Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: You say you accomplish 3 to 4 times as much as the typical tech/geek, how can you do that, and how does that save me money?

A: There are several aspects to this. 

#1 We know what we are doing and have over 20 years experience in "mission critical" IT work.  We know how to get to solution fast, and we know what is normal and what is not.  We have the right tools.

#2 We work more efficiently - we multi-task and have a work methodology that generally allows us to accomplish 3 to 4 times as much productivity that how most people work.  In one hour we accomplish 4 to 8 hours of work of "the other guy"

Real Life Case Study - client bought a system 18 months ago, paid to have it setup by the store/squad (not naming names), the system had problems from the beginning.  $300 for setup, then and $300 service call, and then another $300 service call, then another $300 service call ($1,200).

Our Client trusted us and took advantage of our new client special rate.  We flat rated the "clean up" to $250, it took us about 6 hours to clean up the mess and get their system properly setup.   BAM - System Simply works.

Now when the client needs support we remote it, typical cost is $50.   We remote in perhaps once or twice a year.  It's a home based business system.

Most businesses wait until there is a problem before calling in an IT Expert - and that is the most expensive way of doing things.  We prefer the model - of - don't have the melt down, spend the $$ on proper setup and maintenance.

IT should be a part of every businesses budget.  An IT issue can put a business "out of business".  It is always less expensive to prevent problems than it is to repair problems.  The CSC approach allows for a budgeted IT expense and IT is EXPENSIVE today.

We offer interest free, and open terms for our established clients this empowers even a major project to be turned into an easy expense item.

Our competition simply does not know how to setup or maintain computers the way we do.  It is what it is.  We take care of clients around the world.  We do not have a lot of clients because we take a personal interest in our client's systems and success.

Clients who understand our approach and act on our recommendations don't have the problems or long term IT costs that others do.  Their systems become a profit making tool for their business instead of a head ache and annoyance.

Q: How long does it take to properly setup a new system?

A: 18 Hours, about 20 hours if intergrating into a network, about 25 hours if migrating data from an old system.

We setup new systems for our clients as "weekend" projects and we charge a flat rate because, nobody can afford that cost, yet, if your systems are not setup properly instead of being an asset to your business they become a liablity that can hurt you at the most inopportune times.

Systems not setup properly are vulnerable.  Systems not maintained properly become head aches and destroy productivity.  In over 20 years of doing this, I have never seen a system properly setup ouside of CSC standards.

Why? - Technicians simply do not know what they are doing from a business perspective.  We clean up a lot of messed up systems all the time.  We have our own process and schedule and will often "fold in" corrections over time for our clients.  We know what we are doing.

If someone came in and deployed a system for you - and it took them an hour or less - the longer that system operates with an improper setup - the more likely it will become a headache for your over time.

What software should you have?  What utilities should you buy and use?  What level of security should you have?  We know what we are doing, we know what works and what doesn't.  We don't go for the cheapest or the most expensive, we go for what is the best solution for the situation.  We don't make recommendations based on "affiliate" relationships or comissions.

Q: What is Pro-Active vs. Re-Active? i.e. Guru vs. Geek?

A: Pro-active is a dynamic approach to protecting and maintaining systems.  Many people today are under the illusion that they cay buy software to protect them or software tools to fix things and they will be "ok".

The problem is "which tools?", in 20+ years of working with computer systems I have yet to find any protection software that is 100% effective.  Now what?

Many people are under the illusion that if they get a virus, an anti virus scanner will clean it up for them, or hiring someone like me can clean it up for them.

The problem is - often times - it's too late.   Many viruses are annoyances.  Many are designed by PhD "Cyber Terrorists" with one goal and objective in mind.  - Take you down, destroy your data, and put you out of business.

Once a virus takes hold of your system and "drops it's payload", there are things we can do to clean things up, or get things "limping" along but the bottom line - is often a wipe/reload process which can take up to 20 hours.  It is usually less expensive to buy a new system, then set it up properly from scratch and have a "Guru" or a Geek that understands pro-active prevention on top of your systems.

You have a responsibility that when your "Guru"/"Geek" makes a recommendation that you follow those recommendations.  If you don't - your exposed.

I have clients that I make recommendations to all the time, and they do not listen.  I e-mail them, send them letters, have meetings, they all agree, and some do not get it.   I make more money from clients who don't listen, than from those who do (laugh).

Q: Maintenance vs.. Calling when we have a problem?

A: A decade ago I began what I call the CSC pro-active approach.  An "on-call" technician is expensive.   It will pretty much cost you about $300 to get someone onsite to work through a problem.

Today, most problems are not fixable with an single on-site call.  Some are, most are not.   I have several clients that have issues that we "track" and we report to software vendors and over time, the issues get resolved.  Sometimes within days, weeks, or months.

Over the years I have noticed that the cost of prevenative maintenance is about the same as the cost of recovery/reaction service calls.  Being preventative means "minor" cost spikes without the drama, hassle and headache while being reactive means "major" cost spikes, lots of drama and headaches.

