Network Admins/Contractors

[Sapphire Moon]

Thanks for the tip jetter, always appreciated.

When it comes to spending, I always do my homework.  From the time when I received their bid to now, I've spoken to two of their previous client, a Law Firm and a Web Marketing company.  They both said the company is efficient, the engineers know their stuff, and they give you the best turn around time on service.  The engineer that went through the walk through with me is the co-founder of their business and has invited me to visit their site to see how they have their own systems set up.  I'll be doing this prior to any commitment.  On top of that, I just found out that my uncle's wife is their receptionist.  I thought she sounded familiar. 

that's great news but before you jump on board, is there anyway you can talk to a few of their client about their turn around time when something goes wrong?  Does it cost you more if you want to speak to a higher tech than the one answering the phone?  How knowledgeable are the staff besides the one you met because most likely you will not see those first contact individuals after the initial sales and setup.

[Toua]

 if i were you, I'd rather take some time and take a few courses in this field and save yourself a ton of $$$. It's not like you're setting up a network for a multi-millionaire company, so something like this shouldn't be too hard...

 i will never pay anyone to do any computer related work for me....if i don't know, i will educate and do it myself.. This is probably one reason, i almost never ever take my car to the mechanic because i've learned to do most, if not all, of the repairs myself...

[Sapphire Moon]

if i were you, I'd rather take some time and take a few courses in this field and save yourself a ton of $$$. It's not like you're setting up a network for a multi-millionaire company, so something like this shouldn't be too hard...

 i will never pay anyone to do any computer related work for me....if i don't know, i will educate and do it myself.. This is probably one reason, i almost never ever take my car to the mechanic because i've learned to do most, if not all, of the repairs myself...

That is a thought, however, I need everything wired up and running by June 1st.

[Sapphire Moon]

The way he calculated it was $125 an hour, consultation and design are just a part of the service at no charge.  It'll take approximately 8 hours per server and 1 hour per workstation.  The remaining balance is hardware/software.

No, I'm not looking to hire a full-time on site IT tech.   

All the requirements you put up is only going to cost you 38k for hardware+service?

I hope it's not like at my workplace where we have the world shittiest computers by Dell.  I mean these dells are POS.

You get what you pay for...Just remember that.  Service I guestimate would be 15k?  Be done by two engineers in a week?  What about service to dialy users?  I thought you wanted an onsite person?

EDIT:
LOL...I forgot to read the part only calculate cost of labor and travel.    So your budget is 75k just to setup?  They charging you 38k to setup.  Does that include annual service fee?  38k is mofo $$ to setup.

[YAX]

I was going to tell you to ask your friends to do it for $50/hr.

$125/hr is about right for consultants.  They'll generally get you going with someone who is knowledgeable, then turn it over to a jr tech once it looks stable enough and you'd be paying $125 for someone worth $20/hr to them.   The rest is cost of equipment.

[tubyaj]

I hate to say this but if you are looking for a full turnkey solution for 2 sites, with 22 pcs/laptops, 3 printers, at least 46 monitors, 22 Blackberry devices, proper network drops, a few servers, and associated app/software to get you going there is something seriously wrong or missing with the number they gave you.  Assuming you are a for profit entity and will be using Microsoft products such as Office and Exchange there goes some large dough for the proper licenses.  I don't know your background but I hope you do understand that a $600 Dell machine may not the best for CAD.  I would  make sure that every item is itemized on the quote as this is much easier for you to compare the different bids. If you want, post or PM the bid(s) (minus the obvious) I can analyze the bids for you....

So last night, I put out my project to a few local network solution businesses and I just received a bid for the job.  This company has been in business for 15 years and provide everything from network Integration, design, service, repair and support services, business telephone systems, to even data network cabling services, no matter how small or large my project is.  All of their certified techs/engineers are in house so they don't  sub-contract.  They have special contracts with HP and Dell so they gave me an even better deal on hardware than if I was to go through HP or Dell directly. This morning, one of their Engineer came out to the facilities. He did a walk through of the facility with me. After that, we sat down while he drew up a design and place his bid on the project....Eve rything from data cabling, to Hardware (desktop/laptop/server/printer...etc), setting up the network and workstations.. ..It'll cost me 38k, saving me half of my budget.  Not only that, they will be providing me and my staffs ongoing 24/7 support, monitoring of my network remotely and coming out to the facilities at least once a month to verify, check logs and run test restore for only $500 a month, and they certify all of their work.  

That's a HUGE saving compared to what I thought I would be spending.  I'm so excited!  

[Love2Kiss]

In my sentiment, a $600 workstation might be working for your personal home use but it's not going to work for your business.  You need to use the professional ones and it might run you from $1000+ per workstation.  I know that your business might be different from the others but in my experiences, my manager and I always order a laptop or a workstation, not include the monitor, like Gateway, Dell, Lenovo, etc., that runs $1,600 - $2,300 to get what we need.  So, I think you're better to think twice about your budget and the contractor you mentioned earlier which run $38K.