Something I love about being a freelance IT Consultant is the added value I can bring, that I LOVE to provide for the clients I work with…
I remember a client I was working for in Vilnius (Lithuania) a number of years ago…
It was a contract lasting only a few weeks, working on some Network Monitoring I think it was, and I remember asking them what their biggest issues were…
There were a few blank faces initially, because I don’t think they were expecting me to ask such a question, they just assumed I would get on with the job at hand…
They then explained that the banks’ ATM (cash) machines sometimes went offline and they didn’t always know about it in a timely manner, causing customers to be left unhappy and unable to withdraw cash (or do whatever service they required from the ATM) – obviously the bank wanted to get notified of this quicker and not upset their customers who could ultimately take their business (& cash) elsewhere
After a lengthy discussion, digging into the tech (for which they had never come up with a solution themselves) I came up with the idea of monitoring the network router X.25 connection port status, which connected direct to the ATM (forgive the ancient tech/description, this is how I remember it anyway!)
So I setup a simple monitor on the ports, configured custom alerting, and they called a random branch and asked them to pull the plug on an ATM…
Boom! We got the alert within seconds – the client could not believe it – I will never forget the look on their faces, it was priceless
This simple monitor was going to help them SO much, and potentially save them time, money and customers – I had earned my fee for the entire assignment right there I believe, and it felt GREAT
THIS is one of the reasons I am a freelance IT Consultant
Providing VALUE above and beyond what is asked of me
These are the VALUES I live and work by
If you or your company would like help in any way then please get in touch!
