Product Professional

Owner Phil Goodman has been a frequent seminar speaker and instructor at national conferences such as Macworld Expo, Macworld | iWorld, MacIT, MacTech Conference, MacTech Bootcamp, Apple’s Channel Camp and MacFair/LA. With over 35 years of computer consulting experience, Phil was one of the founding members of Apple's Consultants Network (ACN) program in 1989 (and has been a member longer than any other consultant in the world) and served on Apple’s inagural ACN Advisory Council from 1999-2004. Phil is one of very few consultants in the world that holds certifications in every version of macOS including the Apple Certified Support Professional, Apple Certified Technical Coordinator, Apple Certified Security & Mobility Specialist, and Apple Certified Help Desk Specialist as well as the Apple Mobility Technical Competency (iOS) credentials. Phil is also one of a handful of Apple Certified Trainers nationwide allowing him to teach Apple’s desktop and server courses leading to certification. He has been recognized as an "Apple Product Professional" – a designation reserved for only the top achievers in Apple's internal education program. Phil is also recognized as a CWNP Certified Wireless Technician so he can handle your WiFi needs with ease. Phil is also certified for JAMF and Addigy Mobile Device Management (MDM) technologies for remotely deployment and management.

In addition to demonstrating expert level macOS knowledge, Phil is also a Claris Partner (formerly the FileMaker Business Alliance). He has been using FileMaker Pro for over 36 years and has been developing databases professionally since 1990.

Phil Goodman has provided database solutions for clients in various industries such as health care, marketing communications, service, design, IT, entertainment, human resources, TV News, and education. Using his academic background in relational database theory, he uses a modular approach to developing solutions that is both flexible and scalable but is also simple and straightforward to use. His motto is “If a manual is needed to use software we create, then we didn’t do our job right".

As a sought-after professional speaker, Phil has spoken at and taught hundreds of seminars on various computer and IT related topics at national and local conferences including Macworld, iWorld, MacIT, MacTech and ACES, as well as at computer user groups, internal Apple training camps and various Apple stores (for the public and for Apple Staff).

Apple occasonally spotlights consultants who work with their technologies and they wrote a success story about Goodman Consulting for the Apple web site. Phil continues to be a nationally recognized speaker for macOS technology. As one of the founders and a member of the group's leadership board of the Los Angeles area Apple Consultants Network community, Phil also provides regular weekly and monthly training to the community.

Background

Phil completed his undergraduate work in Molecular Biology at UCLA and his graduate work at the Graduate School of Education at UCLA where he specialized in computer-assisted learning. In 1989, he joined the faculty of the Department of Mathematics at UCLA where he taught computer literacy and computer programming through 1994 and returned as a visiting lecturer in 1997. He also wrote one of the textbooks for the computer literacy course that was used by several thousand students at the University for many years. Using this educational background and his ability to listen and understand the people he's working with, Phil is very much a "people" person and this helps to put his clients at ease so that they don't feel intimidated with computers.

In 1992, Phil founded the Los Angeles Portable User Group and continues as the group’s President. It remains as one of the only Mac user groups in Southern California with monthly meetings. Phil was also one of the original five board members of the FileMaker Developers in Southern California Group (FMDiSC) and continues to contribute as a speaker. For nearly a decade, Phil served as a Director and Vice-President of the former Los Angeles Macintosh Group, one of the largest computer user groups in the world in the 1990s.

Clients Include…

National managed healthcare organizations, Apple, Agron/Adidas, Toyota Land Cruisers (TLC) & ICON, Animal Restaurant, Son of a Gun, Trois Mec, National Shopping Mall Owners, Kieser Consulting, Skiermont Derby, LLP, Stern Fisher Edwards, Liz’s Antique Hardware, Premiere TV, Part & Parcel, Susan Masterman Architects, UCLA, CBS Television, Quake City Caps, Rolled Steel, NYDJ, Lionsgate Entertainment, Ken Lindner & Associates, Lombard Graphics, Sony, Santa Monica College, and several high-profile individuals in the entertainment industry and prominent government individuals, among many others.

Why Should You Work with an Apple Professional?

Potential clients sometimes ask why they should work with us instead of solving their own problems or hiring an employee to manage their IT infrastructure. It’s a fair question, and we’re happy to answer it in more detail if you want to chat. But here are a few of the reasons why working with an Apple professional is the right decision. All these revolve around the fact that we’ve been investigating and fixing tech problems in the Apple world for a long time (over 30 years!), we’re constantly working to stay up with the latest changes, and we’re good at what we do.

Save Time

The biggest reason to hire an expert to solve your problems is that we can save you time. If you’re an individual, it’s time you can spend on your real job, with your family, or on your hobbies. For companies, it’s time you aren’t taking away from your firm’s line of business.

Aside from the fact that we’ll be doing the work to fix your Mac or get your network operational instead of you or one of your employees doing it, we’ll probably be able to finish more quickly than someone who’s not steeped in the field. Would you prefer to spend hours on something that would take us a fraction of the time?

Save Money

As an individual, it might seem counterintuitive that paying us will save you money, but it’s often true. If you buy the wrong hardware or software, that’s a waste of money that could be avoided with our advice ahead of time. For instance, no matter how many ads you see, never get suckered into buying one of those Trojan horse apps that say they will “fix'“ your Mac.

For companies, the financial savings are more obvious. Most companies don’t have extra employees just waiting to solve tech problems, and hiring a dedicated IT staff will cost vastly more in salary, benefits, and overhead than outsourcing to us.

Reduce Downtime

It’s easy for businesses to understand the importance of avoiding downtime. If your phone system is down, customers can’t call you. If your point-of-sale database gets corrupted, you can’t take orders until the backup has been restored. And so on—the point of working with a top-notch Apple professional is that we can help you avoid problems that would cause downtime. We’ll work with you and proactively setup your system to avoid data loss and downtime if something happens. If a catastrophe does strike, we’ll get you up and running as quickly as possible.

Individuals might say they’re not too worried about downtime, but how long could you go without being able to send or receive email if Mail’s settings get wonky? Or what would your family think about not having Internet access while you back out of a bad firmware upgrade to your router?

Avoid Incorrect Information

Google is a godsend for figuring out weird problems, but it can also lead less experienced people down dead-end paths. If you don’t have years of experience, it’s easy to find a Web page or YouTube video that sounds helpful but makes the problem worse.

For instance, lots of Web articles have advised force-quitting iOS apps to increase battery life, improve performance, and more. Unfortunately, that advice is wrong—force-quitting apps generally hurts battery life and reduces performance. Only force-quit an app when it’s misbehaving badly or not responding at all. Ask us before assuming something you’ve read online is helpful or even correct.

Benefit from the Big Picture View

Because we live and breathe Apple technology, we have a broad and current view of what’s happening both in the industry and with our other clients. We know what new products or services might be the best solution to any given problem, and we can take advantage of our experience with one client to help another.

For example, Apple has officially discontinued its AirPort line of Wi-Fi routers, so we’ve been comparing mesh networking alternatives. If you’re using an AirPort base station now, ask us which alternative makes the most sense for your installation.

Because we put the time into understanding your personal or corporate technology needs, we can use our experience to ensure that what we recommend will work well together.