Introduction

IT infrastructure downtime is the reason most often given by companies who cannot reconcile improved productivity and bottom lines. It is for this reason that superior maintenance and turnaround times are so critical in a company's IT environment to enhance seamless business continuity.

B&D have two ways of offering IT support; either ad-hoc or SLA support. Ad-hoc services are reactive, while SLA support are aimed at being proactive!.

The problems with ‘ad-hoc support’

When you only contact your outsourced IT support provider after a problem occurs, you are being reactive. After logging a call on their helpdesk, it may take as much as two days for them to find some time in their busy schedules to send a technician out to your office. This means you could have one (or more) employee unable to effectively perform his daily tasks. For example, a problem caused by a virus; it could have easily been prevented by making sure the latest Windows and anti-virus software updates was installed (being proactive). It takes a lot less time (and money) to prevent a problem from occurring than to have to fix it afterwards.

·         Not proactive

·         More and longer downtime

·         Response time not guaranteed

·         Unable to budget for IT support fees upfront

·         Callouts are more expensive

The problems with ‘per seat unlimited support’

Many outsourced IT support providers have an option where you pay a fixed monthly fee per seat (computer or computer user) which will entitle you to unlimited IT support for that person/computer.

Because you are already paying the provider a predetermined monthly fee without specifying the time to be spent at your office up front, they hope to visit your office as little as possible to be able to service more customers per technician.

·         Not proactive

·         More and longer downtime

·         Technicians will do as little work as possible

·         Unattended problems cause bigger problems

Our solution

We believe in being proactive! By preventing problems before they occur, we minimize down time and support calls. This makes your employees more productive thereby saving you time and money and reducing IT costs.

With our Service Level Agreement, we pre-book a technician(s) to visit you on a weekly basis. The day(s) of the week and time(s) of the day(s) are fixed so you and your employees know exactly when the “IT guy” will be at your office to attend to your problems.

If a technician(s) visits you for 2 hours, but it takes him only 1,5 hours to complete all the logged issues, he has to stay at your office for the remaining 30 minutes to perform preventative tasks such as: updating anti-virus, installing Windows updates, neaten up network and power cables, train users on software and other preventative maintenance tasks. This will give you the peace of mind that the technician will do what is required of him and not waste your time and money.

We have found that within less than two months of a new customer entering into a Service Level Agreement with us, their emergency support calls reduce by more than 60%. Being proactive really makes a big difference!

To cater for those unfortunate critical emergencies that happen outside of the weekly scheduled support hours, we include a number of Emergency Onsite Support (EOS) hours each month. With a maximum response time of 4 working hours, you are guaranteed of good service levels throughout the month.

We found that more than 70% of computer problems are software related and can be fixed remotely via the internet. To all Service Level Agreement customers we offer free, unlimited telephonic and remote support assistance.

Remote Support

Depending on the availability of the technical resources, Help Desk staff will make every effort to resolve issues at the time of the service call by using remote access tools. This allows a Support Analyst to access the caller’s desktop remotely for the purpose of expediting the resolution of the call.

Workstation Support

·         Preventative maintenance, includes Windows updates, Antivirus, anti spyware and updates.

·         General workstation maintenance.

·         Reactive support on hardware failure.

·         Upgrade and install workstation equipment and software as requested. (subject to the purchase of recommended equipment from B&D)

·         Apply software updates and service patches.

·         Complex fault finding and troubleshooting.

·         Optimisation of workstation performance.

·         Workstation configuration standardisation throughout organisation.

·         Re-Installation of workstation software, following hardware repair or replacement.

·         Asset management.

·         Telephonic support.

·         Support agreement clients are prioritised over Ad Hoc billed clients.

·         Remote Support. (Provided you have a working internet connection)

·         On site callouts.

Server Support

·         Preventative maintenance, includes Windows updates, Antivirus, anti spyware and updates.

·         Regular server maintenance.

o    Remote monitoring of servers and server equipment

o    Inspection of security events and application logs

o    Apply approved software updates and service patches

o    Monitoring of system logs

o    Monitor all backups

o    Checking resource utilisation

·         Server administration.

·         Reactive support on hardware failure.

·         Upgrade and install server equipment and software as requested. (subject to the purchase of recommended equipment from B&D)

·         Backup of Server data, offsite backup storage. (collect and return) [SLA4 ~ SLA7]

·         Remote Support. (Provided you have a working internet connection)

·         On site callouts.

Advantages of SLA Support

·         Weekly pre-scheduled onsite support by same technician.

·         Non-scheduled emergency callouts included.

·         Preventative maintenance reduces system downtime and helps maximise your profits.

