[Gllug] Charge

[Simon Morris]

<quote who="Neil Fryer">
> Hi All,
>
> I have been asked to setup a file server for a small company, and will be
> using Samba, now what I would like to know is how much would you charge to
> do this, as I don't want to over or under price this, also this work will
> be
> done on a weekend, when their offices are quite.
>

Well first off I would think *very* carefully about what you are about to
undertake. Whatever you install will become a critical part of this guys
business, no matter how small the company is. When your solution needs
attention (adding users; purging logs, preventative maintainance) you can
bet he'll think it'll be part of the original price he paid.

I made the mistake a while ago of taking a project on for a small local
business without stating the limits of the project. I quickly became the
sole point of contact for every little (annoying) piece of maintainance
with no contract other than the original work. It became nasty when I had
to cut them off, and they still had some borrowed kit of mine

If you take it on get the following signed off before you start:

* Statement of work defining what pieces of equipment you are going to
take on (just the server or every PC, printer, scanner, toaster in the
office)

* The project goals to stop extra work being added after you agree a price
("Whilst you are here can you upgrade this Windows 3.1 machine to Windows
2000"; "Can you add this new printer to every machine")

* A series of tests to define the completion of the project:

 --  Every client can connect to the shared file server

 --  All users home directories are proven to be secure from other users

 --  All users can print to the shared print queue.

 --  A file is deleted and successfully restored

  This way any occurances (they mis-configure the server) it won't be
deemed part of the original project.

Also consider a fixed price rather than per-hour. I would say 1 or 2 days
work including testing and documentation.


-- 
Simon Morris
simon.morris at penguinit.com

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