RE: New Alresford Town Council - IT Support€¦ · Thank you for your time to discuss New...

technique ltd 6 Thatcham Business Village Colthrop Way Thatcham RG19 4LW t: +44 (0)1635 294700 f: +44 (0)1635 294750 http://technique.eu

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Mrs Karen Ross New Alresford Town Council Alresford Recreation Centre The Avenue Alresford Near Winchester Hampshire, SO24 9EP 23RD May 2017 Dear Karen

RE: New Alresford Town Council - IT Support

Thank you for your time to discuss New Alresford Town Council current IT Support; further to this I have the pleasure in providing you with a brief introduction to Technique and the proposal of the support services that we can offer New Alresford Town Council. Should you require anything further please do contact me on the details below. We look forward in working with you. Yours sincerely, John Prince Technique Ltd Tel: +44(0)1635 294700 Email: [email protected]


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About Technique

Technique provides a professional yet personal approach to our customers. We look to form long term partnerships, working with your businesses management to create solutions that provide performance, usability, scalability & redundancy allowing your company to perform unhindered by poor information system solutions or technology restrictions. Established in 1998 Technique have developed a highly skilled team of technical professionals who have an empathetic approach to designing, installing and supporting IT solutions. In addition to our technical abilities all of our clients are appointed a dedicated account manager who acts as a single point of contact, ensuring that you receive the highest level of customer service. Accredited by the leading industry vendors including; Microsoft, Citrix, HP, VMWare, Kcom, WatchGuard, GFI, Symantec & APC. In addition we have a number of strategic business alliances in convergence & enterprise hosting including disparate content delivery networks. We pride ourselves on offering first class services to all of our clients however big or small. Just some of our clients include

HR Owen (incorporating Jack Barclay & Broughtons) – prestige car dealerships

Antler Homes plc. – residential construction company

Brian Currie – commercial truck dealerships

Laverstoke Park – organic farm for livestock and produce

Royal Yachting Association – national charity for sailing

We have recently finished an upgrade to our onsite co-location facility offering customer’s facilities such as fully automated offsite back up’s, complete system replication, database replication, full disaster recovery facilities and other hosted service packages. This comprehensive facility is further underpinned by having fully redundant fibre network to both BT’s Birmingham and London core networks. We are well located with access to all major routes and services in order to provide swift support to our clients. Our client base is nationwide (from Oxford to Milton Keynes to Bangor to Chelmsford) and as such we have a number of engineers distributed around the country to maintain the levels of service our clients require. A number of our clients have been with us for a number of years. We have achieved this by integrating ourselves within their business. This not only provides peace of mind for our clients but also enables us to understand the business needs and how best we can then direct our talents to ensuring they are both profitable and productive by the use of the IT systems in place. Our business has grown on our reputation and word of mouth referrals. Therefore we always aim to keep this occurring by ensuring that we always deliver the service expected of Technique.


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Support Service Details

Systems Audit On approval as the chosen IT Support Provider of New Alresford Town Council, Technique will undertake to do a full systems audit of your network infrastructure at the New Alresford Town Council office. Technique will commit an engineer (site size dependant) and the account manager to attend

site to perform the audit. The audit is broken up into the following:

Network & Cabling infrastructure

Internet Connectivity

Server including hardware and configuration

Backup

Security including firewall, anti-virus and two factor authentication

Printer including hardware and configuration

Software including 3rd party details

PC Hardware for asset management and tracking

Bespoke Items – devices, software etc

Network Diagram By performing the above this will give us a full overview of your current system state. We

will also look to prepare (if necessary) a proposal of recommendations to improve the

network in certain areas.

Following this Audit and once the recommendations have been discussed and implemented, Technique will start to support New Alresford Town Council.


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Remote Support

Telephone Support

All of our support contracts include unlimited telephone support Monday to Friday 08:30am

to 17:30pm, providing access to our support team regarding any problems you may

encounter with the equipment detailed in the support schedule. We also record our calls for

training, reference & security purposes.

Remote Access Support

If your site supports remote access our support team can attempt to resolve your problem

remotely, therefore saving your time on the phone or travelling to site. Our standard

methods for remote access are Microsoft RDP to access Windows based servers and

Teamviewer for user PC/Laptops

Charges may be levied for this service at a pre-agreed rate if the work to be undertaken is of

an administration or new configuration nature – pricing is detailed towards the end of the

proposal

Support Procedures

To log a call with our support team simply use one of the following methods to contact us:

Dedicated support hotline telephone number 01635 294700

Dedicated support e-mail address [email protected]

Online Customer Support Portal https://support.technique.eu

Using our support portal, clients are able raise a support ticket, track visually any outstanding

support tickets or review historical issues.

