Synapse IT Consultants aim to provide an effective solution to all manner of IT enquiries, so have collated the most common questions asked into an easy to navigate FAQs page.
How long will it take you to respond to my issue?
All of our service agreements include advanced system monitoring software. Our system proactively monitors your hardware and software for possible faults. This means that in many cases we can respond to your issue before you even realise there is an issue! For problems or requests that are reported to us, our support process ensures that all service requests are reviewed by one of our account managers within a maximum of 30 minutes of receipt. Part of this process involves evaluating the severity and impact of the issue and then scheduling the job accordingly. Our response times are stipulated in our support agreements and tracked by our job system. This means you can be confident that your urgent issues will always be handled quickly and efficiently.
How long will it take you to actually fix our issue?
This depends on the issue, however our skilled consultants are able to quickly and efficiently resolve any problems that do eventuate. We have years of experience with all aspects of IT environments and so we have the knowledge to diagnose and resolve most problems quickly. We also deploy state of the art remote monitoring and management tools onsite for all of our service agreement clients. These tools allow us to catch problems before they become serious and hard to fix, saving you valuable time and money. We also leverage our management tools to streamline many common tasks, again reducing the time and cost required.
Do you sell equipment and software?
Yes we do! We deal with many of Australia’s leading IT distributors so we are able to provide you with a wide range of quality equipment at competitive prices. While of course you are free to purchase any equipment from any supplier, we prefer that you procure equipment from us rather than third parties. This enables us to ensure that you are purchasing equipment that is of good quality, fit for purpose and will work within our systems.
What software and equipment do you sell?
We have access to a wide range of equipment and software from most major manufacturers but have standardised our clients on what we feel are the best quality products. Our standard solutions include Lenovo desktops and laptops, IBM servers and storage, Microsoft and VMWare system software and Fortinet for wireless. These industry-leading products form the backbone of all of our solutions and we know that they will perform above your expectations.
How do I know you have the skills and capabilities required to look after me?
We are certified by a range of industry-leading companies. These companies typically have specific and rigorous requirements for bestowing certification on their partners. Some of our certifications include: Microsoft Certified Partner IBM Business Partner Lenovo Business Partner VMWare Professional Solution Provider Fortinet Silver Partner In addition to this, our staff are individually certified in a range of technologies including the systems above.
Are other clients happy with your work?
Yes, they are! Client satisfaction is a high priority for us and we have a formalised process to continually improve our services to clients. As part of this process, we request feedback at the conclusion of every job or project and this allows clients to voice any concerns, make suggestions and provide any general feedback. As of September 2015, our average service ticket rating from clients is 92.91%. To hear what some our other clients are saying, please have a look at our testimonials.
Who are your clients?
Our clients span a range of industries but are typically involved in wholesale distribution, professional services, or engineering and manufacturing. They range in size between 5 users in a single office and 300 users spanned across many offices Australia wide.
What do you do for these clients?
The requirements, and therefore the services we provide, differ between our clients and we ensure that we target our services to meet these requirements. Smaller clients do not have any internal IT expertise and tend to use us as their outsourced IT department. Often larger clients do have internal IT staff and use us to supplement this when they have a gap in resourcing or knowledge. All of our clients, both big and small, leverage our knowledge of best practice IT to undertake strategic planning, design and implementation of their infrastructure. We are therefore heavily involved in server, software and networking projects. Areas, where we provide support, include: Server hardware solutions design and deployment Network infrastructure design and deployment Provision of network and endpoint security solutions Wireless systems deployment Ongoing proactive maintenance of systems Onsite consulting Remote support and assistance
Your office is in Melbourne, how do you handle interstate problems?
Many of our larger clients have branches interstate or even internationally. Our team in Melbourne is the first point of contact for all jobs, irrespective of location. Utilising our toolset, we have scripting, management and remote desktop support access to all of our client equipment (providing there is network access available) and we are able to resolve most problems remotely without an onsite visit. For general support that does require an onsite visit, we have agreements in place with local consultants around the country. This enables our team here to manage people ‘on the ground’ if and when this is required. For larger projects, we can send senior engineers interstate to personally oversee these jobs onsite.
I have to deal with a range of different technology suppliers and it is so confusing! Can you manage this for me?