·         An engineer will be on-site, upon agreed days, or upon the receipt of a logged SR for service within the response time stated in this agreement.

·         Reactive and Proactive maintenance of your site.

·         No additional callout fees.

·         Monthly support packs will be compiled and drafted from our database of support SR’s that are logged and tracked by our Helpdesk so you can more accurately budget on monthly IT expenditure.

·         Loan units where necessary so that operations can continue as normally as possible.

·         Unlimited remote desktop, notebook and server support via the internet.

·         Unlimited telephonic support.

·         Discount on all labour in B&D’s workshop.

·         Discount on any additional EOS (if/when required).

·         B&D will take responsibility for carry-in and carry-out of equipment against the hours purchased.

·         Limited initial tidy up of current network infrastructure.

·         Detailed insurance reports on all computer equipment.

·         ISO standard network, workstation, server setup, configuration and maintenance.

Remote Support Advantages

·         Approximately 70% of problems can be resolved this way.

·         No waiting for an hour or more for a support technician to drive to your premises. Most of the time one of our helpdesk technicians will help you remotely within 10 minutes of logging a call.

·         No travel and callout fees.

·         No fees for time spent/labour (Service Level Agreement customers only).

Asset Management

Our asset management service provides customers with an accurate inventory of available IT resources. This service tracks resources and also controls asset additions, relocations, modifications and deletions.

Asset management services include policies and procedures to:

• Maintain IT technical standards.
• Manage the acquisition, delivery, installation, integration and disposal of IT assets.
• Manage additions, changes and deletions.
• Cascade usable assets and retire those which have become redundant.
• Maintain an accurate insurance inventory regarding IT assets.

Procurement

An enormous amount of money is spent on ICT equipment and services.  It makes sense then for the procurement function to shift from being primarily a tactical function to a strategic function that can contribute real, measurable value to the business.

Outsourcing your procurement to B&D allows you to benefit immediately from experienced procurement specialist support. B&D manages the procurement process from start to finish and has access to a large selection of the finest ICT products available from across the globe.

All products are thoroughly tested before arriving at a customer’s offices and even our delivery is guaranteed. Because we buy in bulk, we have negotiated the very best price available. We can pass our savings onto our customers, ensuring you get not only the best equipment for your particular requirements, but that you get it at the most affordable prices too. B&D office will also manage all warranties and software licences ensuring that these are optimised.

ISP Services

3Gi takes care of all your ISP Service Requests; we are aligned and provide customers with ISP services, focusing on excellent service and fast turnarounds. With a dedicated skilled team we are able to provide you, our customer with all your online service provider needs.

3Gi’s ISP Services covers a wide range of services including:

• Broad Band Solutions
• Domain Registration
• WWW Hosting Services
• Domain email & Anti-Spam Services
• Server Hosting
• Fax 2 Mail
• Telkom Management & fault Recovery
• Remote Management and Monitoring of Broadband Service

Data backup and off site storage

Information can be lost due to fire, theft or malicious damage from disgruntled staff members or hackers. These are all very real threats to your company’s information stored on your computers. Chances are you are NOT running backups that leave your office often enough, if you are running backups at all.

We are currently responsible for running these backups for many of our clients. This is done daily to a media device which we collect every Friday or Monthly depending on the client's requirements.

 

There are a few options available when looking at how to backup your information.

·         Backup to Tape
Managed backups using Backup Exec archiving data to DDSx or LTOx tapes

·         Backup to Disc
Managed backups run from server to portable drives.  This is a very cost effective solution, but needs to be managed carefully.

·         Additional Services offered
Backups are monitored from our offices and you are alerted to any problems, these are sent to us via e-mail.
Weekly collection and drop-off of removable backup media [SLA4 ~ SLA7]

Management and Maintenance Services

B&D provides a comprehensive range of support and management services that ensure customers’ networked IT environments operate effectively. These services are typically the cornerstone of B&D’s service offerings because they are based on the relationship developed with customers through providing these services. As a result of this B&D then becomes well positioned to facilitate migration to a common operating environment.

The constant measuring and monitoring of service level agreements (SLA) further strengthens our relationships with customers. These relationships also help us to improve the quality of our services delivered to our customers because we have an in-depth understanding of their business goals.

Management and maintenance services include help desk services, asset management services, network management services, remote desktop and systems management, TCO management, multi-vendor support, refresh services, and disaster recovery services.

Information Technology Management

·         Handling of IT Project related issues

·         IT Planning

·         Recommendation of required hardware and software upgrades as needed

·         Constantly endeavor to keep IT infrastructure on par or above industry standard allowing client to maintain a competitive advantage

·         Maintaining the site at an acceptable working standard.