Good evening everyone. First and foremost, I don't know if this is the right place to ask but I'll go ahead anyway. As I'm sure many of us tech-savvy people are aware, we can't help but get involved with Computers on any level. From offering to build a PC for a friend/colleague/family member to troubleshooting issues - we just can't seem to keep our noses out of it. Our kindness is often repayed by those that we help suddenly expecting us to solve all of their PC-related issues for little or no benefit. Cue frustration and eventual reclusion, until one day something catches your attention... ...starting the cycle all over again. In my case, this 'something' is regarding my workplace. Having been involved since the beginning (Nov'08) and employed sometime afterwards I have a degree of familiarity with the requirements of our systems. The Director of the company came to me and explicitly stated that I "should not be directly involved with the selection, implementation or operation of our Information Technology resources" - I had no problems with this on the grounds of liability, in that we both agreed that while I might have been capable of fulfilling this role, inevitably it would make me accountable for everything. Despite this, I was often asked for my opinion or suggestions regarding the choices presented to us. More often than not my immediate response was the price which I frequently advised was too high/unreasonable, or that an item was inappropriate for our requirements. Despite examining my comments, the Company rarely enacted upon them and proceeded with many of the quoted options. Anyhow, cutting to the present day and after some fairly big events (Suicide of the General Manager - big enough?) which have resulted in major restructuring in the workplace. As some sort of cruel joke, the Gods have seemed to have 'blessed' me with the 'fortune' of having the mess that is our I.T. situation thrown into my care - the justification probably being that if I complained about it in the past, I'll somehow know how to 'fix' it. So, the situation is this - I am in no way impressed with our current Technician, and as such plan on getting rid of him. Unfortunately, we do not possess any of the licenses or documentation regarding the system, and fat chance about Administrator Accounts and Passwords. The absolute kicker to this is that the Technician wants us to pay for 'Outstanding Invoices' which are for the (now dead) General Manager's other company which operated out of the same premises. To make a loooooooooong story long, My preference is that we acquire Every. Single. Piece. of information regarding our Systems, but at the end of the day I might just have high expectations. At the very least, what do we require (or within reason for) the Technician to disclose so that any future I.T. Professional can appropriately access and maintain our network? I'll stop rambling for now, and thank you all in advance for any comments. - Cheers, SiG
Sounds like a nasty situation to be in to me. What is your current technician required to disclose under his contract? I would've thought that all systems belonging to the company are exactly that - every piece of software and hardware in there is the company's, so he should disclose everything to do with it, regardless of his personal status. Personally I wouldn't settle for anything less than total disclosure (within a touch of reason of course), and beyond that take legal action if it really comes down to it. Anything less and your technician has breached the boundary of professional conduct to me. Then again, I could be wrong.
if he has provided work for the company you work for then he is entitled to be paid if anything is outstanding. but if it is for a different company then you are not liable to pay for his outstanding invoices. if you have paid him for all the work he has done to YOUR systems then he doesnt have a choice in the matter he must provide all the information you require. he cant withhold information on your system cause another company hasnt paid him !!
If you get a domain administrator account, you can pretty much rescue everything else. And there's probably a way of rescuing the domain administrator account but you may have to pay for it (like from a data loss recovery company). Regarding software licensing, if you have the proof of purchase from your accounts dept, you own the software. As as just been said above, if the technician has been paid for his time for you, but not for the now deceased dude's other company, it ain't your problem as long as you can prove it, and a judge will agree, if you have to sue him for the information. The technician needs to take any unpaid invoices out with the administrators/inherited owner of the other company.
I've managed to start throwing together a letter for this occasion: My biggest concern is as to what extent the Technician has Documented and Organised his work on our System - It wouldn't surprise me if his definition of Organisation and Documentation is the box an item came in and the remaining contents. Needless to say I won't be impressed if this is the case and I'd certainly examine the whole case with a fine-toothed comb. That said, I know that the Director just wants this all over and done with to the point where we'll pay all of the Outstanding Invoices and just re-invoice the Executors of the Estate for the appropriate amounts owing.
Pay the guy, if the system had nothing to do with your company then why do you need access to the info on it. Bulls**t Asking for advice to jib this guy stinks.
Ouch. I guess I'll clarify a little. The situation was two companies operating out of the same office, with the now deceased being responsible for his own company, while also being General Manager of our company. Acknowledging that the two companies did not require I.T. Personnel each, we pooled together for the obvious financial benefit and also for the sake of convenience. My issue with these Outstanding Invoices is that they are Invoiced to our Company despite the fact that they are for services such as the repair of a laptop belonging to an employee of the other company and also the set-up of an internet connection at the General Manager's house. As the content of the Server, I couldn't give a brass razoo about the other company's files - as long as we can effectively bring the system into 'our' control, it is far more valuable than the associated downtime with the re-installation and configuration of our infrastructure.
to be fair the answer as to pay him or not to pay him is probably going to come down to a matter of how much he is trying to get you to pay. as for the documention I wouldn't hold out any hopes of it all being nicely packaged and filed and bundled together for you. If its anything like my paper work, its probably going to be a couple of boxes of papers, with a couple of bags of manuals. None of which have ever been looked at.
