[ic] Beima's Response!

[John Beima]

G'Day Jim,

That is what independent consultants are for... I know from experance, since we
have hired him personllay, that Akopia charges $300.00 per hour for Mike H. and
othe rconsultants start at around $175...

Peronsally I charge $75-$100 per hour for first time/one time projects, and it
drops to $50-$75 per hour for pre-paying of large blocks of time or large
projects...

I think Mike's rate of $300.00 per hour is MORE than reasonable, otherwise
evryone and his dog would be bothering him when others can do it...

This way Mike is available to us consultants when he is really needed and the
time is worth $300 per hour... Because I tell you, Mike solves things fast, and
he is always a great pleasure to talk to! Otherwise he gets to spend his time
adding many mnay new features for us in upcomming rleases!

What simply needs to be understood is in most cases MiniVend/Interchange work
also involves SQL programming, and that is worth money... We are not web
designers, we are Perl/SQL/Interchange programmers...

John Beima


Quoting Jim Balcom <jim@idk-enterprises.com>:

> On Mon, 2 Apr 2001, Ed LaFrance wrote:
> 
> EL>>I really can't understand this attitude.  RH/Akopia has to make
> money 
> EL>>somehow!  They distribute what is arguably one of the best
> e-commerce 
> EL>>products for the microcomputer platform - completely free of charge.
>  They 
> EL>>have a staff of many talented people and undoubtedly all the
> overhead that 
> EL>>goes along with that.  It should come as no great surprise to anyone
> that a 
> EL>>"premium" price will be paid when hiring their services - and I
> quoted 
> EL>>that, because honestly, $180/hour is PEANUTS compared to price
> commanded by 
> EL>>many, many other firms (most of them not even the authors of the
> products 
> EL>>they use).
> 
> I fully understand that they need to make some money. I can appreciate
> that. And, I would have paid them $180/hour.
> 
> The fact of the matter is that they wanted a 3 hour MINIMUM to do a 1
> hour installation - or $540 for an hour of work!
> 
> Yes, I realize that RH needs to make money. I learned that the hard way
> a couple of years ago when I was having problems installing Linux on a
> particular box, and I paid RH a premium for the software so that I
> could get Tech Support. They then went out of their way to find
> obstacles to avoid providing that support. I never did get the first
> ounce of support from RH and I went back to Slackware.
> 
> Yes, I would have paid Akopia $180/hour to set up the server. But, as
> was quickly learned, it does NOT take 3 hours for even a total novice
> to get the server up and running!
> 
> 
> -= Jim =-
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> Jim's Linux-Operated Underground Bomb Shelter
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Tagline for Monday, April 02, 2001 at 19:30 PM:
> I've had fun before. This isn't it.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> This Linux System has been up 71 hours  
> 
> My web page: http://www.idk-enterprises.com
> ----------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Interchange-users mailing list
> Interchange-users@lists.akopia.com
> http://lists.akopia.com/mailman/listinfo/interchange-users
> 



John Beima
jbeima@palb.com, support@alocalagent.com, and support@alocalchurch.com

P.A.L.B. Systems - Phone: (780)451-1086 - Fax: (780)447-4760
11639-122 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T5M 0B6

Affordable Web Pages - Phone: (888)932-9990 - Fax: (256)351-7297
2713B Spring Place SW, Decatur, Alabama, United States, 35603