As well as ensuring that every support call is dealt

with efficiently this portal provides a great

knowledge base tailored to your company.

All calls logged with the support team will be

allocated a unique call reference number for

tracking purposes. From our client portal you can

see the status of your call and add comment or

updates to the event. All updates to a ticket are

emailed to your primary support contact(s).

mailto:[email protected]


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On-Site Support

Preventative Days

Technique can provide on-site preventative maintenance days as an additional service to our

standard contract. These days are specifically designed to maintain your network and

therefore reduce system downtime over the duration of the contract. You can also use

contract time for ad-hoc consultancy for configuration changes, installations or consultancy.

Should it be required, in the first instance we would advise a minimum of quarterly half-day

visits depending on how ‘hands on’ the site needs with their IT Support.

When attending site the engineer will complete a preventative form, this form details various

checks that we undertake during our visits.

Priority & Emergency Days

If emergency days have been purchased they may be used at any time to resolve systems

failures on-site or for installation purposes. Emergency days may be used outside of working

hours but the following rates apply:

Saturdays – one and a half times the normal deduction

Sundays – two times the normal deduction

The attending engineer will have a “work schedule form” specific to your requirement and

once the work on-site has been completed the contact on-site will be asked to check the

documentation and sign off. Please note that the contract time can only be deducted in half-

day blocks.


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Operating Systems & Applications

Technique will provide support in-line with the service level agreement for all network based

operating systems other than VOIP, Linux, UNIX & Macintosh. We will also support all

mainstream commercial applications present on the site (to be defined from an audit).

These can include:

Microsoft Windows Server NT3.5 to 2012 Standard/Enterprise

Microsoft Windows 95 to Windows 8.1 (10) Professional – 32/64bit

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 to 2016 Microsoft Office Suite XP to 2016 (Office 365)

Symantec Backup Exec & System Recovery Server

McAfee Active Virus Defense/Symantec Endpoint Protection/Sophos/GFI Vipre

Citrix Xen App (Presentation Server) VMware vSphere/Microsoft Hyper-V

Veeam Backup & Replication

For the following we will only provide best endeavour support that will not be subject to our

service level agreement and therefore if the applications or data that you require service

level agreement support for are listed you should make alternative support arrangements

for the specific instances:

SQL Server, Sharepoint and Proprietary applications or applications developed by customers

themselves and or applications that do not conform to manufacturer guidelines or that in our

opinion are unstable. For database applications we will support engines however all data and

any aspect of the data will remain unsupported, please note that we should not be relied on

as support for accounting systems or the data contained within them i.e. MYOB or Sage.

Best endeavour support will consist of our support team utilizing all possible methods to

resolve your problems however no guarantees of conclusion or timescales are made.

Specific Applications

Technique has had experience in dealing with very specific applications, just some of these

include:

BMW Keyreader software using ISPA Light DEMA/Redsky IT

Workshop System Manager Weighsoft

KSDstart Buffalo Passport

BMW UK Dealer Portal Sitestream

Progress DMS/ADP Kerridge/BOOM Salesforce.com

Exclaimer Sage

With our knowledge and experience of various systems, Technique is able to provide New

Alresford Town Council a good basis for their IT Support. During our tenure we would wish

to be more actively involved and should the need be required, we can put more resource in

providing further enhanced support to these specific applications.


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Warranty and hardware manufacturer liaison

If your site suffers a hardware failure you may submit the make, model, serial number and a

description of the fault to the support team they will then log a call with the relevant

manufacturer and arrange the appropriate action on your behalf.

All shipping or repair costs will remain the responsibility of the customer. Optional hardware

support can be provided (subject to survey and additional charge); we carry a large inventory

of HP spares purely for out of warranty support.

3rd Party liaison

As above, Technique will be the first point of contact for all user support requests. Should a particular request be for a 3rd Party issue, Technique will take charge of the call and liaise with the appropriate 3rd party in finding a resolution for the user. In all cases the call will be handled and reported through the Technique Support portal for tracking and reporting purposes. Likewise and as we currently do, should there be a need to perform an upgrade or required update, Technique will undertake and/or assist the 3rd Party in doing so and will provide all means necessary to complete the task, only once the authorisation has been sanctioned by New Alresford Town Council. Prior to the 3rd Party Liaison, and as standard practice, we would ask New Alresford Town to arrange an introductory meeting between all parties and Technique in order to establish communication and familiarity with each other, with the sole purpose of ensuring that the support expectations are met for New Alresford Town Council. It should be noted that all 3rd Party support will remain the responsibility of New Alresford Town Council to continue and renew to ensure continued coverage.

