Managed it services

For most clients, there will be some costs involved in getting your technology systems up to a minimum standard to ensure that your software, hardware and security is supported and configured properly. This is entirely dependent on the current state of your existing IT infrastructure and will be evaluated and quoted on a case-by-case basis. Simple environments that have been reasonably well maintained over the years are typically set up in less than two hours of labour, whilst larger and more complex environments with a variety of issues can require over 10 hours of labour, plus new hardware to get things up to scratch.

Setup costs are billed at discounted labour rates.

All plans come with various levels of support labour. The term “unlimited” is in reference to time, and not scope. It is important to understand what is included, and what is not. Our managed IT service offerings are intended to ensure that your existing systems are well-maintained and continue to function to the end of their useful life. Examples of included remote support are as follows:

• Assistance with a misbehaving email system
• Diagnosing and repairing network connectivity issues via remote troubleshooting
• Assistance with a desktop computer that is not updating properly
• Consultation on a document processing system
• Assistance with a printer that prints but refuses to scan
• Assistance with a slow Wi-Fi connection on certain devices
• Installing new drivers on a workstation to address a performance issue
• Quotes on any project work

We endeavour to provide as much support as required to either reach a solution or to reach a point where we are confident the issue is not able to be solved via our included support services within the plan you choose. For example, if a desktop computer no longer covered by warranty experiences a hardware issue and equipment needs to be replaced, the work to resolve this is considered a project, and not part of included support services. Additional examples of situations where discounted billable project labour would apply includes:

• Upgrading and migrating from a legacy email system that is not fit for business needs
• Repairing a desktop computer with faulty hardware that is no longer covered by warranty
• Replacing defective network equipment (e.g. damaged from a storm or accidental damage, or failure out of warranty)
• Implementation of new cloud-based productivity tools
• Replacing an old printer with a new unit and configuring it as required
• Upgrading network hardware and servers to improve performance or add functionality
• Any sort of service that is not applicable to your organisation (e.g. Requests to service or review personal computers or devices).

There may also be situations where support labour for your existing systems is required, but due to various external factors, needs to be counted as project work. This is typically due to technical issues that are caused by unauthorised changes to systems, and unsupported or out-of-scope software systems. Below are some additional examples of situations where included labour does nor apply, and instead discounted project labour will be billable:

• Assistance with situations where there have been unauthorised modifications made to systems, whether it be by internal team members or external entities. This includes attacks by an external threat or malicious actors (e.g. Ransomware attacks, phishing scams, viruses)
• Any services provided for external contractors, such as file sharing, email forwarding, etc. Examples include software developers or internet marketers who may require access to various resources.
• Assistance with personal mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Whilst we are happy to provide some basic support services for core business systems (e.g. Email, Contact sync, Calendars), these may only receive a limited scope of support in regard to their use as a business tool. We will endeavour to let you know if any requested services fall outside the scope of support in this situation.
• Support for Line-of-Business (LOB) applications will be limited to the basic installation of the software and cooperation with vendor support where necessary (e.g. if the vendor suspects a network issue causing issues with the application). If you require assistance with functions within your LOB applications (e.g. if you are having an issue with a feature of the program, such as using a booking system) then you should contact your vendor’s support team. Depending on the application we may be able to provide some basic advice for this on a best-effort basis at no cost, but further troubleshooting for LOB applications are billable unless mentioned otherwise.
• Any support for systems or software which are no longer supported or considered End-Of-Life by the vendor (e.g. Windows 7) will be billable unless mentioned otherwise.

Any individual that relies on a technology system within the organisation to perform their duties on an ongoing, full-time basis is considered to be a “person” in the context of how we calculate your fees. Typically we analyse this by determining which individuals either use a computer, have an email account or access systems within the organisation.

