An important driver for utilising an external provider for server, application and desktop support is an improvement in service levels. Hyperlink deliver this to you through drawing on our expertise and knowledge of your IT infrastructure, and our experience across a wide range of organisations and environments.

IT response times will be arranged for specific services. Hyperlink's support staff are all highly qualified and certified IT professionals (Microsoft Engineer and developer certifications, Citrix Administrator certification, Cisco Engineers Certification, Certified Netware Administrator, etc) and are able to provide support at the time of call.

Hyperlink Support consists of the following elements:

Hyperlink Help Desk:

Help Desk Support - Hyperlink will be available, 7/24/365, as your help desk that will assist in the resolution of problems relating to your services.

Help Desk issues that cannot be resolved during the course of the initial call will be logged with the relevant support organisation, through Vendor agreements, network supplier or to a support specialist in the required area.

On-Line Support - Hyperlink will provide you with a web-based service request application that will allow to place, and track the progress and history of, support requests.

You are provided with a Procedures Manual, which will be continually updated by your Technical Resource Officer (TRO) or Account Manager which documents all contact details, a help desk manual, and a list of services provided.

Reporting - Hyperlink can provide you a monthly summary of Help Desk and On-Site support calls via email to a designated recipient. This will allow you to keep track of your issues and use that information for trend projection and capacity planning.

Meetings

Meetings can be conducted to an agreed schedule with your Account Manager, and if required your TRO, and specified staff.

At these meetings, any future plans from either company can be discussed, and strategic planning set in place. This is important to ensure full communication of needs, and time allowed for resource planning, and ordering of services. These may include patching or upgrade planning, new sites, upgrades to communications services, new applications etc.

Also at these meetings, any industry news or information which would be relevant to impart to you would be addressed. This may include upgrades, improvements to services, new services available to the market etc.

Your TRO, Account Manager and the Chief Operating Officer will also be available for unscheduled or ad-hoc meetings at your request at an agreed mutually convenient time.

Support Staff

Technical Resource Officer

To enhance the efficiency of our services to clients over a standard "helpdesk" service, we also appoint a Technical Resource Officer (TRO), for our managed services clients who will be responsible for overseeing all technical aspects of your account. The TRO is supported by the whole Technical Support Team.

In the event of a support call, a helpdesk ticket will be lodged, which will be reported to your TRO for his needs and to update any information on your account, so they are totally briefed with all technical aspects of your services. The TRO will also be responsible for timely responses and solutions for all technical aspects of your account, including any report requirements, and follow up on any queries. They also have responsibility for informing the client of any aspects of the Data Centre or network services which may impact your service, such as scheduled outages, patches or interruptions to network services.

The TRO will also ensure that all change procedures are overseen by them, and documentation and communication is performed in a timely, responsive and efficient manner.

Through this they will gain and require greater understanding of developments and new projects. A defined schedule will be notified to the support team of all project dates for development and/or upgrades. In this way any planned infrastructure and network deployments can be scheduled and notified to relevant persons to avoided conflicts and outages. Communications will be maintained in a timely and bi-directional fashion through this mechanism.

Your Account Manager will be appointed, who is your point of contact for any escalation processes, requirement for quotes or billing queries, or any other aspects of your services. Your TRO and Account Manager will work closely together on all areas of your services and account, and have the full support of our internal technical team.

Project Management

For our managed service clients, a project management plan will be implemented to ensure that a number of areas are extensively covered by all relevant parties.
The areas to consider are:

• Network changes and demands
• Server loads and increased usage
• Maintenance agreements and upgrades (including licensing)
• Testing and implementation of new or upgraded applications

A sign off procedure will be implemented, to ensure that all parties are kept informed, time frames are met, and all aspects of the project are met. Your TRO and Account Manager will prepare the required documentation, and after initial discussions at scheduled or unscheduled meetings, present the documentation for signoff prior to commencement of the project.

Process and Change Control

All procedure documentation and change control documents will be strictly controlled by your TRO. The TRO will be responsible to fully inform all relevant parties and raise any concerns before implementation is approved. Any ad hoc changes by individuals will be resisted and advised to be approved and requested by the individual concerned through the correct channels in your business. Normal support and fault evaluation will be responsive and enthusiastic.

Monitoring Services

Our corporate ethos in servicing clients is built on proactively managing the network infrastructure that supports your business. Our service and support teams are focused on striving for zero downtime.

The Hyperlink core network, individual services and website availability is monitored and managed by our technical team of specialists on a 24x7 basis. In the event of any issue or problem, the entire team is notified automatically and immediately by our central monitoring system. The support team is also available 24x7 for on-call support. The team then follows a pre-determined rectification procedure.

If the problem is not rectified within an acceptable time then the notification escalates and senior executives are notified and work with the team to ensure any problems are resolved completely. The same alert procedure and escalation process is used for client hardware monitoring.

The Hyperlink monitoring system monitors network connectivity, hardware status and performance, and in those cases where it is required, application performance. This system provides key availability management of the web site, server and infrastructure and key performance factors such as CPU, memory and disk space. Hyperlink will be responsible for maintaining monitoring and reporting all events on the server environment. This will include polling, detection and notification of events on the servers.

Hyperlink technicians possess all skills required to correct hardware faults and software problems.

Technical Support

Our technical team consists of skilled staff with a broad range of support experience and qualifications. Our staff hold various certifications, from CISCO (CCNA and CCNP) on the network side, to Microsoft and Citrix certifications on the Wintel side, along with a multitude of other vendor and application certifications. This, along with many years of hands on experience in a multitude of varying backgrounds, gives us the skills and resources to handle technical issues in a timely and professional manner.

Hyperlink will provide an Account Manager, who is the single point of accountability. To support the account manager there is a 24x7 technical support team, who adhere to strict service level assurances for response times

Ad Hoc Services

Hyperlink staff are available, on request, to perform special projects and consulting services to you if required.