4GB minimum 8GB is my recommendation

44 Hard Drive Storage Get the least expensive SSD Consider the storage size you might need Don t be tricked by Hybrid drives

45 Video Card Basic model has connections for 3 monitors (2xDP and 1xHDMI) Upgrade to a Graphics card from AMD or nvidia if you have 3D workup needs

46 Microsoft Office Do you need it? Usually on Receptions, Admin, Finance, Doctor, and Consults.

47 The Real Price of a Business PC Equipped just the way we wanted it for the long haul

48 blog.mmeconsulting.com

49 Thank You! Presentation online at