I want more time to work

[Haroon92]

Hello, everyone hope all is well.

I want more time to work but not sure how to convince my clients to give me access to their business place after hours, because most time I need to get things done, but they have to be working at the same time which slows up their process and mines. How can I achieve this? thanks

 

[Porthos]

how to convince my clients to give me access to their business place after hours

I personally would not want the liability.

 

[britechguy]

And, liability issues aside, if you want this then negotiate it.

You will never get what you don't ask for. Be prepared to have a compelling argument supporting that need that also appeals to the needs of the business during business hours.

Even with the above, unless it's a small business, don't expect such access will be granted.

 

[HCHTech]

Sell them on an RMM which will give you remote access to all machines without having physical access to the building. Then, you'll only need physical access for jobs requiring a screwdriver.

 

[seashore]

Charge by the hour.
They'll either change their practices to allow you to work more quickly or you'll get paid more for working slowly to fit in around them.

My thoughts entirely.

 

[britechguy]

There is also a huge advantage, in my opinion, in having the client(s) present when working due to two things:

1) They never tell you everything, include everything they want, when they call you in. Or if they, in the rarest of cases did, they'll frequently want to add something while you're there and be mightily annoyed if that thing they didn't originally ask for isn't done (no, it's not rational, but . . .).

2) They get to see you work and in the end you get to check whether the result is to their satisfaction in real time. Language being an imperfect communication medium, there are times when you've done exactly what was stated was wanted, but that was not in actuality what was wanted. This gives you a chance to correct things and make everyone happy (plus have more billable time as a bonus).

 

[Your PCMD]

Sell them on an RMM which will give you remote access to all machines without having physical access to the building. Then, you'll only need physical access for jobs requiring a screwdriver.

Thats exactly what I do for EVERY business client I have. Thats a stipulation in the SLA. If I need to work on them after hours, they leave the machine on, I log in and do my work, then shut the machine down afterwards. All updates are done after hours as well on Wednesdays - if needed.

 

[Moltuae]

I've been using unattended remote access for decades, long before it became known as 'RMM'. Back in the day, I used VNC or RDP over VPN, before software such as ScreenConnect were more readily available. Unattended remote access for business systems is essential since the vast majority of work/maintenance will need to be done out-of-hours.

Personally I prefer to work on business systems out-of-hours as much as possible, even for things that aren't disruptive. Unless it's something urgent, my reply to most requests by my business customers, even for simple things like adding printers or access to file shares, etc, is "no problem, I'll do that this evening for you".

However, I would never request physical out-of-hours access to a business customer's premises, without the owner or a key-holder present.

 

[RCD_Technology_Solutions]

I used a simple approach. The office cleaning crew comes in after hours correct? "yes" I already have access to the servers and workstations remotely. If I have access to the office then I can fix any hardware issues without needing you to be present.

I have never need denied with this logic. Yes there is liability but one rule is I call the owner to explain the issue and i suggest to go to the office and wait for the yes....

 

[Haroon92]

Hi, everyone.

Thank you all for the responses. I definitely don't to be on the list of suspects if anything goes missing, so that bright idea is no more.

Keep up the good work here at Technibble. You guys have been a great help over the years.

 

[Your PCMD]

However, I would never request physical out-of-hours access to a business customer's premises, without the owner or a key-holder present.

Exactly. 100% agree with this. I am fortunate that for one of my clients my wife is actually the key holder since shes the assistant manager of the corporation. There are 3 servers that I manage there and I cannot do anything on them doing the week as the drivers have to access them 24/7. However every other weekend, we go there and she gets me in to do maintenance - about an hour and a half. Currently we are in talks about converting a small 5' x 10' closet to a clean room and putting the servers in there and they are in different locations throughout the building.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

We do only business clients.

All of us have keys to some of our clients, I have several keys to my biggest clients, plus I'm kept up to date with alarm codes and door keypad codes. I'm sometimes in their building early in the morning, or on a weekend. My colleague and I have been that way for over 25 years.

Of course we have our RMM and lots of other remote tools, wattbox to remotely power cycle devices, iLO, iDrac to remote hardware level access servers, etc. But sometimes you need to be onsite. Unracking/racking servers, doing switch swapouts, server hardware work, other installs, projects, etc.

Turning the debate around, if a service guy like a plumber or furnace guy needs to get to our house, we'll do something like leave the bilco unlocked, lights on, etc....in case my wife happens to be on the road doing showings that day and can't be there to greet them.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah I have keys and alarm codes for most of my clients as well. Even with RMM in place there are limits on what you can do, and if things fry during a storm I need all the time I can get to get things back online. Working late is how I ensure everyone is back online tomorrow morning at the latest. That is my job isn't it? Keep them running... minimize downtime... ESPECIALLY downtime when employees are around!

 

[fencepost]

I have keys for a few clients, but I rarely end up using them and haven't had to do an emergency trip in years.

One thing I've added to my new-system-setup checklist but haven't gone back and done on existing boxes yet is enable Wake-On-Lan in the BIOS on everything. I feel that having that available will make overnight patching much more reliable.

 

[HCHTech]

I had a medical practice client for which I had keys back in 2005, I think it was. They had new locks put in once and the very day after I got my new key, there was a break-in and robbery. I got a visit from the gendarmes the next day. Luckily for me the idiot that had planned his perfect crime left a big 'ol size-12 footprint on a file cabinet that he forced open to get the cash box. My size-9 feet eliminated me from the suspect pool. Turns out he was the boyfriend of one of the disgruntled workers. Two people went to jail that day.