Our Accreditation’s include:

Working with various mainstream partners and vendors’ means we have met various

accreditations in ensuring the services and solutions we deliver are of the highest standard

in deliverance of expectations.

HP Preferred Partner 2016 - Silver Microsoft Silver Small Business Partner

Citrix Silver Partner 2016 Symantec Silver Partner 2016

Watchguard Expert Partner GFI Solutions Silver Partner

APC Select Partner What’s Up Gold MSP

VM ware Solutions Professional IGEL Gold Partner

Veeam Silver Pro Partner Veritas Silver Partner


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Additional Services

Maintenance

As above If your site suffers a hardware failure you may submit the make, model, serial

number and a description of the fault to the support team they will then log a call with the

relevant manufacturer and arrange the appropriate action on your behalf.

All shipping or repair costs will remain the responsibility of the customer. Optional hardware

support can be provided (subject to survey and additional charge); we carry a large inventory

of hp spares purely for out of warranty support.

Review Meetings & Communication

As standard we do advise on regular review meetings in ensuring service levels and

expectations are met. These meetings are also a view point to oversee and to discuss

future project work as well as outlining areas that should be accounted for and improved to

make the IT Systems more productive. During these meetings Technique will review

previous audits and preventative forms with New Alresford Town Council to check for any

changes within the group. Escalation procedures are detailed in our SLA towards the end of

this proposal.

Company Director: John Prince Technical Manager: Daryn Hesketh Senior Account Manager: Bartholomew Maddison


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Summary of typical support cover

As standard practice we will create and maintain the network documentation for New Alresford Town Council. This starts with 5 key documents (Audit, Contract, Diagram, Specification’s & Recommendation’s); however over time we will build a comprehensive set of documentation detailing your system. During your tenure with our Systems Support, New Alresford Town Council can expect the

following:

Features Benefits

Telephone & Remote Support

Unlimited 9x5 access to our service desk engineers, by phone email or remote control

Fast response times delivered to Service Level Agreements (over 95% within 1 hour)

24x7x365 Customer Support Portal

Industry-leading technology and support tools

Competitive, fixed costs with flexible terms

Bi-annual, annual, quarterly and monthly plans available

Dedicated Account Manager with regular defined Review Meetings

3rd Party Liaison Service

You can focus on your business, confident that all your company’s IT support needs are covered

Guaranteed levels of service with minimum disruption

Predictable spend with built in flexibility to suit changing needs

Preventative Day Visits (Optional)

Dedicated engineer for proactive on-site maintenance, emergency cover and training

Flexible scheduling designed to work around your business commitments

The opportunity to learn from an experienced and friendly Technique engineer

On-demand assistance of a skilled engineer to support you or your IT staff, providing maintenance, training and emergency cover

Increase your IT knowledge – gain a deeper understanding of your own IT systems through our engineers’ advice and assistance

Finally, we will provide an IT review as an ongoing process. We will prepare a report for you

annually which will include a review of your systems and recommendations for the coming

1-3 years depending on your needs which can be used for your budgeting purposes.


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Optional Services

Technique Hardware Maintenance – following the full Network Audit; Technique can

provide pricing for known hardware on the network that is out of warranty with a 4 hour, 8

hour or next business day response.

Technique Off-Site Storage – in order to provide further safeguarding of data Technique

are able to offer off-site storage of valuable data at our data centre in Reading. This service

provides a comprehensive solution to provide continuous automated online backup, off-

site storage, and rapid recovery of critical server data.

Technique Email Security – Technique provides a hosted Email Security Solution backed by

Symantec. This service provides ‘clean’ email to the systems and eliminates bandwidth

saturation with email borne junk, by implementing Email Security this ensures that the

internet line is best used for business use and is not clogged up therefore saving time and

money.


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Indicative Costs for New Alresford Town Council - Subject to

Audit

Systems Support:

Description Quantity

Total Monthly (£)

Technique Systems Support (12 month)

Base 9x5 M-F Support Contract

Full Technique Network Audit – Site Review 1 Included

MS Server (Physical Virtual) W2008/2012 1 Included

Perimeter Security (Firewall/Router)*subject to Vendor Support & Maintenance

1 Included

Core Network Components (Switches) 1 Included

User Support (Desktop/Laptop/WBT) 6 Included

UPS Management 1 Included

3rd Party Liaison* subject to Vendor Support & Maintenance

1 Included

Support Contract Telephone Support only – Total Monthly Value

£90.00

Description

Price (£)

Optional Services

Technical Consultancy – Hour (weekday rate) £75.00 per

hour

Technical Consultancy – Day (weekday rate) £550.00 per

day

Technique Hosted: Off-Site Backup (30 day retention) - per month

£0.35 per GB

Technique Hosted: Email Security for Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam – per month

£1.88 per user

All pricing is subject to VAT & valid for 30 days. Normal Technique Terms & Conditions apply. (E&OE)


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References

I will happily provide contact details for references on request.

