4-hour FIX or 4-hour RESPONSE…. what does your contract say?
Now, lets be honest…how many of us read through all the T’s and C’s when we sign a contract. Be it a personal mobile phone or IT Support services? I know I don’t. A lot of the detail is nonsensical babble, however there are some very important bits too.
One of which would be the SLA’s within a service agreement.
Within our own (Netwrx Ltd) terms and conditions, we specify a 4hr/8hr or Next Business Day fix. This means that we will either remotely fix the issue and update you, or we will send one of our qualified engineers to site to fix the problem, within the agreed timeframe if it can’t be fixed remotely. A guaranteed fix within 4 or 8 hours.
Time to ruffle a few feathers…
Many of IT support companies, especially in the retail industry, looking after very large businesses as well as SME customers, offer a 4hr response within their terms. What we have found when speaking to some of their customers and tidying up some of their mess, is that the IT company looking after the client will often send a guy/girl (not always an “engineer” by the way) to site to meet these terms. However, when the support engineer is only equipped with a smartphone and a smile (if you are lucky!), no ladders, tools, laptop, console cables…then how do they intend to fix the problem you may ask?
They can’t unfortunately, well not within the 4 hours or even 24hrs in some/most cases. What effect would this have on your staff productivity or store sales? Unfortunately, we have seen this scenario and the effects it has on a business far too often, especially at this time of year.
Our advice would be –
1. Ask if the timeframe is a 4hr fix or 4hr response when signing the agreement as the two are very different.
2. Ask how many resources the IT company have, the location of engineers, what qualifications do the engineers who will be visiting site hold, are they qualified to be fiddling with your IT network?
3. Does the company have the ability to remotely monitor your network equipment, can they provide support and fix without actually coming to site, speeding up the MTTR?
And finally, always read the T’s and C’s fully…. like I do (cough, cough).