Think of utilities, those that come to mind, electricity, gas and water, when one is not available our lives are significantly impaired, the same applies to the network. We all take for granted communication beyond the boundaries of our working device whether this is a desktop PC, laptop, tablet or smartphone. When communication isn’t available it is only then that the importance of the network is realised, under pinning all company applications, email, printing, voice communications, social media and web browsing.
Proactive support helps to provide the reliability of the network with monitoring, alerting and notifications, remote access and resolution, plus onsite resources should the need arise.
Just 30 years ago the internet became public, at that time remote access was possible although very primitive, since that day technology has evolved to make the world a much smaller place, In the modern day with proactive support the network is monitored and resolutions applied often before the end user is aware.
REMOTE MONITORING – network devices are monitored via a software as a service (SAAS) dashboard, if communication to a device is disrupted this will flag on a dashboard followed by an alert notification pushed to the support team for investigation. Issues can be located and resolved often before the end user notices a problem.
ALERTS and NOTIFICATION – received to multiple reception services including, dashboards, helpdesk ticket, email and smart device notifications
ROUTINE MAINTENANCE – firmware upgrades and security patches, applied out of operational hours. Regular configuration backups.
SUPPORT – when proactive monitoring alerts an issue, support is then escalated, once the alert is investigated, support will be categorised as remote, scheduled or onsite.
REMOTE SUPPORT – once an alert has been flagged or a ticket raised the issue will be investigated via the various dashboards, devices will be interrogated remotely, and action taken for resolution.
SCHEDULED SUPPORT – an issue has been investigated remotely, the resolution is not possible without causing increased end user disruption, works scheduled to be conducted at an agreed time or out of hours.
REPORTING – monthly network health and helpdesk reports included.
ONSITE SUPPORT – issue identified as a hardware related problem. Parts escalated to site with engineer attendance.
HELPDESK – ticketing system, tickets raised via email, the call will be logged ready for the support technician to investigate. Helpdesk can also be contacted via a telephone call.
Service Level Agreement – SLA is to establish the client expectations with regards to the service providers response, performance and efficiency. SLA revolve around response time to and how long it will take for the service provider to respond when a call or ticket is raised.
An SLA is not a time to fix, it is the time for the service provider to respond when an incident or ticket is raised.
With an SLA it is not possible to provide a guaranteed fix as the resolution may require a 3rd party to involved to investigate their equipment or the incident may be diagnosed to require hardware replacement for resolution.
SLA definitions – SLA are determined by priority levels, the service provider determines the level of priority based up the information included within the ticket or from conversation with the client representative. Clear understanding of SLA and priority levels by both the service provider and client establishes expectations from both sides of the relationship.
| Level | Description |
| Priority P1 | Complete business down situation, the client is unable to operate |
| Priority P2 | Some of the clients core business processes and applications are not functioning, the site is experiencing a major problem. |
| Priority P3 | The clients core business processes and applications function but service to multiple users are affected. |
| Priority P4 | The issue is an inconvenience, the client has a workaround available so the business can operate. |
| Priority P5 | The Issues is a planned/scheduled task, business or users are unaffected. |
| Priority | Target Response | Target Fix |
| P1 | 30mins | 4 hours* |
| P2 | 60mins | 8 hours* |
| P3 | 2 hours | NDB |
| P4 | 4 hours | 2 days |
| P5 | Schedule Works |
We understand that every support incident is important, however some are more important than others, hence the reason for assigning priority levels,some scenarios are included below to provide guidance of expectation.
Scenario 1 – an area of the site has no internet access but on premise system in that area are functioning, assigned level P2
Scenario 2 – all systems and services appear to be working apart from the wifi in a certain area, affecting between 5 and 10 people, assigned level P4
Scenario 3 – a firmware release notification has been received from the vendor for the wireless access points, the work is scheduled for an agreed time, assigned level P5
Scenario 4 – all applications are not working and internet is down for the complete site, assigned level
P1
Prioritisation and call escalation – the flowchart is used to initially prioritise the ticket to the correct level and then to escalate to a resolution
©2003 - 2024 Accelerator Ltd. All Rights Reserved