Frequently Asked Questions
1. What do your support contracts cover?
2. What operating systems and applications do you cover?
3. We have a specialist application written by a third party. Would you cover that?
4. Do you provide hardware maintenance?
5. So you don’t sell hardware?
6. What’s your typical support customer like?
7. How do you charge for network support?
8. Why do you charge a monthly fee?
9. Are you expensive then?
10. What if I don’t have any budget for network support?
11. How quickly can you respond to problems?
12. How do you respond to problems?
13. What type of files can be protected and stored?
14. How often must my data be stored and protected?
15. How long would the initial process of protection and storage take?
16. How is the data transmitted and securely?
17. Can the Internet be trusted?
18. Can anyone else access my data?
19. Why should I be worried about security?
20. So I need security but I don’t have time to learn about it.
21. How much will a proper security system cost?
22. What’s different about you?
23. What else is different about you?
24. Anything else?
What do your support
contracts cover?
Anything that you could expect to see on a typical network is supported,
such as operating systems and applications, servers, workstations, printers,
switches, routers, hubs, Internet connections, whole network
infrastructures. For any problems with any part of your network, we would
be your first port of call.
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What operating systems and
applications do you cover?
We cover all Microsoft operating systems and
applications, all versions of Novell, most UNIX and
Linux systems and most other major applications such as
Citrix, Lotus Notes/Domino and Oracle.
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We have a specialist application
written by a third party. Would you cover that?
Many of our clients have specialist application. Some
are written and supported by a third party. We can work
with the supplier to ensure that everything is running
and resolve any problems that may arise.
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Do you provide hardware
maintenance?
No. We will investigate the initial problem and if it
turns out that the fault is with the hardware, we will
work with you and your hardware supplier to order
replacement parts and install them for you, but we do
not supply the parts themselves. This is because
hardware suppliers are in a much better position to
provide spare and replacement parts as they can provide
hardware maintenance far more cost effectively than we
could. Most companies these days buy hardware with
3-year warranties, so it’s already covered.
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So you don’t sell hardware?
We can supply any hardware, software or licenses you
require, but if you prefer to buy your hardware from
somewhere else, that’s OK too.
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What’s your typical support
customer like?
We have an enormous range of different customers across
all industry sectors. Our smallest support customer has
only four employees, whilst our biggest has over ninety
thousand. The difference is that for smaller customers
we tend to look after everything, whereas with larger
customers we tend to support specific systems, provide
additional support to existing support teams, or provide
specialist skills.
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How do you charge for network
support?
We charge a basic monthly fee which entitles you to a
certain number of hours of support or consultancy per
month. If you need more support than your contract
provides, we are happy to provide it for an additional
hourly charge.
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Why do you charge a monthly fee?
Providing effective network support requires that we
know your systems inside out. We need to keep detailed
records of how everything is configured so that we can
respond quickly and safely when you have a problem. We
have remote monitoring systems that can warn us in
advance of problems before they become critical. And of
course we have to provide sufficient resources so that
we always have someone available to deal with your call.
All of this costs us money, whether or not you have a
problem at any given time. We try to keep the monthly
fee as low as we can without sacrificing quality or
responsiveness.
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Are you expensive then?
We – and presumably our existing support customers –
don’t think so. There are network support providers that
charge less than we do and those that charge an awful
lot more. We are positioned at the very top of the
market in terms of quality and around half way up in
terms of cost. Sometimes we carry out work on behalf of
other support providers whose rates are two or three
times as high as our own, for the same people doing the
same work. We’re certainly a lot cheaper than lost data
or a day spent without a working computer system. We
have come across systems that were so vulnerable the
entire business was hanging by a thread. What price
would you put on your business?
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What if I don’t have any budget for
network support?
It’s simply unrealistic to expect your IT systems to run
forever without having any problems and since they are a
crucial business asset it’s equally unrealistic not to
have them adequately covered. Think of the monthly
charge as being insurance for one of your organisation’s
most valuable assets.
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How quickly can you respond to
problems?
Depending on the type of support contract you take out
with us, we guarantee emergency response times as low as
fifteen minutes. Note that these are contractual
response times and so represent worst-case scenarios; we
normally respond instantly to emergencies.
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How do you respond to problems?
We set up remote links to all of our customers’ sites,
either using through a VPN or using ISDN. This allows us
to take control of servers and other critical network
components within seconds, so that we can respond to
problems immediately. A lot of problems can be fixed
within minutes, but if we cannot resolve a problem
remotely we will go onsite. We aim to be onsite within 4
hours of identifying a problem that cannot be fixed
remotely, but it’s usually a lot quicker than that.
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What type of files can be protected
and stored?
All types of files may be selected.
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How often must my data be stored
and protected?
It is recommended that this is done daily. In most
cases this happens overnight and when the machine is
next accessed a confirmation of successful storage would
be received.
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How long would the initial process
of protection and storage take?
This depends upon the volume of data as your operating
systems would not need the backup.
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How is the data transmitted and
securely?
The service provided will connect through your dial-up
network connection. This established a VPN connection
to the secure data storage.
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Can the Internet be trusted?
Yes. The internet can be trusted. It is safe for your
date if the right components are in place such as data
encryption, access control, on line backup etc.
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Can anyone else access my data?
No. Using encryption and access control on line, your
data cannot be viewed by anyone. With encryption, only
you hold the key that is required to translate the
data. Anyone else trying to access it will just see a
screen full of nonsense. Only your authorised staff can
look at the data. Under the terms of Data Protection
Act 1988, you are compliant with the requirements of
data storage and transfer.
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Why should I be worried about
security?
Any organisation that has email or an internet
connection is vulnerable to the hundreds and thousands
of worms, viruses and Trojan Horses going around the
Internet. Some of them will destroy data permanently
and cause severe problems to your servers and
workstations.
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So I need security but I don’t have
time to learn about it.
Leave it to us. If you don’t wish to buy the required
package yourself, we can cater for your business needs.
We can provide the firewall, VPN, virus scanning and any
other options that we feel you will need to secure your
network.
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How much will a proper security
system cost?
This depends on the network system that needs
protection. A simple firewall is as little as £300, but
can you really put a price on this? The questions that
needs to be asked is how valuable is your data? If your
data was infected with a virus and left it
irretrievable, how would that affect your business?
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What’s different about you?
No grey areas, no finger-pointing and a pragmatic
approach to problem-solving. We see many customers who
have been suffering with some sort of problem for months
because the hardware supplier says it's a software
problem and the software vendor says it's a hardware
problem. We don't operate like that. In most cases our
customers don't especially care where the problem lies;
they just need it fixed. We operate on a "fix it first;
discuss it later" basis and we try to avoid grey areas
and finger-pointing at all costs.
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What else is different about you?
Over the years we have built up a good understanding of
our customers and what they want from a support
provider. The things they want are honest objective
advice, reliability, effectiveness, value for money and
accountability. These attributes are getting rarer in
today's cut-throat, short-term profit obsessed climate -
and that's what makes us different. We still believe in
the old principles of looking after customers and
building long term relationships.
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Anything else?
We have a very unusual mix of clients, from the very
small to the very large. This allows us to tailor the
advice and services we provide to each clients budget
and (just as importantly) to adapt as they grow and as
their priorities change. We gain a lot of clients who
have grown rapidly and whose existing support providers
either couldn’t keep pace with them, or else didn’t have
the skills that larger companies need. Our unique
client mix also enables us to provide smaller companies
with expertise we have gained from larger ones,
especially in areas (such as security) which tend to get
overlooked by companies below a certain size.
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