We believe that even quite big schools don’t need an ICT technician on the payroll provided the computers are reliable and the system is good. However, we know how frustrating it is when you need to ask someone something, no matter how trivial, because you can’t get on with your work. We are virtual technicians: working quietly behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly and at the end of the phone when you need us. Where possible, support work is done remotely: ie we do the work from our office rather than come to you. Much of our remote support work is done quickly: we can connect to your network and see what you are doing (screen-sharing) and give immediate help. In fact, the immediacy of this support method is its great strength. Clearly not all work can be done in this manner and in that case an engineer will come to you. Because of the cost implications, if you need a visit from an engineer it is a good idea to have several jobs for him rather than just one or two. Another great advantage of remote administration and maintenance is that work can be done at times when the computers are not being used; overnight and at weekends. That’s when we do routine maintenance. As its name suggests, we invoice you for work we do as we do it. Any work has to be initiated by you though this may be at our suggestion. Remote pricing reflects the time we spend on the work but we have only two rates for on-site work, half day and full day. more For a regular monthly payment based on the number of computers you want us to maintain, we will do everything we can to ensure those machines are working well and minimise any downtime. Software updates will be installed as they become available and a database kept to record this. Server backups are made every day at school and three times per week important files are backed up to our server. Every week, the server operating system is duplicated so that in the event of a problem, the server can be restarted using this fall-back. If a computer fails with a problem we are unable to fix, we take it to an Apple Authorised Repair Centre, collect and return it when the repair is completed: you pay only the Repair Centre charge. Some computers are not likely to be available for remote maintenance: class laptops which are often locked away in a cupboard and staff laptops which have been taken home. For these we prearrange visits specifically to update and check these machines. Once a year we will backup your servers, reformat their hard drives and restore them. This is a useful piece of housekeeping that helps them to perform well. We are very proud of this service and we recommend it to you. more