A Service Level Agreement (SLA) is a valuable agreement to have in place. Especially when it comes to tech support.
Why do you need a tech support Service Level Agreement?
Business moves quickly, and with most systems being based online and communications largely being made by email and other online messaging platforms, being able to keep pace with your competitors, capitalise on opportunities and provide the best service to your clients relies overwhelmingly on strong IT. At Microcomms, this is what we do, which makes a Service Level Agreement with us a sure-fire way to ensure technological peace of mind.
What does it cover?
The first thing to say is that an SLA is bespoke to each individual client, ensuring that as a business, you only ever pay for what you need. Essentially, under an SLA, we become an extension of your team. We have trained experts who are always on hand to either guide you through work that needs doing, or undertake the actions themselves. The agreement serves as an insurance policy, particularly for clients who may not have in-house expertise to act in the case of emergencies, but also as additional support to existing IT teams.
There are a number of services that we can provide under an SLA. Some come ‘as standard’, while others are optional. All, however, are designed to be ‘proactive’, to help your business stay ahead of any potential issues by putting processes and systems in place to mitigate against the potential for IT disaster. Services that come ‘as standard’ include health checks, which not only prevent service downtime and thereby save your business money, but also offer reassurance that your systems are performing as expected. These checks are tailored to your business’ requirements, and can take place daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually. We also provide checks both remotely and in-person, and when it comes to finding issues, we can either fix them for you, or simply report them to your IT department. We will also provide customised, scheduled reports which offer recommendations and highlight potential issues.
Optional services include server checks, which cover Windows updates, critical service functionality, performance and capacity management. Security checks, too, often prove a valuable addition, covering both visual and physical checks, patch management, and firmware checks, including the checking and patching of all active network equipment such as routers and switches. For businesses relying on CCTV, we can offer monitoring for those systems too, monitoring up-time and checking that the required recordings are taking place. Network monitoring can help to automatically identify issues, from vital server problems to toner levels in your printer, and regular IT audits can track performance and suitability of desktop and laptop computers.
Why choose Microcomms?
The world of IT is a complex one, and for smaller businesses, where justifying the cost of a full-time IT team just isn’t feasible, it can quickly become a headache. But it shouldn’t. That’s why we’re here, and if you’re unsure as to whether a Service Level Agreement is right for your particular business, it’s worth noting that we work with myriad types of businesses, from charities and schools, to large corporates and even sole traders.
Whatever you do, and whatever your size, with an SLA in place you will have access to an account manager and tech team member at all times, the value of which is quickly realised when you no longer have to field those tricky IT issues yourself. Value in the monetary sense is also what we aim to provide, and the fact is that the risks for businesses who don’t have an SLA for tech support ultimately boil down to money lost. This could come in the form of downtime in your business costing you money, or being left open to cyber attacks. But with an SLA as your insurance policy, you’ll be left with the peace of mind that the systems you rely on to keep your business running smoothly will be proactively managed, reviewed and serviced, all by a team that lives and breathes good, solid IT.