Part time employees may be eligible to be billed at a reduced rate when compared to a full time employee (e.g. a part time employee who performs around 15-20 hours a week may be billed at 0.5x the rate of a standard full-time user), however this is also evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

There may also be situations where you have groups of individuals who only occasionally use technology systems, such as an operations team that are working in the field or in a production facility. We typically evaluate these scenarios on a case-by-case basis to determine what level of support is required for these groups of individuals, and we will work with you to ensure that any arrangements are fair and agreed upon. For example, a group of five employees who are on an operations team and only use a single computer system for 30 minutes of a day as part of their daily reporting, could be considered to require the same level of support as a single full-time employee and would be considered as such when we calculate service fees.

The cumulative total of your full-time, part-time and operations team members is added together to create your “Service Load” which is then multiplied by the “Price per Person” for your selected service plan. For example, here is a typical representation on how fees may be calculated:

1. 5x Full time office & management staff = 5 persons
2. 3x Part time office & management staff = 1.5 persons
3. 7x Operations team members = 1.5 persons

Total Service Load = 8 persons.

This figure is then multiplied by the Price per Person for your service plan to determine the total service fees.

Yes! Any individual that is covered by one of our managed service offerings is able to receive the same discount on labour services for their own personal computers, devices, and equipment. Please be aware that this policy only applies to the individuals employed by the business – it does not extend to friends and families. Simply mention this discount when booking in personal repairs to receive this discount.

Under a managed service plan, a maximum of two computers or devices owned by the organisation (e.g. desktops, laptops, tablets, mobile devices, etc) are covered for each full-time person, and one device for each part-time person. This is a pooled resource, meaning that if you have a plan for 10 full-time people and one part-time person, you will have a pool of 21 devices covered. Mobile devices such as smartphones that are not owned by the organisation are typically not counted towards this amount, however this is subject to review if your organisation requires mobile device management under a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) policy.

If you exceed the total number of permitted devices, then additional fees of $25 per device may apply. Unless otherwise mentioned, servers are not counted in the device pool and are generally quoted on a case-by-case basis depending on the complexity of the services they run.

Our primary objective of our managed IT services is to provide excellent value to you and your team as a technology partner each and every month. As such, we don’t see the need to enforce lock-in contracts, and all contracts are on a month-to-month basis. We currently do not offer discounts for fixed annual plans at this stage, however this may change in the future. If there are any problems or concerns about the way we deliver our services, please don’t hesitate to contact us and we will do what we can to resolve these issues. If for whatever reason you must cancel your managed IT services with us, we require a 30 days written notice to ensure that we have an opportunity to cancel services properly.

Each plan comes with a set of inclusions, with some optional extras available. We can add additional services to an existing plan, but unfortunately we do not currently offer modified plans where you’d be able to remove services, or have a mix of different plans for different people within your organisation. However if you feel your business is unique and doesn’t fit well into one of our pre-existing plans, please contact us and we can organise something for you.

One of the objectives of our managed IT services is to improve the reliability and functionality of your technology systems to a point that you and your team will rarely need to contact our team to fix issues. Our proactive approach to your technology will often take care of many problems before they occur. Whilst we don’t expect our clients to be technology experts, it should be noted that there may also be special scenarios where we feel that specific individuals may be generating disproportionate amounts of support work due to a lack of technology training. In these scenarios, we may request that the individual be placed through additional training programs provided by their employer. Whilst we are passionate and focused on providing support and training materials to help your team get the most out of their technology, we are not responsible for the hands-on training as part of our included support labour. We can provide this as a service, however it is treated as a billable labour item.

If additional training is ineffectual in reducing the quantity of support work required for specific individuals to a reasonable level, then we will be required to open discussions and potentially add a surcharge to your agreement to ensure that we can continue to provide high-quality support services for your team.

Yes. Whilst we strongly recommend Windows as a platform for business PCs, we have plenty of experience working with Mac and even Linux-based systems and we can provide support for these on a best-effort basis. Please note however that due to the limitations of these platforms, some of our tools do not support these. The following features are currently unavailable for these platforms:

• Workstation System Monitoring
• Workstation Software Update Management
• Antivirus Monitoring
• Antivirus Management or System Update management
• Workstation backup monitoring

We are working with vendors to improve the functionality of our tools so that these features can be available in the future, but there is no ETA at the moment.

A minimum of 2 employees is required to avail of the service.