toolbox
Table of Contents
It seems not a day goes by, where someone asks for my thoughts and recommendations regarding various service providers. So, here's my list…
Internet Services
Stephouse Networks
Rock solid services, small company, VERY responsive technical support, and tech-savvy employees. I once hosted all of my personal and business systems in their environment. I left only because I outgrew them.
Forked.net
Housed in Infinity Internet's datacenter, the folks behind this company were GREAT to work with - but they simply could not offer the professional quality of services I needed. This was due in part to Infinity Internet's frequent failure to deliver upon promised core competences.
Infinity Internet
Awful…I'll fill in details later.
XO
Awful…worse than Infinity…I'll fill in details later.
Integra
Services were within reason; nothing spectacular, but then nothing chasing me away either….more details to follow.
Voice/VoIP Services
CallWithUs
Used for outbound calls, especially calls aborad; cheap, reliable, and good quality local, national, and international calling options.
Teliax
Since October of 2007, my main VoIP line has been provided by Teliax. I've got zero complaints; reliable, stable, cheap & always EXCELLENT quality calls. Great support crew as well.
Vonage
I used them for around two years…though I switched to Teliax, simply because Vonage charges WAY too much for the services offered…further, Vonage blocks access to software-based phones (unless you fork over yet-another $10/month).
Professional Services
Allports Inc.
Recommended by Travis Gintz, for their effectiveness at handling sea-freight logistics, including customs brokering.
Recruiters
Ally Recruiting
Cherice Withers Principal Recruiting Consultant Ally Recruiting 503-201-2161
cherice@allyrecruiting.com www.allyrecruiting.com
Adecco Technical
Roger Cummings Direct Hire Recruiting Manager Adecco Technical 121 SW Morrison Street, Suite 840 Portland, OR 97204
Office (503) 889-7720 x105
Cell (503) 998-4371 Fax (503) 224-8130 roger.cummings@adeccona.com www.adeccotechnical.com
Systems Administration
Microsoft Consulting
TOCICI Provides Microsoft IT support and datacenter hosting services in the Portland Oregon area.
Disclaimer: this is my business.
Linux Consulting
TOCICI Provides Linux IT support and datacenter hosting services in the Portland Oregon area.
Disclaimer: this is my business.
Technical Staff training
ALC Press
I've worked with Ed Sawicki (owner) since 1998, in capacities such as team-teaching, team-presenting, and small consulting gigs. Without a doubt, this company cranks out training resources that both technical and non-technical people clamor for; they communicate with the business/non-technical sides with as much ease as the highly-technical sides.
Website Development
OpenSourcery (Drupal)
I had the pleasure of working here for nearly a year; the sales & marketing, and software design & development staff truly cares about the customer and their work.
Since I firmly believe that the management of a project is what makes or breaks it, for Drupal work, please instead see my recommendation for ThinkShout.
While I have not heard anything terrible about them in the past year, I can't recommend OpenSourcery anymore. They appear to have gone all-in; fixating on a niche “Drupal” software customization market. They no longer appear to service any other industry or market, including previous IT consulting & support customers. From where I sit, their new focus is working well for them, and I wish them the best of luck in their endeavors.
As for recommendations, most of the employees that I once called co-workers, were laid-off in June of 2009. The owner I worked closest with left ~9 months after that (taking the web hosting business with him), and then nearly all remaining long-term “worker/developer” employees departed shortly thereafter. With exception to two sales guys, two remaining owners, and their Director of Operations, only one of their original (pre-layoff) full-time developers remains; Jonathan Hedstrom is a great guy whom I'd enjoy working with again.
ThinkShout
ThinkShout was founded by Sean Larkin.
I had the pleasure of working with Sean for the duration of many projects. Given the chance, I'd do it again, in a heartbeat.
Sean single-handily changed my opinion of project managers. Before meeting Sean, I'd been working in the IT industry for over a decade; the experiences of missed deadlines, skyrocketing budgets, and failing projects, were all too common. Sean changed all that. As the project manager, Sean proved budgets can be projected accurately, and deadlines can be kept. Sean communicates so effectively, nothing is a surprise to anyone, including the customer. Sean is passionate, dedicated, and just damn good at what he does.
In less than a year, he started and built a business with nearly a half-dozen other team members, and has already completed dozens of projects. To this day, his business continues to grow. Sean has a rare mixture of business-savvy, humility, and “geek”. Knowing he'll only accept projects he's capable of completing, I can easily, and broadly, recommend Sean for any project: having full-confidence that if he takes the project, he'll finish it.
Graphics/Layout
Programming
Unsorted
