Co-op (or similar) IT Company

CoTech
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Hi CoTech, are there any co-op (or recommended) IT companies out there? I had a look on the services & technologies grid on the website but I’m looking for something more along the lines of networking, desktop setup & support, office software etc

We (mostly I) do most of this in-house at Unicorn Grocery at the moment, but the scale of the business, and our reliance on technology has hugely increased as time’s gone on. With the upcoming Windows 7 end-of-life I was thinking of getting some external help and would prefer to go with a fellow co-operative if possible.

We currently have 25 desktop PCs, 5 Laptops, ~70 users, use a mix of G Suite (I know, I know) and Microsoft Office, sharing files using a QNAP NAS. I’d love to implement roaming profiles, offsite access to files (other than G Drive), centralised PC & printer management & more.

Is there anyone who provides consultancy on that sort of thing?

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We do this level of support for one client at Autonomic but we don’t specialise in Windows based infrastructure by any stretch of the imagination.

I think we could help thought, especially if you are interested in migrating more in the direction of open source software.

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This type of service does strike me as being a bit of a gap in terms of co-operative service providers. Would make an ideal co-op of freelancers.

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Tech Support Co-op is a north american tech worker co-op that mostly serves local food co-operatives. One of their founders appears to explicitly do windows support: About Us – the Tech Support Cooperative

(I’ll ping them in here :wink: )

EDIT: cc @joelbrock

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Thanks @patcon, i saw this thread but stayed quiet cuz we are in NA and so not too helpful for the OP.
But to address broadly: The Tech Support Co-op does offer some amount of networking and client service and support. But it’s by no means our primary thing. Particularly the management of an office requires a solid remote management suite of software which isnt affordable until you’re at scale. In my experience. There are some open-source option out there… Happy to take recommendations.

Even for POS, which is our main revenue source, we provide PCs to run the cash register system, but do not do much in the way of remote monitoring.

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That’s definitely something I can offer.

thecloud.org.uk

I’m based in Manchester, Hyde area.

Lee.

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@kawaiipunk, we would certainly consider using more open source office tools - every time I do an IT induction session with new members here someone asks “We’re a worker co-op, why aren’t we using Linux/OpenOffice/LibreOffice?!” and indeed i was that person 11 years ago. I’ve not looked at LibreOffice for a while, if it could seamlessly handle all our weird spreadsheets I guess we’d be happy to switch there. We’re certainly stuck using Windows as our EPOS software runs on it as does our Payroll software. Things are gradually moving to webapps though, so who knows.

@joelbrock if you folks were prepared to up sticks and move to the UK we could certainly put some business your way!

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Hi Dan, I can certainly help there and put together some form of proposal, come and visit you as I’m based in Manchester and look at the best set-up/continuing support.

We focus on opensource software, however I have experience from other roles in providing windows based support and setup of networks.

Drop me an email: lmacleod[at]mediablazehosts.coop

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LOL!
We are already an international worker co-op with 2 of our 6 member-owners in Canada and 4 in the States. Who’s to say we couldn’t take on another member or 2 in the UK?..

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@danholden We did something similar for a vegan online seller coop in germany: Consulting, Transformation, Data-Migration and Service/Monitoring (partly also Windows Server). But we focus on server infrastructure not client support. If we can somehow help, just say… :slight_smile:

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