December 2017

1. You don’t want to sign a long-term agreement… “Our current IT services contract is up for renewal, but we don’t want to agree to another long-term contract. The service hasn’t been great recently, so we’re a bit reluctant to sign up for another year”. … Well, you don’t have to! We retain long-term working relationships with our clients, but we don’t tie any of them into 12-month service contracts. The first 3 months of service is subject to a one-month termination period, with a 3-month rolling notice period applied thereafter. 2. You receive poor customer service. “Our current IT company keep missing their SLA, they never return our calls and we have to chase them to fix our IT problems!” It’s all about time and resource management Service level shortfalls can occur when a help desk team is overworked, understaffed, or both.  It’s also possible that the engineer/s that had the most knowledge about your network has left the company. We don’t cut corners, we’ll manage your priority, your network and your conundrum within the service level agreement expected.   3. Can our IT company to tell us about a problem before it becomes business critical? “We’re fed up with telling our I.T. company about a problem that is affecting us. It took hours for our existing IT company to start looking into a business-critical network problem. No one in the company could work until the problem was fixed. The downtime literally cost our business thousands of pounds in lost revenue”. We’ll alert you to possible business critical problems, before they arise. As part of our monthly managed support, we offer Proactive monitoring. This means we’ll know about an issue before you do. We’ll try and fix the problem before it affects your business. And if we can’t we’ll endeavour to tell you with time to prepare and manage your business-critical functions. 4. We can’t get 24/7 IT Support. “Our existing IT company doesn’t provide support outside traditional business operating hours”.  Our engineers never sleep. Well, sort of… Our UK-based team provides telephone and remote IT support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This additional service is used by clients that work outside of standard business operating hours, or have staff working from global satellite offices that operate in different time zones. 5. Our IT company lacks Apple Mac knowledge. “Our existing IT company does a great job supporting our Windows PCs, but they really struggle with Mac problems”. An Apple a day keeps the Windows away! Our techie engineers are just that, technically educated. Which means they can support Mac users and troubleshooting Apple technologies, from mobile devices to Macs. In fact, a large number of our existing clients use Windows and Mac technologies in a cross-platform environment. Because not everyone is a Windows user and we understand that.   6. Too much small print, not enough support. “We’re constantly being told that numerous software applications and devices are ‘not covered in our support contract’. I’ve checked the small print and it’s full of exclusions!” We’ve banned the small print. Our service desk team will endeavour to assist you with ANY IT related problems, including issues with common 3rd party applications. As a small business, we also hate small print, which is why you won’t find any in our IT support services agreement. We find that the businesses who don’t lock you into a contract provide better support, anyway – but that’s just our opinion.   7. Expensive and lengthy quotations are painful “We received a quotation recently for £19,000. We didn’t know what it was for and we didn’t have time or the inclination to decipher what we were getting for our money.” Simple itemised quotations that are easy to understand. Our team put quotations together that are itemised so you know exactly what to expect, from monthly support, to licenses and any extras you might need. It’s all there no hidden charges and no extra charges for call outs. We don’t have a call out charge as it’s included in the support we provide.   Let us take care of your IT, so you don’t have to. Contact us for a no-obligation quote today.

The market is saturated with I.T. businesses who are there to support you if things go wrong, which is great, right? But which ones do you choose, how much does it cost and what does all the jargon mean?  Largely, I.T. Support and Managed I.T. Service Providers do the same thing, so the only thing differentiating them will be cost and the level of service included for that cost.   Less Pain = More Value To assess the value/pain threshold you’ll need to build a picture of your I.T. and the pain associated with anything breaking or crashing. This picture will amount to the value associated with your I.T. Which means you should think about how important and vital your I.T. is to the smooth running of your business?  What is the cost of not being able to access what you need? What is the cost of being unable to take a customer payment?   What is I.T. Support, and how much will it cost me? I.T. Support is usually centred round an ‘as you need it’ service. You’ll have an I.T. business that you can rely upon but only part time. We’re going to call it Pay Per Incident I.T. Support.  With a PPI IT support contract, you’ll be charged each time you request support.   Pay Per Incident (PPI) IT Support Costs & Charges. PPI should be offered on a no-obligation, rolling agreement.  PPI is usually charged by the hour – expect to pay anything from £75 per hour. You may be able to buy a block of time in advance that you can draw on as and when you need it. This is likely to work out a cheaper arrangement than buying each hour individually. Be cautious – expect to pay twice as much for an hour of onsite support as you would for an hour of remote support.  There probably won’t be a guaranteed response time for callouts either, so you may have to wait for help if you run into a fundamental problem.   What is a Managed I.T. Service? A managed I.T. service will be given by a Managed Services Provider (MSP). They will support businesses with a need for an outsourced I.T. team and support.  They will offer a fixed monthly contract with a set service level agreement. The fixed monthly contract should include unlimited telephone support and a service level agreement (where the support company promises to phone you back fast and be onsite for real emergencies in a specified time scale). The monthly fee should cover everything including onsite visits. I.T. support for a small business could range from £50 – £2000 depending on the number of staff, PC’s and other infrastructure. Denplan Approach We’ve all heard of ‘Denplan’ a dental insurance which allows you to pay for your dentistry in monthly instalments and then when you need dental work you can claim on the insurance with no extra costs involved. This is how we think about a managed I.T. services provision. The business owner pays for the monthly subscription to the service, has a monthly check up face to face and then if there are any emergencies – the issues will be resolved at no extra cost – including onsite visits. The cost of such support means that you don’t have to worry about a thing. Your licenses are taken care of, your software is updated regularly without thinking about it, everything is backed up daily to the cloud/server with ease and no hassle.   Companies which offer a monthly support option may take a more flexible approach to their customers in general, and therefore often do a better job. And yes, we may be bias but we do passionately believe that outsourcing your I.T. can be a dream come true.   Trusted Outsourced Partner Here at Think Cirrus you don’t need to sign a contract, we believe if you’re happy, you’ll stay. We don’t charge for onsite visits and we don’t charge for consultations. We want to build relationships, so you can trust us to be your long term outsourced I.T. partner.

