The I.T. landscape is constantly evolving. New threats and vulnerabilities emerge at a whiplash speed. When we started this business 18 years ago, support for businesses was predominantly break/fix. If something didn’t work, you phoned us to come and fix it. The term “managed services” was largely unknown.
A little over 3 years ago, we made a decision to offer a more comprehensive, predictable plan to our clients. We recognized the following key themes across the customer base we support:
- Routine Maintenance is not practical because, in a break-fix world, customers are stuck in reactive mode and it is cost prohibitive and time consuming to perform good maintenance manually.It needs to be automated and done proactively using sophisticated technology tools to support those efforts. This includes patching, updates, monitoring, automated remediation and ticket generation for detected issues.
- The I.T. complexities evolving required more security features to protect your business.
- Predictable billing allows you to budget more accurately AND give you unlimited help desk support which leads to a better end user experience (more efficient employees, greater up time, etc). Routine maintenance leads to fewer crises for you (and us) to manage. Monthly recurring revenue allows us to staff better to respond to customer requests. It’s a win-win.
We invested in state-of-the-art tools to support our team by upgrading current systems and adding new services. We scouted out better switching and WAP solutions: ones we can easily monitor and manage from a distance, while also conforming to stricter requirements that cyber insurance companies are just starting to require. We expanded our team. We implemented an easy-to-use customer feedback method and kicked off a new client portal.
Three years later, we have momentum. Business leaders are recognizing the value of the plan. We are converting existing clients at a steady clip. New clients are no longer onboarded under our old break/fix plans. At some point in the future, this will be the only way we manage client networks. If you aren’t on the program today, I encourage you to seriously consider building it into your budget and plans.
A few testimonials from existing clients on the plan:
“When I first started with my company we did not have the fully managed program Eagle offered. We had a set amount of calls and then we paid for whatever we needed service, a forgotten password, an issue with performance, whatever we needed we paid for it. Some months we didn’t need to pay extra, some months we did. I never knew when I would need it and what I would pay for it.
When I was asked for budgeting purposes for a number we spend on IT, it was hard, you can never tell from one month to the next what the needs may be, you cannot budget adequately for the unknown. I added up all the extra times we had to call, and pay for it and got a monthly average, no surprise, it ended up higher than if we had chosen the fully managed program. Though it may look like you will be paying double, check the averages, chances are you’ll actually be saving if not just breaking even.
We switched over a year ago and the peace of mind it gave me was worth it alone. Since then, some months we have had no calls, some we do, recently we had a couple big issues and I had the peace of mind of being able to get it fixed correctly, no matter what the time it took to do it. It’s insurance, like all insurance, you never want to need it, but when you do need it, it’s worth every penny. Thanks Kaleb and Eagle for offering this great insurance, this peace of mind! “
Missy, Director of a New Hampshire Non-Profit Organization:
And another one of our long-time clients had this to say…
“Operating a small business means that you have to rely on the expertise of people and companies who have specialized skill sets. We signed onto Eagle’s fully managed program about a year ago and have been so pleased that we did. Kaleb and the team at Eagle Network Solutions know what they are doing, provide exceptional and prompt service, and have saved us time and money in the process. Their skill to solve issues that arise and their dedication to our company’s needs is bar none. We have been very pleased with the ease of troubleshooting issues that arise as well as the prompt and professional service we always receive. I recommend their services to anyone who may be looking for an IT solutions partner that will be there for them when they are in need. “
Lisa, Vice President of a Property Management Company
What’s Included in the Complete Support Plan?
The short answer is: a lot is bundled into this plan. If your company joined Complete Support, here’s how your world changes:
- You (or someone on your team) no longer have to funnel tickets through to ENS as a cost containment measure. Any user in your organization could be encouraged to phone ENS or submit a ticket.
- Your associates can submit a ticket by clicking on a small Eagle icon on the bottom of their desktop.
- Core services, such as automated patching, anti-virus, spam filtering and blocking malicious websites are running in the background all the time. Behind the scenes, without interruption to your team, monitors on your hardware are detecting small issues and auto-correcting them. Over time, this leads to better performing machines with fewer issues and downtime. If a monitor identifies a problem that cannot be auto-fixed, it will kick out a ticket to a Technician to work.
- Your user’s accounts are protected with a second layer of authentication, strengthening your business against the bad guys.
- There is a service protecting your organization against malicious websites. If your organization wants to block certain websites from being used at work or by groups of workers, we can do it.
- Users receive two emails a month asking them to click on a link to a short (3 minute) video, teaching them ways to further protect your business. We also send fake Phishing email attempts to test their ability to recognize imposters. You (or another leader) have access to a Learning Management dashboard to view results and participation. We see this growing as a requirement for many insurance policies.
- Not sure what to plan for equipment replacements next year? We have on demand reporting that gives you oversight on all your computers and servers and quickly identifies age of equipment, model and warranty status. The Hardware Lifecycle Report is a favorite of ours.
- When replacing computers, we will provision and deploy them at no additional cost, providing you are deploying 10% or less of your covered devices at a time. Without Complete Support, that could cost you between 4-6 hours depending on what the computer needs.
- We determine that on site time is warranted: no extra charge for the travel or time on site. It is built into your plan.
- Planning on adding 2 additional people to your team next year? No problem! You know it will cost $XX.XX per month per associate. Easy to budget and plan for your financial team.
- VCIO access means you have someone to bounce questions to related to the short range and long-term plans for your organization? We can help guide you to better decisions as it relates to expensive infrastructure plans to ensure you are making balanced decisions.
- We offer a quarterly meeting to discuss how it is going, any changes in your business we should be aware of and invite feedback. We share information on your network and review high level reporting, including user feedback results.
- Once a year, our Sr. Systems Engineer uses a tool to perform a professional Network Security Assessment Scan on your organization. That information is reviewed, compiled into a report and delivered to you, along with some key actions/recommendations.
- If, despite best efforts, your organization gets hit by a Ransomware attack, the protection service we build into Complete Support will help your organization by covering the cost of mitigating the costs to recover.
What isn’t included in the Complete Support Plan?
- Hardware
- Software
- Licenses
- Extended warranties
- Projects– Server migrations, network upgrades, office moves, office expansions, acquisitions, Ransomware attacks (may be covered through the 360 Protect 500K service). The general rule of thumb is a project is loosely defined as tasks that will take > 5 hours or impact >5 people or >5 devices.
- Computer deployments >10% of covered PC’s. (If you have 20 covered workstations, you can replace up to 2 of them per month, every month, at no additional charge.)
Is it more expensive than Break/Fix?
Yes. With break/fix, even if you have a few smaller services, like Anti-Virus and server monitoring, you could have one month where your bill is $150 and the next month could be $2500. It is all reactive in nature and, while you may really like those months that are closer to $150, the reality is there is a whole lot of protections and services that AREN’T running (that should be) which, over time, leads to feeding the “Crises” Beast which has great impact on your business (downtime, frustrated employees, concern over possible hacks, waiting for new equipment to arrive). Managing the Crises Beast has a great impact on our business because associates get pulled to fight fires, when they could be proactively monitoring and maintaining networks for all clients.
What we have found is if you pull the data to look at what your organization spends over a course of a year, Complete Support works out to be in the same ballpark as the monthly average plus 10-20%. We have had some clients save money and other clients come in higher than that estimate, but, generally speaking, that is what we have seen. There is a world of difference in what you are getting on the Complete Support Plan in return in the way of added services and protections.
If you are interested in joining the Complete Support Plan sooner, rather than later, request a quote by emailing: ensinfo@eaglemsp.com. Someone from the team will reach out to you with info.