Peter Machell wrote:
I need to come and work for you. In our case, the maximum cost for a half hour on-site visit (in which time we could install several of these on multiple machines, and Argus too) would be less than $110, assuming it was an ad hoc request for which we had to travel. Local or contracted sites would pay less.
You are taking too granular here for the costs for a path firm as just equating with the one off install. On the coast IT is > $100 an hour. Installation is just one side of download client support with the current majority of the proprietary clients, (you have to account for around $40-50 a site for the software costs), and then there is the inevitable support line for the programs done in house.
The real costs the firms have incurred and continue too are more realistically higher than your suggestion but perhaps not as high as my estimates, and hard to price. $300/site/2years high but how high?? I still think its not too far out (1 site install, 1 resinstall, 5 phone calls, software development management and maintenance of the system). I would guess accounts for stuff well beyond the once off install eg such as in house development costs of the client spread over the site installs, reinstalls when things go bad, the help line, the driving to distant sites, etc, someone to answer the phone and take an earful about how bad the client is in their system etc. This is money the firms are spending currently. This is not referencing the concept of argus/free client/outsourced support.
Remember the path firms are sensitive to trouble with results delivery. If outsourced IT support is slow or offline or whatever, the phones keep ringing for the path firm and no electronic reports for a week will infuriate the kindest referring souls...
It might not be worth the risk (outsourcing) JD _______________________________________________ Gpcg_talk mailing list [email protected] http://ozdocit.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/gpcg_talk