Next Step

We’d welcome the opportunity to answer any questions that you may have either by

telephone or at your offices. Should you require a service that I haven’t detailed in my

proposal please do let me know and I’m sure we can specify any bespoke requirements. If

you are happy with our recommendations the usual process to move things forward would

be:

1. Confirmation in terms of a purchase order or signed letter of intent to proceed.

2. Full system audit of your offices to include asset tagging and full documentation.

3. Account management meeting with key contact personnel within New Alresford

Town Council. This provides a chance for nominated contacts within New Alresford

Town Council to meet with your assigned Account Manager, which in this case would

be myself. I would then cover the procedures for contacting support, provide details

of other key contacts within Technique and answer any questions regarding the

agreement.

4. Contract commencement. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any additional information. Yours sincerely, John Prince Technique Ltd Tel: +44(0)1635 294700 Email: [email protected]


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Technique Support Service Level Agreement

Terms of Service

This contract offers unlimited access to our support team based in Aldermaston between the hours of 8.30am & 5.30pm Monday to Friday but excluding all public holidays.

Service levels offered in this agreement shall not apply to hardware failure or problems caused by hardware failure. It shall also not apply to services provided by third

party companies.

Telephone Support Procedures

Users will contact the support team on the dedicated Support Telephone number for assistance. Having been identified as under contract for Telephone support, the call

will be logged and clients will be issued a unique call reference number, which will be used during any correspondence.

Telephone Support response will usually be immediate, however in the event of all our Support Engineers being unavailable, calls will be returned within 45 minutes.

Technique will then undertake to offer as much constructive advice as possible, whether it is by phone or through remote access, in order to help resolve the problem.

Technique will contact the client within 2 hours of receiving the call to confirm that either the problem has been resolved or of further action that is required to overcome

the failure.

User Responsibilities

When a user calls the telephone support line for assistance, they should;

Provide their name, company name and location. In the event of an ongoing query, users must also quote the initial call reference number.

Be in front of the system in question

Provide a clear description of the problem

Provide a clear description of the impact of the problem

Provide an accurate and complete history of the problem including any remedial work that the user has undertaken (if any) to resolve the problem.

On site response times for System Failure

In the event of the system failure not being resolved by telephone or remote access and it is deemed that a site visit is required, Technique will respond within the

following timescales.

Mission Critical Failure – Engineer on site within 4 hours from first notification of the problem (normal working hours apply)

Impaired System – Engineer on site within 72 hours of notification.

Site visits will be chargeable on a call out basis or in a contractual environment the duration of the site attendance can be deducted from previously purchased Emergency

days.

Escalation

In the event that a user and the support engineer dispute that the call is of a Mission Critical nature, the support engineer will escalate the issue to Technique’s

management team for resolution.

The management team will respond to the user within 30 minutes of an issue requesting to be escalated.

Dispute Resolution

In the event of a dispute between the parties concerning this agreement each of the parties shall, in the first instance, bring the dispute at the earliest opportunity to the

attention of a director or similar officer of such party.

If the customer wishes to dispute contractual obligations or charges, the customer shall as soon as is reasonably practicable deliver a notice in writing to Technique setting

out the nature of the dispute. Such notice shall in particular contain the following information:

Date and details of disputed issue

Reason for dispute

Supporting documentation as appropriate

The Parties shall use all reasonable endeavours to resolve payment disputes as promptly as is reasonably practicable. For the avoidance of doubt, nothing in this clause

shall in any way release the customer from any of its obligations to pay invoices in accordance with Technique payment terms.


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Terms and Conditions of Business 1. Quotations 1.1 The contract shall be on these terms of business which may not be altered in any way or form unless signed by a Director of Technique. 1.2 No quotation or other offer from Technique shall be valid unless it is in writing and signed by an authorised employee of Technique. 1.3 Any quotation may be withdrawn, cancelled or varied by Technique at any time prior to acceptance. 1.4 All quotations are valid for 4 weeks from the date issued. 2. Leaflets

All leaflets, advertisements, specifications, drawings and other material issued by Technique together with any demonstration made by Technique are for illustration purposes only and shall not be legally binding on Technique.

