Adhoc IT Support.

A cheap and cheerful way of maintaining a low volume of PC's, typically in a small business or home user environment.

If you browse the web in need of support for your PC or network, it doesn't take long to find suppliers who provide break-fix skills at an hourly cost when required. What people tend to forget though is that this model of support can prove to get painfully expensive especially as the complexity of users equipment and setup increases.

People now work both in the office and at home, with converging technology at both, so the need for extended hours support is on the increase when that last minute document needs completion sometime in the evening! Research whether an IT Support supplier offers extended hours support and what the cost will be on a per call or timed basis.

One area where adhoc support starts to become inadequate is when the user requires simply advice or "consultancy" on issues affecting their business. Some suppliers will provide this free of charge, although the level of attention they can provide "gratis" is usually quite limited.

Contract IT Support

This level of support provides a business with a fixed level of service for a monthly or yearly retained fee, although it is always worth checking exactly what is included and what is excluded.

Frequently, single users and small businesses negated this type of support with comments like "Its too expensive for our needs.......Why pay money as we know someone who will fix it.....". Many support companies can provide these services at lower cost now, so don't be prejudiced because the last quote you obtained was overly pricy from 5 years ago.

Negotiate with prospective suppliers as to the level of cover you require, and ensure they understand your requirements (time to respond, total time to fix,etc) before preparing a quote. This will result in far less shock when you compare 3 different quotes at wildly differing prices!

A good IT support contract normally encompasses at least a basic level of proactive maintenance, as it is in the provider's best interest to have a smoothly running client and network.

Any supplier who doesn't mention antivirus updates , windows updates and other simple checks should be questioned rigorously. After all, paying a regular amount per month doesn't entitle the supplier to take the money and ignore you until contract renewal.

In Conclusion

If you are currently maintaining your business IT on an informal basis with a 3rd party whenever a problem occurs, consider the time and cost benefits of having no disruption due to planned upkeep of your IT systems.