IT support, IT maintenance and computer repair contracts explained

IT is now one of the critical components of organisations large or small. Preventing problems is now more important than fixing them! ITS have years of experience in supporting businesses. We summarised the important things to look for in an IT Support contract.

You can always call us for more advice or ask one of our consultants for a visit to talk things through.

Your IT contract requirements

Here are the main options you should consider when evaluating IT support contracts.

Number of users / desktops / servers

Different IT companies will charge for IT contracts in different ways. Typically a contract will be priced on the numbers of desktops and servers; or the number of "users". The latter can be more difficult to judge (are part-time staff included?) but, in our opinion at ITS, is the most accurate way to assess the level of support required. At ITS our automated maintenance and monitoring means that we spend less time worrying about machines and more time helping your staff.

Hours of cover

Your business hours may not co-incide with those of your support company. Also should the support company have a longer day so they will work on a problem raised late in the day rather than shutting up the shop.

You may need to look at extended support hours to ensure you ar covered for evenings and weekends. You might not be working in the office on a Saturday but do you still need the email and BlackBerry servers to work?

Remote workers / working out of the office

The contract should also state whether workers are covered when they are out of the office and to what extent. Maybe they only need telephone support or should this include visits?

Response times / Service level agreements

Most contracts will stipulate a time within which the supplier respond to you by telephone or email. This is not the same as fixing the problem as it is difficult to guarantee fix times. A service level agreement would be a broader specification of the services to be performed.

Onsite visits included for free?

IT contracts usually split into remote and unlimited onsite agreements. The latter ensures that your organisation is not continually charged for engineer visits. This reduces administration for both sides dramatically (did the engineer fix it? did it really take him 4 hours?) and means your IT is fully supported within a fixed budget.

Monitoring

Monitoring is a key factor of IT support services. The right monitoring with prompt response can prevent many unnecessary outages or instance of lost data.

Any extras?

There are lots of additional services that could be included: Anti-virus software, spam filtering, web hosting, etc.

At ITS we will tailor a support package to your specification and can include many IT services for little or no cost.

What next?

ITS support hundreds of IT users all over London, and their satellite offices across the UK.
- Speak to one of our experts on 0845 519 1401
- We can call you back