IT Management

S5 Technology Group are an award winning Managed Service Provider and Enterprise System Integrator with offices located in Port Macquarie and Cowra NSW. We offer Ad hoc Business IT Support, IT Management, Managed IT Services and Infrastructure Management to Government, Education and Business customers.

Managed IT Services / IT Management / Service Level Agreements

Overview

S5 Technology Group takes a unique approach to supporting network environments, focusing on network uptime, reliability and continuity, and not on a pre-determined number of included support hours or response times as is commonly the case.

This approach ensures that our customers are being rewarded due to our efficiency and quality of work. This is a significant contrast to the common approach employed by IT Service Providers whereby the Service Provider is rewarded for taking longer to achieve a resolution, encouraging inefficiency and poor quality in their work.

To achieve these efficiencies, S5 Technology Group take an extremely thorough and unprecedented approach to both the initial on boarding and the ongoing management of our clients.

Thanks to this approach our customers experience significantly less downtime and a superior end user experience.

Pricing Concept

Pricing for the available levels of SLA are based on device quantities in the case of contracted hardware, and user quantities in the case of cloud services. There is no limit to the supplied hours under a given SLA. If a service is deemed to be covered under the scope of the SLA, there is no cost to the customer irrespective of the time required to complete the task.

All remote management, job management and automation tools that are required to fulfill these services are included.

This pricing concept allows Business Owners, CIO’s and IT Managers to accurately budget for their organisation’s IT support.

Technical Standards

In order for S5 Technology Group to provide this extremely high level of service, the contracted network environment is required to meet or exceed certain technical standards.

The S5 Guarantee

S5 Technology Group is so confident of being able to deliver on the services offered in this agreement that we have put in place a financial penalty system towards ourselves in the form of a percentage refund to our customers should certain aspects of the SLA not be delivered upon.

Why is our support offering superior?

The most capable and qualified support team on the Mid North Coast

Our team are required to maintain current certifications across all technologies we support. Some of the certifications held include Apple Certified Mac Technician(s), Brocade Certified Network Engineer, Check Point Certified Security Administrator, Check Point Certified Security Expert, Cisco Certified Network Associate, Citrix Solution Advisor, CompTIA A+, CompTIA Security+, D-Link Certified Network Engineer(s), EMC Proven Professional, Microsoft Certified Professional(s), Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist(s), Microsoft Certified Information Technology Professional(s), Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate(s), Toshiba Certified ProCare Technician(s) and VMWare Certified Professional.

An award winning Managed Service Provider

Our Network Management offering is without peer in regional Australia.

The latest remote monitoring technology

Whilst most IT Service Providers claim to provide remote monitoring, this is completed by manual process, involving the technician to manually log-in and check log files as infrequently as once a month, or waiting for the end user to report the issue. At S5 Technology Group our remote monitoring agents are installed on your network devices and are configured to detect issues and pending failures before the end user is aware. Just a few of the issues that we can detect and resolve before there is an impact on the end user are: Hard Drive Failures, Backup Failures, Viruses, Critical and Security Updates, Low Hard Drive Space, Low Memory, Poor CPU Performance, Power Outages, Brown Outs and much more.

The latest and most advanced job management system available

Our job management system integrates directly with our remote monitoring platform. This means that when an issue is detected on your network, a job is created automatically and we guarantee that your response times are met and that no jobs are missed.

Detailed Network Audit and Documentation

As part of the onboarding process a comprehensive Network Audit is undertaken in order to document your entire environment, ensuring all our engineers can support your business and any issues which may affect reliability or the productivity of your business are resolved before any costly down time occurs. Depending on the size of your network, this audit document is typically between 70 and 150 pages and becomes the ‘bible’ for supporting your network and IT systems.

Detailed monthly reports demonstrating the performance of our engineer

A detailed service summary is provided every month including detailed descriptions of the work completed on your network and the time spent resolving your issues.

Detailed monthly reports on the performance and health of your network

A detailed monthly report demonstrating the performance and health of your network is provided. This report contains graphs of Server and Workstation performance, details of the Critical and Security update status for all devices, manual restoration of your backups to ensure disaster recovery is possible, and much more.