Northop Hall Hotel Managed IT Services  Hacks, attacks, virus outbreaks along with piecemeal technology and infrastructure, plagued the Northop Hall Hotel. The team were frustrated with daily issues, especially with email. Nothing had been backed up for well over 4 months and email outages were common place and for days or weeks at a time. With costs spiralling, and little support, the management team needed a serious IT solution to support their independent hotel. Find out how we supported the Northop Hall and read the case study today. Read the case study and find out how we could support you!  DOWNLOAD THE CASE STUDY  – Northop Hall Hotel Case Study_

Looking for guidance, leadership or sound advice about the direction of your IT? Need an IT strategy that matches your business plan? Would you like to draw on the experience and proven methods for making change?  If you’re looking for some perspective on what to do or how to go about making change with your technology,  speak to us. Need Strategy Advice? We help companies with change, whether that’s changing their IT or using their IT to delivery change we can help.  We can help create a strategy that matches your business aspirations, the experience of building a plan that navigates the challenges of implementing change and the ability to plan and navigate through the challenges of people, process and technology We help people like you.  From a few hundred £’s per day we can provide a flexible level of service to suit your challenges.  Already an IT manager or department head in need of a sounding board?  A CEO wanting some impartial advise an validation.  Perhaps your the FD and looking for assistance planning a budget?  We help people and companies like yours? We can help with all aspects of your technology, as the saying goes from desktop to datacentre. The Outsourced IT Director You Don’t know what you don’t know Many SME’s have little or no idea about what’s possible and how attainable the very best tools & systems are.  It’s easy to believe the cloud, innovation and those impressive adverts you see on TV are meant to the larger enterprise.  They are, but they are 100% viable for the SME, regardless of your budget, or the age of your current systems.  Let us help you to think differently on the art of the possible. Need an IT Director? Why not outsource it? …..The Outsourced IT Director If you’d like to take advantage of our no obligation consultation get in touch with us today Call us today on 03303 130966 or hello@thinkcirrus.co.uk  https://www.thinkcirrus.co.uk      

Why cloud computing? Because it’s so easy, simple and cost effective, that it’s the best thing for small business since the creation of the laminator. Do you want to be able to access your business files, data and applications from anywhere at any time? The solution is cloud computing. It’s even more impressive because you can gain access from any mobile device at a price that is value for money. The cloud gives small businesses access to technologies that previously were out of their reach and lets them compete with both small and larger businesses, alike.         1. You don’t have to worry about a thing. You no longer have to install and update software, install and manage email servers and/or file servers, run backups – the beauty of cloud computing is that all of the business of maintaining the service or application is the responsibility of the cloud vendor or managed service provider, not yours.  And, you no longer have to buy software and install it on your own servers/computers, which means that using cloud applications can be cheaper and simpler.   2. Everything is all in one place. You can consolidate your separate application needs into one multi-application cloud computing service.  As a Microsoft Cloud Partner, we know that Microsoft’s traditional office application suite, which used to be only available in desktop versions can cost hundreds. However we are excited to now use and endorse the cloud-based version known as Office 365. It is sold by annual subscription and starts from as little as £6.50. It also includes online video conferencing, Skype and instant messaging connectivity, and many other features.  More expensive plans include the desktop applications. Office 365 is now outselling the desktop office suite.   3. No more excess system hardware needed File storage, data backup and software programs all take up a lot of space on servers/computers. With cloud computing, you use someone else’s servers to store all this data instead, freeing up your in-house computer equipment for other purposes or even letting you get rid of some of it.   4. Easier Application Integration Because many cloud computing applications include an Application Programming Interface (API) you may be able to find “compatible” applications rather than having to pay to have the applications you want to be integrated customised for you.   5. Regular Updates and Patching Cloud computing applications are regularly updated, so you don’t have to spend time and money doing it – and giving you the advantage of always having access to an application’s latest features and functions. 6. Cloud computing allows you and your employees easy access to applications and data from different computers and devices. Since cloud applications are browser-based they are accessible from mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. For example, cloud-based accounting applications come with Android or Apple compatible mobile applications that allow you to access your accounting data from any mobile device and send invoices, track expenses, etc. on the run. Note that accessing office applications via a browser on a mobile device can be a less than ideal user experience, so (for example) Microsoft offers mobile versions of office applications, such as Office for iPad. 7. A better option for start-up businesses Cloud computing lets you start up or grow your small business quickly. It’s a lot easier and faster to sign up for a cloud computing application than to buy a server, get it up and running and install software on it. And because you don’t need to buy hardware and software, your start up or expansion is cheaper, too.   So why aren’t you cloud computing already? Well, if you look closely, you probably are. Outlook Online (formerly known as Hotmail), Gmail, DropBox and Google Maps are all examples of cloud computing applications that you’ve probably used at some point or even use regularly.