Microsoft Product Training

 Microsoft Product Training Consultancy: Initial Meeting

Get in touch

It is not always ideal to discuss your individual requirements by email or phone. Therefore, before any commitment is made, we offer you a consultation meeting, either at your site or at our offices.

During this consultation time, please feel free to ask as many questions as you feel necessary and don’t hesitate to stress to your consultant anything that you feel will benefit their understanding of your requirements.

A positive result from this meeting will be to compile a checklist of any issues raised and from these agree to work toward certain objectives.

With regards to costs, it is sometimes impossible to give you accurate figures on the day, however these will follow soon after.  Your budget will also be taken into consideration and we will always make enquiries into this, customizing our response accordingly.

Audit Current Situation

Microsoft Product Training may need to have a look around current solutions to establish the status quo. If we don’t do a thorough check, you may have problems that will surface at a later date. If is not always wise to just start fixing what is broken. We have to take time to figure out the wider picture before suggesting a solution that will help you in the long run. This audit process helps us know what is right and wrong with your systems so we can get to the source of the problem. If we don’t do a full audit, you may waste time and money and not come up with the best solution for you. We want to figure out the real requirement and what solution will be best and most cost-effective and give you the least disruption.

Work Schedules

Microsoft Product Training provides an accurate and detailed work schedule. This details the services and deliverables to be provided to the client will help considerably to manage the expectations of both parties, and to reduce the risk of misunderstandings or disputes.

The work schedule will specify as precisely as possible the nature and extent of the work that will be carried out, the deliverable outputs (reports, presentations, results etc.) that are expected, and an indication of the amount of working time that will be needed. The services and deliverables work schedule will become part of the contract with the client organization.

Understand What Services You Are Purchasing
Before authorizing any services to be performed, we would discuss and agree what the consultant will do and how much it will cost. Even if you are purchasing just one hour in services the Microsoft Product Training consultant will provide a written estimate or a fixed-price for the project.

Some Times We Will Say No to Your Work

Our consultants will never take on work that they are not qualified to deliver and this is part of our giving the customer the best possible service at all times.

If we are qualified except for minimal areas, we will make you aware of these and what our approach to the project would be.  It is likely that we would allocate non chargeable time to bring ourselves completely up to speed on the area/s in question.

The end result for us, is not only the additional skill but also the new client/reference and ultimately we would be a greater asset to you and our other clients in the future.

How and what do you charge clients for your consulting services?

Many consultants bill a minimum of one or two hours for on-site service calls. Some charge for phone support while others don’t. Some offer fixed-price services. We offer different solutions for different problems but you will always know where you stand.

We recognize that some questions might be solved with an hour’s time in Excel and another requires a detailed project plan before work can commence.

Microsoft Product Training normal consulting fee is £100 per hour, billed in 15-minute increments. If you prefer, flat-rate project fees can also be arranged.
 

Fixed or Flat Rate

Many clients prefer a fixed price rather than on an hourly basis. To protect the client Microsoft Product Training will always limit the scope of your engagement to something that you can calculate easily. For example, if Microsoft Product Training were are asked give a quote for setting up an Access database for a business, we might break this project into smaller assignments.

First, we could give a quote for preliminary research and recommendations. Estimate the time required to meet with the client, learn about his business and goals, develop strategies and a budget, and prepare recommendations on how to proceed. Then, give the client a quote. Upon acceptance of the offer by the client in writing, we would proceed with this phase of the project.

In these circumstances Microsoft Product Training might collect a proportion of their fee up front the rest upon assignment completion for each phase of the consulting project.

By breaking a large project down into smaller steps or assignments, it is easier to avoid spending way more time on the project than anticipated.

We do not want to present you with a bill for the whole project that you would not be happy to pay.

Breaking down a project into smaller assignments helps you estimate more accurately and limit your financial exposure.

Charges for Materials

If you would like us to handle the purchase of any hardware, software, training materials we are happy to oblige. All parts/software that are required are charged at cost and appropriate shipping costs.

Microsoft Product Training makes it a practice of selling nothing but time, and to never accept referral/finder's fees or commissions from vendors. You will never have to wonder whether we have a vested interest in any transaction or if that interest is influencing our recommendations.

From time to time, who will require something — software, a cable, etc. — and Microsoft Product Training will purchase it on your behalf, but this is strictly as a convenience to the customer. Microsoft Product Training will include the item on the invoice at exactly the price paid for it including the receipt.