Our clients face the same risks that everyone else does, annually they may have an overall similiar cost, maybe even a higher cost!

What they experience is systems that do not have the castatrophes, which means less headache

Q:  I heard you guys are expensive, and your clients pay more after hiring you than previous costs?

A: It depends on how you measure cost.  If you are paying $300 for onsite visits that never actually get the job done, and you can afford that perhaps once every 3 months, you're IT cost for a year is $1,200.

You loose productivity because the systems never get to work properly, and the advice your given never seems to move your systems forward.   Because your systems are not properly setup or maintained, the odds are that sometime within a 24 to 60 month period of time you will have a major IT Catastrophe that will cost you $10,000 or more to recover, or you accept a major data loss for your business. 

If the issue is related to customer privacy matters, you could face all sorts of legal issues, if you're business requires HIPAA compliance - and you haven't made the investment to be compliant you run some huge risks.

We are not going to appologize for charging money to properly setup and maintain IT systems.  Our clients rely on their systems to run, market and manage their businesses.   IT is mission critical to business.   We take what we do very seriously.   We have clients who are "home based startups", and we have network clients with servers and multiple systems.

We have always scaled our rates to match our clients needs so that we are affordable.

We will make an "assement and proposal" so our clients have an idea of what needs to be done and what the clean up costs will be, as well as an estimated monthly maintenance cost.   We have a 90 day introductory process that saves our clients a ton of money and we clean up things on a bid/flat rate basis.  We make an investment in our client.

Take the # of systems you have, and multiply that by 20 hours, and that will give you an idea of how much work needs to be done to clean up your systems.  It may be more than that, or less depending on what needs to be done.  Every business is different.

Your first thought is "I can't afford that", but the truth is, you cannot afford not to do it.  You'll pay more long term than being pro-active.  Once your systems are running properly - you are more productive - which means you and your staff are focusing on profit making tasks rather than dealing with IT issue tasks - this results in an increase in revenue.  Most people do not think about that.

Once we understand your business - we can make recommendations on how you can be more productive in your business.  Once a businesses IT is stabalized and up to our CSC standards - we help our clients expand their businesses through business and marketing consulting.

Our full advertised rate is $200/hr for onsite visits, our established clients pay about $125/hr, and we don't charge for everything we do.  

What does that mean in real life situations.  The typcial remote support session costs $25 to $100 depending on the situation.  Most "on-site" visits we have to charge a minimum of $200 to $300, we have travel time, travel costs, onsite time, etc.  A one hour visit onsite is a 3 to 4 hour time block comittment.  It is what it is.

99% of all of our support work is done - across the internet with remote support.  Our established clients - we remote into their systems off hours to do maintenance on a weekly basis.   This increases our productivity dramatically and reduces our clients costs.

"The Other Guy" charges in our area $200 minimum for an onsite visit, even if they are there for 15 minutes.

Since we typically accomplish 4x as much as "The Other Guy", that means for every $200 of cost with us, our client would of had to of paid at least $800 for the same result, and what is hard to convey is that often times "The Other Guy" simply can't get our result, no matter what the price, no matter how many times they come out.

We are the least cost business and IT support (that works and is effective) that we know of.  We do not know where small business can even buy what we deliver, and when you look at all the factors of impact we have on a business - we are a bargin at twice the price we charge.

We do more work - and we do it right - and we work with a superior level of productivity which means effectively at our full rate, if you measure results and productivity - our cost is $50/hr, when we accomplish 4 hours of work in 1 hour.

Our established clients who pay $125/hr, get an effective productivity cost of less than $32/hr with what we accomplish in one hour.

We've always backed our work with a guarantee - if our clients are not satisfied they are free to adjust our bill to what they feel is fair for the work performed.

In over 20 years of doing this, we've never had a client adjust their invoice, in fact, we've had clients write us "tips", "bonuses" for the great work we have done for them.

After we've "cleaned up" systems and networks for clients - we do have the occassional client who seeks out a "cheaper" solution long term.   Its usually only a matter of time before they realize we are/were the best solution for them and no only did we do what we said we would do - but our value is beyond just fixing IT systems, planning, and setup of systems.

We make a difference in many different levels of business.  Long term most of what we do is 3 parts IT consulting and 1 Part Business Consulting and 2 Parts Marketing Consultiong.

IT/Techonology - is the foundation of productivity and smooth business operations - when setup and maintained properly.

Business Consulting - business owners are often blind to things going on in their business and are missing revenue streams.  David is a former SMI (Success Motivation Institute) Franchise owner and use to teach Goal Setting, Time Management, Sales and Sales Management.

Marketing - online marketing has become an important key tool for all businesses.  CSC knows how to do it right for small businesses.  With the proper setup and deployment - a business can do what it use to take an entire department to accomplish.   It is a lot of work.  CSC knows how to help a small business get up and running FAST, and deployes online marketing in a way where our clients can take over the marketing and be self sufficient long term.  Its a unique process.

Most Marketing consultants want their clients to require them, the CSC strikes a balance of hands on setup work, training and on going consulting where our costs are paid out of results.