Yes we can! This is a common problem faced by small business; there are so many companies involved in a business’s technology including telephony, printers, accounting software, hardware warranties, internet connections, etc and you do not necessarily have someone on staff to manage these. We can act as your outsourced IT manager, coordinating all of these vendors on your behalf. If you have a problem or requirement with any system just let us know and we can sort it out for you, either ourselves or by working with the relevant company.
How do I make a service request?
We have several mechanisms by which you can request work: By calling our office and speaking to one of our Account Managers on 1300 903 405 By emailing support@itconsultants.com.au By utilizing our client portal
What is a support agreement?
A support agreement is just that; a way that we agree to work together with you to best support your business. The agreement outlines what services we will provide, how we will provide them, the service levels that you can expect from us and the associated costs.
Why should I have a support agreement?
Without a support agreement, there is no documented understanding of what you expect from us and what we will provide to you. This can make it difficult if not impossible for us to provide you with the service that you need. With an agreement in place, you can be confident about your expected IT outcomes and we are accountable for providing these outcomes.
What outcomes can I expect from an agreement?
Typically an agreement is put in place to meet one or more of several objectives: Mitigation of business risk Increase business efficiency Allow for strategic business planning Reduce IT related costs Clearly each of these are important to business and should be of concern to business owners.
Can you tell me how a support agreement can address business efficiency?
Can you tell me how a support agreement can assist with my planning?
As technology changes there are often new products that emerge, new methods of doing things, faster equipment, software that can assist with more of your work, and other things that can help business efficiency. It is therefore important not only to keep maintaining your current environment but to be constantly looking at better ways to do things to save you time and money. A support agreement can help facilitate this through a quarterly review process to communicate any developments that might be of interest to you. In addition to this, a support agreement helps prevent problems that impact on staff effectiveness and provide mechanisms to quickly resolve any problems that do occur. This keeps your business processes flowing as smoothly as possible.
What types of IT support agreements to Synapse offer?
When providing services to our clients, Synapse have 3 main types of support agreements: Flexibility agreement: This is a very basic agreement for small businesses. It includes basic environment monitoring. It allows the business to selectively use our other services on a time and materials basis as required. Proactive agreement: This type of agreement is suitable for most businesses. It includes advanced environmental monitoring and many proactive features to keep your network running smoothly, with options for additional services as needed. Managed service agreement: This type of agreement is a fixed fee agreement whereby we manage your entire infrastructure for you. This agreement is for businesses who need to have fixed, budgetable costs and for fixed outcomes from their IT infrastructure. For more information about the features of each agreement please see our agreement comparison document.
But isn't a casual arrangement much cheaper than a fully managed agreement?
Initially this can be true. Obviously it is cheaper not to engage IT support, or you can even try to fix problems yourself, rather than commit to a support agreement with a fixed recurring cost. Over time, however, it becomes apparent that this is a far more expensive option. If your systems are not configured and maintained correctly they become much more expensive to maintain in the future. Faults become more common and require considerable cost and effort to resolve. In this situation your system also becomes disorganized and inefficient, causing you to forego the benefits of an efficient IT infrastructure. Your environment becomes a pointless cost, not a worthwhile investment. Our experience with existing clients show that on average companies who use casual IT support require over twice the support hours per user than companies with a proactive or managed agreement, and these companies achieve a poor outcome from the money they spend. A support agreement is, therefore, most likely a much cheaper option!
I still think my IT costs would be lower without an agreement. Can you clarify?
It is a fact that we have found that, on average, clients with support agreements spend significantly less on IT support than clients without agreements. Irrespective of this it is important to consider the big picture when looking at support agreement costs; IT support costs are only a very small part of the big picture. The risk mitigation, efficiency and planning benefits of a support agreement far outweigh the costs. For example, assume you don’t have an agreement. How do you know your backup is working? Maybe it’s not! And how do you know your server is healthy. Are all the critical software updates installed? Is the hardware in good working order? Maybe not! How much would it cost in lost sales and staff time if the server was down for a day? What about two days? What if your data was lost and could not be recovered? Clearly, the cost of these types of events vastly overshadows the cost of any support agreement. If these events can be prevented by an agreement then the agreement will surely pay for itself.
I understand that you do maintenance but how do I know what work you are doing in the background?
Our management system provides you with periodic reports on the status of various aspects of your IT environment. We also conduct periodic meetings with you to discuss the work that is being done and any recommendations for future work.
I have existing equipment and software, can I keep using these and have them covered by an agreement?
Contact Synapse IT Consultants and begin your journey to business growth!