Network Audit and Documentation

Before commencing your SLA a full audit of your network environment must be undertaken to identify possible issues within your environment and to ensure that ongoing support can be provided efficiently.

This audit process is completed over a collection and documentation period of up to 4 weeks, involving onsite and remote auditing, end user surveys, consultation with Line of Business software vendors, and hardware vendors.

This audit is provided free of charge to Complete Care clients and at a 50% discount to Proactive Care clients. Should a customer terminate their SLA within the first 12 months of the agreement, the full value of the Network Audit becomes payable.

A copy of the network audit is provided to the client for their internal records.

Items included in the initial Network Audit

Schematic Network Diagram
Network Credentials and Configuration
Detailed Server Hardware Audit
Detailed Server Software Audit including Microsoft License Keys
Server Uptime and Crash Report
Detailed Workstation Hardware Audit
Detailed Workstation Software Audit including Microsoft License Keys
Assessment of LOB (Line of Business) application(s) and consultation with vendors to ensure minimum system requirements are met and to plan for future upgrades.
Executive Summary of findings relating to Company Server, Backups and Disaster Recovery, Security Patches, Password Security, Network Hardware / Configuration, Power Protection, Workstations and other findings
Summary of recommendations
Quotation (where required) to resolve issues identified as critical and preventing the commencement of a maintenance agreement

Optional Items

For additional budgeting help and support coverage S5 Technology Group offer the following optional items that may be added to a Complete Care Service Level Agreement.

Overtime Insurance

This is an additional fixed amount that allows for normal items covered under your SLA to be performed after hours for no additional charge.

24 Hour Support

This is an additional fixed amount calculated as a percentage of the contract to provide 24 hour remote support to Complete Care SLA clients. 24 hour support covers Level 1 Critical Issues only.

Major Works

This is an additional fixed amount calculated as a percentage of the contract to provide a fixed cost contract that covers all major works projects including Server Operating System upgrades, Server Hardware replacement, Network Infrastructure replacement or even whole network replacement/refresh. *Conditions Apply.

Infrastructure Management

S5 Technology Group has a team of engineers with specialist skill sets that many of our Government, Enterprise, Education and Medium Business clients do not have available internally. As such these clients typically require ongoing support surrounding specific area’s of their environment, .

Infrastructure Management agreements provide structured support in the very same guise as the above Managed IT Services agreement, however they are focused on specific area’s of a customer’s IT infrastructure.

Every customer has different requirements and different skill gaps in their organisation so every Infrastructure Management agreement is customised to the clients requirements.

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Common Infrastructure Coverage

Server, Storage and Virtualisation
Local & Wide Area Network
Security Management – Perimeter Firewalls, Endpoint Zero Day, SCADA
Linux Server & Appliance Management

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Resources & Minimum Skillsets

Security Engineer – CCNA, CCSA, CCSE
Network Engineer – BCNE, CCNA, DCNE, MCSA, VCP
Server Engineer – MCP, MCTS, MCSA
Apple Technician – ACMT, ACN, CompTIA A+
Desktop Technician – CompTIA A+, MCP, Fujistu, HP, Lenovo, Toshiba

Port Macquarie, Cowra, Laurieton, Kempsey, Wauchope, Macksville, Nambucca Heads, Coffs Harbour, Tamworth, Taree, Gloucester, Bellingen, Armidale, Newcastle, Forbes, Parkes, Young, Orange, Bathurst, Condobolin, Dubbo.

Supplemental Support / Block Hour Support Contracts

Block Hour Support Contracts provide access to professional services at discounted rates and a higher priority than received when purchasing AD HOC services.

The pre-paid credit that is purchased to commence your contract does not expire, however our hourly rates are subject to change without notice.

Upon completion of any professional service, an invoice detailing the work completed will be provided showing the credit used for the job. A monthly statement will be provided showing the remaining balance available. This balance is also available at any time upon request.

Renewal invoices are sent automatically when the contract balance reaches 4 hours of a Network Specialists hourly rate.

Block Hour Support Contracts receive priority over any AD HOC service requests, whilst Managed Service Contracts have priority over Block Hour Support Contracts.