Can't you do all 7 at almost the same time? I would think it's a 4-5 hour job total soup to nuts. The calls to MS will kill some time though...
So, you'll have 7 XP CD's, 7 Office CD's, a USB drive with Dell drivers. Your steps are format drive during the XP install (30 mins) Install XP (75 mins) Install Office + updates (45 mins) AVG/Acrobat (20 mins) Clean laptop (10 mins) Diagnostics (45mins - 3 hours?) I get a bit over 4 hours, the diagnostics being the big unknown and other times being dependant on the systems speed. At least you're not migrating user data/settings onto it which is sometimes 2 hours right there, each! $450 is reasonable if you ask me (I would probably charge less and then later go "DOH!!!"). David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION (Desk) 971.222.1025 // (Cell) 503.267.9764 From: John Aldrich [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 8:11 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: OT: Time estimate needed Ok, I might have overestimated, but I figure the following: 1) Probably does NOT have a restore disk 2) Probably does NOT have the driver disk from Dell (says they're all Dell P4 machines) 3) I'm going to have to manually install Office on each one, and may have to call Microsoft twice for each machine to validate the reg code. I estimated $450 for all. Should be a nice check if we can come to terms. :) [cid:[email protected]][cid:[email protected]] From: James Kerr [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 11:04 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OT: Time estimate needed If all the machines are the same I would do that job for like 350-400 bucks. Its really a no brainer and doesn't have a lot of hands on work involved. ----- Original Message ----- From: John Aldrich<mailto:[email protected]> To: NT System Admin Issues<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:55 AM Subject: RE: OT: Time estimate needed P4 machines is what he said. [cid:[email protected]][cid:[email protected]] From: Richard Stovall [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:50 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Re: OT: Time estimate needed Or SP3 :-) On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 10:49 AM, James Kerr <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: A time saver also is to make an XP SP2 slip streamed CD so you don't have to install SP2, its installed when you install the OS. Two hours for each PC seems reasonable as long as they are not ancient. James ----- Original Message ----- From: Sean Houston<mailto:[email protected]> To: NT System Admin Issues<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, November 12, 2009 10:42 AM Subject: Re: OT: Time estimate needed I think that's a fair estimate and probably a good basis to charge for a flat fixed cost. If it takes a little over you eat the time, if it takes less you still get the full pay. I would tell them 2 hours if all of the machines are identical and probably 4 hours if they are all different. I think it would depend a lot on the specs of the PC, but it could take anywhere from an hour to several hours to complete that. However, if you are able to clone them additional ones will only take 10 - 20 minutes to copy and change SIDs. Then however long to clean them & run diagnostics. If they are all different machines it will be significantly more time consuming. If they are all good machines it shouldn't take too long, but if some of them are very slow it could take a while. Either way you have to do everything 7 times, preferably all setup at the same time. Other things to consider... * do they want just SP2 or do they need SP3? Will you need to do all the windows updates after installing SP2? * If they do have licensing keys for Windows and Office how many times have they been activated? You may need to call microsoft to activate every copy of windows and office on every laptop. * Is the AVG the full or free version? If it is the free version it's a violation of licensing. If it's the full you need the licensing info. Just my thoughts on it, hope it helps! Thanks, Sean Houston On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 10:28 AM, Jeff Brown <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: engineers formula: Best educated guess; double that; take to next time increment = actual time to complete. On Thu, Nov 12, 2009 at 9:26 AM, John Aldrich <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: Hey, guys... I have a potential customer with 7 laptops he wants rebuilt. Here's what he wants: 1 Format Hard Drive [can be done at the same time as #2] 2 Install Win Xp with Service Pack 2 3 Microsoft Office Package [already advised he needs to provide install media and keys] 4 AVG Virus Software (Free Lifetime Updates) 5 Adobe Acrobat (Not sure if he wants Acrobat [non-free] or Adobe Reader [free]) 6 Laptop Cleaning of the keyboard, screen and other case. 7 Diagnostics of the entire system after to check hard, cdsrom, floppy, etc. I figure I can install Windows, Adobe Reader (unless he wants full acrobat, in which case for licensing purposes, I'll have to install it on each one separately) and such then create an image of the hard drive and install that image on the rest. I don't want to overcharge, but I don't want to short-change myself either. My thought was about 2 hours per laptop if I image it, maybe 3 hours if I have to install on each one individually. How long would you expect it would take (actual "hands on the keyboard" time) to do this? [cid:[email protected]][cid:[email protected]] No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.425 / Virus Database: 270.14.61/2498 - Release Date: 11/12/09 07:38:00 No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.425 / Virus Database: 270.14.61/2498 - Release Date: 11/12/09 07:38:00 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
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