Managed Services
- How will a managed service help my business?
- Are there different levels of managed service?
- What is a fully managed service or an “all you can eat service
- What isn’t covered?
- What does it cost?
- What sort of contract do I need to sign?
- If you need to do any work on our network before taking over the support what will this cost?
In the past IT support has traditionally been provided on a “break fix” basis which means that the system is left to run until such time that it goes wrong and the support company is then called onsite to deal with the problem. This sort of situation is similar to buying a new car and then driving it without any form of servicing or maintenance until such time as a problem occurred which in the case of the oil running out would lead to a very large and expensive problem that could have been prevented by simply monitoring the oil levels and topping them up when required.
Managed IT support services are pro active rather than reactive so you are less likely to have a problem in the first place. If you wish to get a better understanding of what managed support services are and how they can work for your business then the information on this page will provide you with a greater understanding.
If you already know what managed services are and require an idea of what it will cost you then click on the link to the cost calculator and for detailed information about Hands-On Computers Managed support service please click here to open the PDF which gives a detailed explanation of our support services.
What is the definition of a managed service provider?
Below is a definition of a managed service provider from Wikipedia:
A managed service provider (MSP), is a company that manages information technology services for other companies via the internet. An MSP is a "company that offers continuous outsourcing of an IT function it works on a recurring revenue model; it monitors and fixes things proactively; and it does all this over the Internet, rather than having to work hands-on at a client's office."
How will a managed service help my business?
By outsourcing the day to day management and monitoring of your network you remove the need to waste any of your own or your staffs time in keeping track of and dealing with daily IT tasks (such as making sure the backup has completed successfully) and by having a professional company handle it you will improve the performance and reliability of your network which in turn will allow your staff to perform their jobs with less interruption.
Clearly you may feel that if you have someone in house that is prepared to do these daily jobs then why would you want to pay someone else to do them? In reality if you don't have a full time IT manager then it is very difficult to expect non IT people to assume responsibility for making sure on a daily basis that the backup has completed successfully, the antivirus software is up to date, people are not installing programs onto their machines that they shouldn't be, all of the machines have the latest updates and security patch's installed, there are no errors on the server indicating an upcoming problem and many more similar basic IT jobs.
It is an unfortunate fact that many companies that rely upon in house members of staff to deal with these tasks end up finding out the hard way when they lose data and only realise when trying to restore the lost information that the backup hadn't work properly for the past month and thus the data is lost and under these circumstances is it reasonable to discipline the staff member because they hadn't realised that something was wrong?
Simple daily monitoring and patch management of your network is the most basic level of a managed service agreement but in reality it is possible to tailor a Managed Service agreement to cover just the monitoring and patch management through to a fully managed service and everything in between.
Are there different levels of managed service?
Yes there are. It is very important to understand that the term managed service is an umbrella term for what is essentially the outsourcing of elements of your daily IT management, maintenance and support and thus some companies will require more than others. The most basic level of a managed service is the proactive monitoring and patch management of your network which can be built up to a fully managed service where all aspects or your IT are covered under one fixed monthly cost.
What is a fully managed service or an “all you can eat service”
A fully managed service is where you pay a fixed monthly fee which covers all aspects of keeping your IT running efficiently and covers any issues you may have be it a hardware or software problem. By taking a fully managed service you remove any responsibility of the daily running of your network and have the comfort of knowing that whatever happens you will not have to find any further money in the event of a problem occurring.
Listed below is a summary of what is included in the Hands-On Computers fully managed support and Disaster recovery service:-
- System monitoring
- System hardware and software auditing
- Ongoing maintenance and patch management
- Unlimited Help desk support
- Unlimited Remote support
- Unlimited Onsite support for any problem that cannot be dealt with remotely
- Guaranteed service level agreements (SLA’s)
- Help desk ticketing and fault logging system allowing users to easily raise a new support call either by phone or directly from their PC
- Client access portal
- Detailed monthly reports on your networks health and support activity during that period
- Loan equipment while existing machines are being repaired (Part of DR service)
- 25% reduction on our standard rates for all project work
- Fully managed and monitored in house backups
- Implementation of disaster recovery procedure for fast recovery from failures of PC’s and servers (Part of the DR Service)
- Spare servers held offsite thus allowing us to greatly reduce the amount of time required to get users back online following a server incident (part of the DR service)
- Management of Offsite backup (additional cost applies on a per Gigabyte per month basis)
- Advice and consultancy on current and new technologies where they may be of use to your business
- Regular management level meetings to make sure that everything is running as it should be and to provide advice on future developments
What isn’t covered?
The managed service can be tailored to cover as little or as much as you require however assuming that you have opted for a fully managed network you can rest assured that nearly all problems will be included. The list below indicates some areas where you incur additional costs however under the managed service any work quoted would be reduced by 25%:
- Project work such as additions of new equipment/software
- Upgrading of parts of your network be it hardware or software
- Damage to any hardware through misuse or malicious behaviour
- Replacement of equipment that has been lost or stolen
- Parts required to repair a broken system.
- Parts required for maintenance through general wear and tear such as printer fusers
- Any item that is classed as a consumable such as printer toner or backup tapes/cleaning tapes.
The above list is not an exhaustive list but should give a feel for the sort of things that are not covered.
What does it cost?
To make it easier we have created two simple packages a standard service and a premium service (for full details of what is included please see our Managed Support Services PDF document) but in short the standard service provides all elements of our fully managed support service with unlimited remote support and the Premium service is exactly the same but also includes unlimited onsite support as well.
The monthly charge is initially based on the number of computers and servers you have and the calculation tool shown below will allow you to get an estimate of the total cost of supporting your network.
In essence the figures you get below are a starting point based on an average network and will give you a good idea of the highest price you would pay for us to support your network on a fully managed basis (excluding the Managed DR services). Should you only require certain elements of the service then we would need to assess your individual requirements and provide you with a specific quote.
Notes re the cost calculator:
Any figures shown are an estimate and cannot be used as a fixed and binding quotation. Should you be interested in getting a fixed quotation then we would need to carry out our free IT survey which will allow us to asses you current set up and from this we will provide you with a fixed quotation.
What sort of contract do I need to sign?
There are two types of contract with the first being a rolling 30 day agreement which has no tie-ins giving you the freedom to cancel at any time should your circumstances change. The second option is a 12 month contract which as the name suggests requires you to enter into a 12 month financial commitment but for this we automatically discount the total monthly support cost by 10%.
In all cases payment for our support service is by Standing Order on the first day of each month.
Do you need to look at our equipment before a support agreement can be provided?
In most cases we will need to carry out a free IT survey before we can agree to offer our services and once complete we will prepare a report laying out our findings and detailing any work that needs to be done to bring the system up to a suitable level along with a quote for the required work.
If you need to do any work on our network before taking over the support what will this cost?
Should we find that work is required before we can start the support agreement then we will provide you with a written quote as part of our free IT survey however if you take out a 12 month contract and the amount of work required is not too much then we may at our discretion carry out the necessary work with no charge.