The only proviso is that any item costing than £500 required for the project would need to be paid for up front

Charges for Travel Time

We never charge for travel time only the cost of the journey if located outside the M25.  All other hotel and subsistence charges would be agreed with the client if applicable.

Payment Method

Now withstanding the above most commercial organizations and institutions will have their own detailed method of approving and administering costs, and invoicing and payment. We understand that that will not always be possible to impose an alternative payment schedule.

In relation to payment terms, these terms may be standard for the organization and in some cases may be part of their order processing and MIS systems. In this case, Microsoft Product Training would normally accept the client’s terms if reasonable.

References

We will always get you references to support our claims to Expertise

For complex systems and niche areas such as Excel, Access & Project ask the Microsoft Product Training consultant what their qualifications and prior experience are. This can make a huge difference in your bill because if you hire a generalist, you will likely spend money training them before they can do the job. If you hire a specialist, the hourly rate will be higher, but the work will be done faster and often more cost-effectively

We would always supply you with a list of clients we have worked for in the past who are happy to be contacted by phone or email

We always document our work

You or another service provider may need to access your system at short notice. We will always provide written documentation for all work performed.

This should include all technical specifications, system configuration, usernames and passwords.

After the consultant is done, you’ll have a permanent record of what they did and how they did it, making it much easier for others to maintain and upgrade the technology

We always make regular copies of work we do. It cannot be stressed enough. We always backup the files you cannot afford to lose.

What if we make Mistakes?

We always make regular copies of work we do. That said every consultant pulls occasionally deleted the wrong file. It's contrary to human nature to expect that a consultant will never make a mistake, but we also understand that it's also not reasonable to expect the customer to pay for them.

It's embarrassing to admit mistakes, but we owe this to our customers. Everybody makes mistakes now and then, and I suppose that even some honest mistakes will mark the end of a customer relationship. We hope that sometimes the customer will be grateful for getting a straight story about something that was impacting their business.

Insurance

Assuming the worst a bad mistake in the worst outcome we are insured.
The Company has significant professional indemnity and public liability insurance policies which can extend to cover consultancy work. There are a few very specific types of work which are not automatically covered, and our staff can advise on this.

Post Project

• Choose the Best Support Method

Microsoft Product Training consultants charge for phone and on-site support, but not for e-mail. E-mail is quick and easy because you will be doing the work under the consultant’s guidance. In many cases, if the consultant charges for phone support, it may be more efficient to schedule a service call because the consultant will be doing the work and can see the problem directly instead of giving you guidance over the phone. Think about what you’ll need when the project is done, how will you handle maintenance and training? Ask about service and support before you hire the consultant you may want to negotiate a service agreement as part of the consulting agreement.

• Intellectual Property

Our engagements are likely to involve some intellectual property (documentations, designs), and the open question is "Who owns it?"

Microsoft Product Training policy has always been "The customer owns everything". We rely on nothing but our performance for ongoing work, and there are no questions about what's included.

One question that arises often: "can I reuse a solution from one customer to another?", and the answer is "sometimes". Generally, you would not reuse a whole project because it represents customer-specific functionality. This is their property and you can't repackage it without their express permission.

The general sentiment of the "Customer owns everything" consultant is that the consultant assigns the all rights to the customer while perhaps retaining the role of Inventor.

We are Easy to Replace

There are several reasons why a customer might find it difficult to fire a consultant:
• He does great work and is a tremendous asset
• He has passwords for everything: will he give us the list?
• He has all the source code: will we get it back?
• He has access to everything: will he do bad stuff to us?
• He hosts our DNS: will he screw with us?
Only the first is a valid reason to keep somebody around. Microsoft Product Training consultants   rely on their own good work to be their best job security.

From time to time, we will give customers all their important passwords, documentation and relevant coding.

Be Prepared for our first Visit
Organize your original software CDs, usernames, passwords, and account information. If you do not have this information prepared before the consultant arrives, the consultant will spend billable time locating this information which will increase your service fee.
 

If the Consultant Is Working On your Premises

To help us if we are fact finding in your office to have everything regarding the proposed work available including software if we are not using our own laptops There's no sense in paying Microsoft Product Training to wait for you to find all the information we need.

Get in touch

If you feel that none of the above really matches your requirement the best way to get the ball rolling is to send Microsoft Product Training an email. Please describe the type of project that you have in mind, along with any questions you may have. We will get right back to you.