3. Payment 3.1 Payment is due within thirty days of the date of invoice. Payment is not conditional upon installation. 3.2 Interest at a rate of 5% per month may be charged from the due date until payment is received. 3.3 Unless otherwise stated all figures are exclusive of VAT, which will be charged in addition where applicable. 3.4 Technique may require staged payments, as it deems fit. 4. Delivery of Equipment and Equipment in transit 4.1 Any time given for delivery of equipment is an estimate only and the customer shall have no claim for any loss due to late delivery. Technique reserves the right to

part deliver where it considers necessary. 4.2 Equipment in transit to Technique from the customer for any reason shall in all respects be at the customer’s cost and risk unless other arrangements have been made

to the contrary in writing. The customer must notify Technique and the carrier in writing of any damage caused to the equipment in transit within seven days of delivery to the customer.

4.3 No claim for non-delivery of the equipment will be considered unless Technique and the carrier have been advised in writing of such non-delivery within seven days of the date shown on the company’s advice note.

5. Storage Technique reserves the right to charge the customer for storage of equipment from the date that the customer is notified that equipment is ready for delivery or where delivery is delayed at the request of the customer or due to default in payment.

6. Licenses All matters relating in any way to licence must be dealt with and paid for by the customer. Technique accepts no responsibility and shall not be liable for any licensing matters.

6.1 Applications All applications written or provided by Technique shall remain the property of Technique until full payment has been received; thereafter copyright to the application shall remain the property of Technique.

7. Installation Where a contract includes installation of equipment the price includes delivery of equipment to the customer during Technique normal working hours, however an additional carriage charge may be issued for goods shipped from distribution. All quotations are given on the basis of uninterrupted access to all relevant sites. Any delays which occur as a result of non-completion of third party work, non-availability of third party supplies, any act or omission on the part of the customer or any cause beyond Technique’s control may give rise to an additional charge. The customer shall provide any necessary mains electricity supply.

8. Title The title to the equipment supplied will remain with Technique until payment in full has been made. Without prejudice thereto the customer shall insure all Equipment from delivery against loss or damage and shall maintain the same in good saleable condition. At all times before payment in full is made the equipment shall stand in the customer’s book in the name of Technique. The customer shall take appropriate action to notify all third parties of Technique’s interest in the equipment. At the expense of the customer Technique has the right to repossess the equipment and to disconnect and remove the equipment and all necessary rights of access thereto and may exercise all the rights conferred by law on unpaid seller. The customer shall not pledge or in any way charge by way of security for indebtedness any of the equipment whilst it remains the property of Technique.

9. Defects 9.1 Technique shall be under no liability to the customer in respect of claims which are covered by a maintenance contract or other contract entered into between the

customer and a third party. 9.2 Faults of a minor or intermittent nature which do not significantly affect the use of the equipment by the customer will be dealt with when convenient to Technique.

Technique may make an extra charge for work carried out outside of normal working hours. 9.3 Technique reserves the right to replace or repair at its discretion. Technique may remove all or part of the equipment from the customer premises for the purposes

of inspection, testing or repair. 10. Returns

All returns of equipment to Technique whether for repair or otherwise are at the customer’s cost and risk. Where a genuine error in ordering has occurred and replacement is required and the equipment in question is a standard stock item and has been kept in an as new condition the equipment may be accepted back at the discretion of Technique. The customer will be liable to Technique for all costs incurred as a result thereof.

11. Cancellation No contract can be cancelled by the customer without the consent of Technique in writing and signed on behalf of Technique by a Director. In the event of cancellation by the customer the customer shall indemnify Technique against all loss and expenses occasioned including loss of profit. Technique may cancel the contract at any time before the equipment is delivered by giving written notice. On giving such notice Technique shall promptly repay to the customer any sums paid in respect of the Equipment. Technique shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising from such cancellation.

12. Liabilities Technique shall not be liable for: 12.1 Any loss damage or expenses howsoever arising from any loss of use failure or deterioration of equipment or any loss (whether direct or indirect). This shall include

debts incurred with third party companies, by equipment supplied or configured by Technique. 12.2 Any loss or failure to comply with its obligations where the failure is due to fire flood inclement weather strikes industrial action acts or third kind parties or any other

reasons whatsoever beyond its control. 13. Representations

The customer acknowledges that any representations made on behalf of Technique shall not be binding unless agreed in writing.

RE: New Alresford Town Council - IT Support€¦ · Thank you for your time to discuss New...

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Transcript of RE: New Alresford Town Council - IT Support€¦ · Thank you for your time to discuss New...