Ring! Ring!

Me: I.T. Department, this is Daniel. 

Caller: Hello, Daniel?   

Me: Yes, this is Daniel.  How can I help you? 

Caller: Hi, Daniel.  This is Melanie with <Large National Services Provider> 

Me: Good morning, Melanie. 

Melanie: Oh. Good Morning!  I’m calling to see if you have any availability, this morning. 

Me: I just happen to.  Can you tell me about the work you need doing? 

Melanie: Yes.  We have two servers that need to be put in racks. The operating system setup and virtual machines restored.  Also, there is a SAN that needs to be connected, too. 

Me: OK.  What operating systems are going on the servers? 

Melanie: ESX? Does that sound right? 

Me: Yes, it does.  And these virtual machines?  How many of them?  Are they on the SAN, already? 

Melanie: I don’t know.  My documentation just states they need to be restored.   

Me: OK.  Where is this job?  

Melanie: Decatur.   

Me: Decatur, Indiana?  If so, you will probably have better luck getting a tech out of Fort Wayne. 

Melanie: Oh, sorry.  No, it’s Decatur, Illinois.  

Me:  Uhm.   Ok.  That’s about 3 hours, one way.  What is the pay rate? 

Melanie: $90 for 3 hours?  And you must stay until the end-user, the customer and us clear you to leave. 

Me: Uhm, no.   

Melanie: That’s $90!  It’s a good rate! 

Me: No, Melanie, it is not.  Would you like it broken down for you?  We start with a minimum of 5 hours of drive time, round trip.  That is at least 5 hours that I can not do anything else.  I can not work for or do anything for my regular customers who pay more than that, per hour.  When I am finally on-site, I am to rack and stack two servers, load an OS on them, evidently connect them to a SAN, and then restore the virtual machines.  This is to put a previously working network back into productivity, correct? 

Melanie: Yes. They had an issue and their equipment is being replaced by insurance. 

Me: So, the SAN probably needs to be stacked, as well?   

Melanie: Possibly.  

Me: OK, Melanie.  I have no information on how the virtual machines were saved, so I have no way of knowing how long it will take to get them restored.  But I CAN guarantee you, this is a more than 3-hour job.  More like a minimum of 6 hours plus the time to do the restores, which is an unknown, right now. 

Melanie: I see.  It is a big project. 

Me: Exactly. A project.  That requires planning, more information, and advanced prep. 

Melanie: OK.  When could you be available for this project? 

Me: Saturday morning, provided you have documentation that shows how the environment was configured, the size of the VM’s and what the storage media is for them. 

Melanie: OK.  And what is your rate?   

Me: $125 an hour, portal-to-portal.  And I will stay until the job is done.   The payment released to me within three days of my closing the project on the platform.  And your organization pays all fees and charges of the platform. 

Melanie: What?  That would be … over $1000!  Just for connecting 2 computers and an external hard drive together? 

Me: Probably closer to $2000 for the project, Melanie.  And … it is a bit more complicated than that. 

Melanie: Help us out, Dan.  We really need someone who knows what they are doing on this.  We already sent out a tech who … well, he made things worse. We can make it up to you on the next job. 

Me: Melanie, I have insurance and other issues I must keep in mind.  These are large, expensive pieces of equipment.  And probably large, valuable datasets.  Breaking a server or losing their data … well, I could become liable. And it might not even be my fault. And that just does not work out well at $90 for up to three hours paid, while still having to stay on-site until released.  I think I need to pass on this ‘opportunity’.  

Melanie: Can you give me a more reasonable rate, Dan?  Something I can take to my management? 

Me: What brand are the servers and the SAN? 

Melanie: Uhm … Dell and Dell-EMC.   

Me: OK.  I know Dell could send out an engineer to do this kind of project.  I know because I used to be the engineer back in the office to help and support the one in the field.  They would consider this a deployment or an emergency site recovery.   It would not be done on a weekend.  Would cover all expenses of the field engineer.   And would be no less than $5000.  This is big stuff, Melanie.  Lots of value and risk involved.  Especially following the typically less than qualified because someone was trying to cut corners and costs.  No.  The more I think about it, the more I realize this is not a project I should be interested in.  The pay rates are not commensurate with the level of skill and experience required and the work is not finely detailed enough so there will be far too many ways to avoid payment.   

Melanie: Can you really do this work? 

Me: Yes, I can. 

Melanie: Give me a number. A flat rate number that will get you out there, today. 

Me: Today? 

Melanie: Yes.   Given all you have told me, what would it take to get you there, today? 

Me: For the entire project, $5000 + plus expenses.  $2500 received before I will leave to get there.  And a CLEAR statement of work signed by myself and the authorizing end-user.  Final payment will be received within 72 hours of both me and the authorizing end-user on-site signing off on the project being completed to the SOW.   

Melanie: My management will not go for that. 

Me: I know.  But it is still a below-market rate for emergency services of this nature.   

Melanie: I think it is robbery, myself. 

Me: I understand you do.  $2500, today, as a deposit.  I will need that, as this is an unexpected trip and I am not prepared for something this far on my reserves. 

Melanie: I will share this with my supervisor.  <CLICK> 

Lesson Learned

The scope of the project is often more in depth than what we believe it to be. Have you ever taken your car to the mechanic for a wobble thinking it was just out of balance only to be told that they needed to replace a bunch of stuff? So now what you thought was a reasonable price for what YOU thought the problem was becomes very unrealistic very quickly. There’s a reason we hire professionals in their field, because they know what’s best and understand the nuance.