What I would suggest doing is have everyone on your team make a list of the tasks they do, each time they do them for a couple weeks. At the end tally it all up and see where you're spending your time and then dedicate time to figuring out how to automate as much as possible of the top tasks. Even if it's a really amateur script, getting that step done means you can spend your time on something else.
Three good people is enough to run A LOT of stuff if you're efficient about it. Thanks, Brian Desmond br...@briandesmond.com c - 312.731.3132 Active Directory, 4th Ed - http://www.briandesmond.com/ad4/ Microsoft MVP - https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Brian -----Original Message----- From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 2:39 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - 3.0 PROBLEMS Yeah, I find it highly unlikely that our execs would see the benefit in shelling out that kind of cash annually, but I sure do wish they would. I may try to make the case anyway, especially given that I'm running especially lean after losing one of my team and not getting a replacement. It's just three of us on the Infrastructure team, supporting the users and all of the associated servers, routers/switches/firewalls, printers, Blackberry, etc. Gotta be cheaper than hiring another guy, if I can get my team (and me!) up to speed on the things we're supporting. I know we can be a lot more efficient, but that's partly politics (getting policies approved and being allowed to enforce them) and partly education (just how do you get end users to not be Administrators on their workstations for these 12 apps, and how can we deploy them automagically via GP, among many other questions?) Kurt On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 12:18, Brian Desmond<br...@briandesmond.com> wrote: > There's a base one that doesn't have a lot of the benefits that's in the $15K > range annually. Premiere works on a hours basis - you buy a block of hours > and can use them for various things, support, training, onsite engagements, > etc. > > Agreed it's unlikely to make sense for a small firm on the outside, but, if > your business depends on your IT systems and you lose money when they break, > it's insurance. With a pro case there's no SLA to escalate a Sev A case to > CPR at the four hour mark. > > Thanks, > Brian Desmond > br...@briandesmond.com > > c - 312.731.3132 > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Kurt Buff [mailto:kurt.b...@gmail.com] > Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 12:32 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - > 3.0 PROBLEMS > > Just how much does a premier contract cost? When you are a manufacturing > company of less than 300 people, I doubt you can afford it. > > So far all this discussion does is warn me to stay away from SharePoint. > > Kurt > > On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 07:24, Brian Desmond<br...@briandesmond.com> wrote: >> A lot of this is also a function of the fact that you get totally >> different support if you�������re calling on a pro case (when you call >> and put it on a credit card) versus a premier contract. Premiere >> support comes with SLAs, a TAM to complain to, etc. The pro cases >> folks are outsourced and come with none of that. You get what you pay >> for essentia����������� >> >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> Brian Desmond >> >> br...@briandesmond.com >> >> >> >> c - 312.731.3132 >> >> >> >> From: Rob Bonfiglio [mailto:robbonfig...@gmail.com] >> Sent: Friday, July 31, 2009 9:03 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: Re: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - >> 3.0 PROBLEMS >> >> >> >> I had a call once that last for about 12 hours...but that was mostly >> b/c the SharePoint engineer didn't seem to know much about >> SQL...after about 10-11 hours of working he got a SQL engineer on the >> phone and it was fixed pretty quickly. >> >> On Fri, Jul 31, 2009 at 9:42 AM, Carol Fee <c...@massbar.org> wrote: >> >> +1 on that. You really did get lucky. PSS for SharePoint and MOSS >> +is not >> spiffy. >> >> >> >> CFee >> >> >> >> >> >> ________________________________ >> >> From: Ken Schaefer [mailto:k...@adopenstatic.com] >> >> Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 8:05 PM >> >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - >> 3.0 PROBLEMS >> >> >> >> Four hours is nothing ;-) >> >> >> >> We�������ve had PSS calls open for weeks with SharePoint. Had another >> SharePoint + DPM issue that went all the way back to the PGs to have >> them figure out which of the two products (or how they were >> interacting) was breaking DPM. I think that was 6 weeks all up. >> >> >> >> Cheers >> >> Ken >> >> >> >> From: Marty Nelson [mailto:mnel...@transdyn.com] >> Sent: Friday, 31 July 2009 1:03 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - >> 3.0 PROBLEMS >> >> >> >> I ended up on the phone with MS for four hours so something went >> really wrong and thank god they knew where to fix it! >> >> >> >> Thanks again for the suggestions. >> >> >> >> -Marty >> >> >> >> From: Ken Schaefer [mailto:k...@adopenstatic.com] >> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 6:20 PM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - >> 3.0 PROBLEMS >> >> >> >> The Configuration Database is an SQL Server (or MSDE) database somewhere. >�������������s usually called SharePoint_Config (for MOSS at least). So, you >> have to have SQL Server or MSDE somewhere, and it needs to be hosting this >> database. >> >> >> >> You can run the SharePoint Technologies Configuration Wizard to >> reconnect to the database, but you obviously need to know what your >> SQL Server name/instance is... >> >> >> >> Cheers >> Ken >> >> >> >> From: Marty Nelson [mailto:mnel...@transdyn.com] >> Sent: Thursday, 30 July 2009 3:49 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: RE: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - >> 3.0 PROBLEMS >> >> >> >> Sorry, a little more info. This is running on a W2K3 SP@ machine with IE7. >> Now it�������s degraded to the point to where I cannot even connect to >> the central management page. Say��������Cannot connect to the >> configuration database.��ÿ >> >> >> >> Now when I set this up originally YEARS ago, I accepted all of the >> defaults and now have no idea where the data resides. I have ~* very >> lightly used SharePoint sites, none of which are available at the moment. >> >> >> >> This database error is a new phenomenon since I last posted >> >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> >> >> -Marty >> >> >> >> From: Marty Nelson [mailto:mnel...@transdyn.com] >> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2009 10:20 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: Is there a SharePoint Expert that can help me out? 2.0 - 3.0 >> PROBLEMS >> >> >> >> So I started the workup to this upgrade yesterday. Got all of the >> prereq stuff loaded, ran a prescan everything came back dandy. Ran the >> upgrade, >> looked like it finished with no problems. And tha����������s where it fell >> off of >> a cliff. Looking at the upgrade.log file there are some errors and >> failures, but I have no idea what it means, much less how to fix them. >> If there�������s anyone out there that can help me out I would greatly >> appreciate it! >> >> >> >> FWIW, these are the instructions���������ve been following: >> >> >> >> http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc424954.aspx >> >> >> >> PLEASE HELP! >> >> >> >> -Marty >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ > <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
