How are you guys handling the upgrades for your small businesses?
I feel a little iffy the way we are doing it but I wanted to see what the general consensus is. We quote the cost of the product key and then bill for the labor to do the upgrade.
I know it’s still possible to go from 7 to 10 without a new product key but we felt that that was a gray area because Microsoft technically ended the free upgrade period.
What do you guys do?
I would so not worry about it, if it upgrades with original key then go with it and make the client aware. Windows 10 is in no man’s land and nobody knows what the support cycle will be unlike Windows 7 5-10 years,
I always quote everything included. I figure out how many machines need product keys and upgrades. I will figure approximately how many hours it would take to do each computer and quote that.
We typically have to have the keys purchased (since we go through a vendor) and more often than not it will activate without a new key. We just attach the key to that client’s notes and have it there in case something happens in the future. We do state in the quote that labor is not included and we typically estimate and hour or two do the upgrade. That typically puts the cost of upgrading Windows from Windows 7 to Windows 10 around ~$400…
It kind of feels wrong since a lot of the people that want to do it don’t want to buy new computers and instead are trying to upgrade 4-6 year old machines.
Yeah it is wrong new PC is the way to go. Another option is Linux and run 7 in a VM for legalese apps depending on the client. I feel now has never been a better time to get off the Windows train unless you want to get WINDOWS 365 A GREAT SERVICE Cough 
We still have people that will pick that $400 mark over the $800-1200 to get a new computer and have us set it up and transfer the data.
We are pushing more to O365 and it’s getting easier as people are becoming more receptive of the subscription model. It is a tough pill to swallow for some as they are used to buying it outright and being done with it (i.e. the customer still trying to install Office 2003-2007 on their new computers)
We’ve recently dealt with a client running virtualized instances of software on their desktops and it might have created more problems than it solved (not linux).
One day…one day…
Yeah subscription makes more sense for bigger company’s not so much SMB’s and having your company data as good as inaccessible if the CFO missed up or money from a job didn’t show up for whatever reason is not good, it’s handing over too much control that you don’t need to. The bigger company’s that get the most benefit from cloud will also have on site servers as well ‘hybrid’ if you will. The fact is there are other solutions out there in open source very good ones and like I said never a better time to look at other options for the office as Android IOS and maybe Windows Light or whatever will be in consumer hands.
Most of our SMBs have some kind of server doing the file sharing. I suppose OneDrive would just be an added bonus if going toward O365. Also, we offer hosted exchange for a lot of clients and it’s getting difficult to host your own e-mail so moving to 0365 just makes sense. There are plenty of small businesses that don’t need O365 but most of the businesses that we deal with that are that small get by with LibreOffice just fine.
We are pretty much strictly a Windows shop. I’m trying to get more confident with Linux but self-teaching is not my strong suite…which is why I’m here!
I agree e-mail hosting is a nightmare and I’m no Linux guru 20 years+ all Microsoft as that’s all I had time for but you will find it’s not that different and the learning curve is not as big as it looks at first +support is only a Google search away. I have clients including myself running Nextcloud and I have to say it is second to none lots of different apps including many different encrypted messaging apps that would put e-mail to shame. Having said that I still run 2 Server 2019 boxes for my AD fix lol + Nextcloud integrates just fine with AD.
Oh no, I’m all in on trying to get on the linux and open source train. It’s just that I need to feel comfortable with it myself before start working on it with customer. I’ve got a server at home that I use for testing out different operating systems and programs so that I can work out some of the issues. I’m still new to the business as well so part of me needs to learn what we use and the other part of me wants to go in a completely different direction.
You will be fine just dig in get your hands dirty where you can. Also you will find what works at home most always wont work in the field ‘Murphys Law’ but at least you will have a good idea.
I appreciate the encouragement. Thanks to Tom and his videos and recommendations I’m really looking into InfoSec careers and such. It’s overwhelming but I like it.
How much of that $400 is labor ?
That subscription model can get quite expensive when you look at its cost beyond 1 year and the number of users. Linux is becoming an easier sell given Microsoft’s track record with patches that cause more problems than they fix. Plus there is the issue of spyware a.k.a. telemetry. Given most LOB applications are moving to web based the need for MS-Windows is diminishing.
We charge around $200 for the product key. So on average it’s probably closer to $150 for the labor. That’s doing in the install, applying updates, troubleshooting issues with software, printers, and scanners after the upgrade.
We have very few clients that use just webapps. And one EMR company in particular offers a web app but some of its feature require it to run Chrome on Windows. I know it is becoming more common place but it’s not there just yet. When it’s here then yea, drop that subscription.
add to the above NICs. Issues in my experience have been especially prevalent with laptops. What is really bad is LOB applications that are specific to an industry and are slow to change.
I have clients that are 100% Linux and are happy with very minimal issues. Others are a mixed bag of open source Linux servers on VMWare MS-Win desktops Linux and FreeNAS
Applications range from CRM, accounting, project management, AV editing and POS.
That’s the dream I guess. We have plenty of customers that still don’t understand a thing about computers. One guy opens his scans folder (that has a shortcut on his desktop) by going through the files and folders within Outlook. So many are willfully ignorant…
I would love to feel like I’m engineering solutions for customers but most of the time I’m just fighting fires. I really do try to have an education opportunity every time I’m with a customer and most seem to appreciate that.
Know what you mean, there are those who don’t understand the tools they use daily. the “willfully ignorant” must have a blissful life.