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Monthly Archives : April 2015

Home/2015/April
Time billing Mac IT Support

Time billing vs. Project billing

by Alary Techon 29 April 2015in blog No comment

Time is one of the hardest things to put a price tag on especially for the information age worker.

Here is the dilemma; the better I am at reaching a satisfying solution the less I will get paid, whether this is because I am smarter, more efficient or simply have more experience. And vice versa, when I am less knowledgeable and take longer to solve the issue, I get paid more!.

Does this sound logical? or even fair?

Is the price for my services based on the time spent on the job or time spent acquiring experience and knowledge to do the job well?

It is common amongst Technicians/Consultants billing for their time, to feel guilty if they take longer time to solve the problem (they feel they should be better than that), and end up giving away time for free!

In reality, there is no measure or reference to how long solving a problem should take, every problem is different, however there are smarter and more efficient Techs/Consultants with more experience who take less time to reach the solution.

Here is the simple answer; just bill for the project and the more efficient you are the higher the profit margin.

This will work for projects with very clear deliverables, for less clear ones the Techs/Consultants would have to take their chances and estimate how long it would take. The more experienced they are the more accurate the estimation is..

The funny thing about this method is even when the Tech/Consultant spends more time than estimated (which is always the case), he or she would be happy to give some time away for the sake of a satisfied client.

Project based billing is my preferred method, I believe it is the fairest to the clients, let’s put it this way; if I can’t estimate how long it will take me to get the job done who can? The client? How would it be fair to tell the client “I’ll come and work on this problem and you need to have an open budget for my services”?

However, not everything is a project with deliverables, there are cases where there is a problem that needs to be solved regardless of the budget (within reason of course), that’s why I feel that we need to know when to bill for time and take no responsibility for any delays and when to own the project and fulfill the job at any cost.

With time the reputation of the Tech/Consultant will proceed him and clients will trust his estimates and his billings.

 

 

Ahmed Kufaishi
Chief Technologist – Alary Technologies
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HOW TO SPEED UP YOUR MAC

Why boost your Mac’s Speed with a Ram Upgrade

by Alary Techon 21 April 2015in blog No comment

The more RAM you have the faster and better your computing will be. If your system is low on RAM it will experience slowdowns at practically every turn from launching programs to loading documents. The best way to speed up an old Mac, dramatically, is to replace its old hard drive with a new solid state drive; but just upgrading your RAM is a much more sane solution, being the most cost effective.

RAM (Random Access Memory) refers to a small replaceable circuit board that contains memory chips designed to give a computer a high-speed temporary work area, which is where data apps are temporarily stored while being used. Having more RAM will help your computer to run larger apps, and more apps at the same time, to reduce and even eliminate the need to continuously load data from the hard drive.

The first thing you should do is to determine if your system’s RAM is able to be upgraded (give us a call if you don’t know how to check). If the RAM is soldered to the motherboard, in the case of Retina MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, the RAM cannot be upgraded; but, if you’re running MacBooks, Mac Pros, or iMacs, (even on Mac minis, but challenging) then start by checking the memory pressure graph in Mavericks, which should tell you if you are running low on usable RAM. If the green wedge on the chart is always below 25 percent then upgrading the RAM is a MUST.

4GB is a general minimum for RAM, but if the system can handle the extra then install at least 8GB, or 16GB is even preferred. 4GB Macs are fairly limited with running multiple apps at once and 16GB Macs aren’t much of an improvement over 8GB or 12GB Macs, except if the system is running professional-quality (usually video editing) apps. If your Mac can run Yosemite, then its RAM could probably be upgraded to at least 8GB. As well, if you use an iMac heavily for professional, time-sensitive projects like creating videos, music, or creating complex documents, then consider increasing the capacity of your system to 16GB of RAM or more.

Remember that your Mac can contain the same components as a PC, so be sure to consult with us to make sure that the RAM matches your system’s specifications. But whatever you do, don’t cut any corners on the RAM that is installed in your system. Just because PC owners have become tolerant of imperfect RAM, which can cause system crashes, app crashes, and failures to boot, doesn’t mean that Mac users need follow suit. It’s very difficult to trace the source of these types of problems and cheap RAM is a far more common failure point for Macs than most people even realize.

Searching RAM upgrades on your own can be tricky, since you really need to be tech-savvy in order to wade through the part numbers, and relying upon online help or video help guides to get you through the process can be a daunting endeavor and time consuming, as well. Some third party company’s parts have been known to work well in the short term, but failing a year down the line.

Ultimately, you may consult with us here at Alary Technologies, a professional & apple authorized service provider that knows the way around the Mac world. It is well worth it and for the long haul we will provide a real person to talk to directly.

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Apple Hard Drive Upgrade

Want Maximum Life and Performance for your Apple Mac?

by Alary Techon 2 April 2015in blog No comment

Why You should Upgrade Your Mac’s Hard Drive for Maximum Life and Performance

Once you have verified that merely upgrading your RAM is not enough for you, and that your machine is older than 3 to 5 years (manufactured 2009 to mid-2012); as opposed to spending $2,499 for the new iMac with a 5K Retina Display, it’s possible to radically enhance the performance of your Mac. Installing a solid state drive (SSD), either in addition to or instead of its original hard drive, is an easy step to extending the life and performance of your machine.

An SSD uses high speed memory chips instead of spinning platter mechanisms in a traditional hard drive. This achieves up to five times the processing speed with no moving parts. Just five years ago SSDs were limited in capacity and expensive, prohibiting Mac users from utilizing the technology. Now these very high quality SSDs are reasonable, and as a bonus are they greatly improve iMacs.

Some prefer to keep the old hard drive intact and just replace the media drive with an SSD, while others prefer to keep the media drive for the occasional CD or DVD and replace the original hard drive with the SSD. It is easier to swap the media drive than it is the machine’s original hard drive, but either option will work.

You will, however, save some money by keeping the old hard drive and swapping the media drive instead, since it’s possible to go with a lower capacity model (128GB or 256GB) by doing so. This way all your music, photos, and videos can stay on the old drive and the new SSD can hold OS X and all of your apps. If you want to swap the hard drive, you’ll need a 512GB or 1TB drive, giving your machine enough room for files to accumulate during the next few years.

Apple hard drives have temperature probes inside, but third-party SSDs don’t. An in-line digital thermal sensor is a good idea when installing a new SSD to keep the iMac from automatically turning on its fans whenever the computer is turned on. There are other alternatives to this, but it’s a fairly small investment which will prevent having to mess around with manual fans in order to keep the Mac running smoothly.

As soon as your installation is complete your iMac will be noticeably quicker and you’ll see that by simply adding a new SSD, allowing 3 to 5 times the speed of the old hard disk across apps and other files, your iMac will feel like a brand new machine. The prices have fallen enough so that users can now have the perfect balance of speed and capacity, and they can have it reasonably. There is no better, cost effective way to put some new speed into an old iMac.

We specialize in the upgrades of Macs. You can say we are professionals.  Call us today to find out how you can boost your Macs performance and make it better than brand new.

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