| When it comes to IT support for business there | | | | This document will be the agreement between |
| are understandably higher demands than a home | | | | your company and the IT support company to |
| PC user in terms of how quickly a problem gets | | | | ensure that you are getting the best service out |
| solved. A home PC owner may have an issue | | | | of them and that you have proof of their |
| or a fault which they need fixing but there’s | | | | commitment to your company should any |
| normally no greater urgency. With business | | | | problems or misunderstandings happen. |
| though companies can lose money for mere | | | | There may be different categories of |
| minutes where their computer or internet service | | | | agreements made such as faults or incidents |
| is down. | | | | needing a quicker response time and then other |
| It is understandable that many businesses will | | | | less important issues such as replacement |
| take careful consideration over which company | | | | hardware or adding a new workstation to your |
| they choose for their IT support as they will need | | | | network which whilst important to the smooth |
| to be responsive to any problem they may | | | | running of your business, there may still be |
| have. A company who suffers any downtime | | | | measures in place that the user can be getting on |
| may have one of many problems such as | | | | with in the meanwhile. |
| customers unable to reach their website, staff | | | | When selecting an IT support team you may |
| unable to send email and access other documents | | | | want to see previous clients SLAs to get an idea |
| all of which are critical to the smooth running and | | | | of the service you should expect from them. |
| profitability of the business. | | | | By getting similar documents from multiple |
| Service Level Agreements should be put in place | | | | companies you should be able to find out that is |
| when signing a deal with an IT support company; | | | | right for the job. The location of your IT |
| they will normally give you a document with their | | | | support can affect this response time so it’s |
| service level agreement on it. These | | | | always best to make sure that your IT support |
| agreements will determine timeframes which they | | | | team are nearby or have technicians operating in |
| guarantee a fault will be fixed by such as | | | | your area so they can be called out and working |
| computers losing connectivity to the internet may | | | | on any problems you may have in a short space |
| need to be resolved within one or two hours. | | | | of time. |