Individuals

The main thing most people need, apart from crisis management, is an idea of what the computer can do: is it just an email machine that needs to behave better, or can we also set up iPods/iPhones/iPads etc, what about broadband, decent email services, what about video editing etc etc.

Here are some specific tasks that I do regularly

  • “Don’t panic Captain Mainwaring”. Digging people out of holes when their machines go belly up, hard drives fail, screens go dead etc. I’m not an Apple Authorised Repair Centre so I don’t do warranty work, but I can deal with them for you, and I can do non-warranty work (bigger hard disks, RAM etc.
  • Advise on, and if required supply, all hardware and software (computers, printers, scanners, routers etc)
  • Update all operating systems and programs, and update hardware (memory, drives etc). Set up automatic updating.
  • Establish safety routines. Backup, both to local drives and over the internet, anti-virus and other malware protection
  • Set up email, domains, websites
  • Use remote access software to troubleshoot the majority of problems.
  • Set up phones
  • Set up all necessary software to keep calendars, contacts, email etc accessible wherever needed. Synchronise machines in different locations.
  • Set up custom databases.

My rates

I operate a very simple pricing strategy. I don’t charge a call out charge, but I do a minimum of one hour. For small amounts of work I charge £95 per hour plus VAT; less if we are talking large amounts of work.