IT Support Packages what are your expectations

Welcome to the forums 

Could write a book on experience of IT/hosting providers  Mainly negative I'm afraid.

But there are some good ones, we use Cobweb for our email, and pretty happy with them. Hosting wise it's Rackspace who (most of the time) live up to their support mantra. 

Just being nosy, in a crowded market, what makes you unique?

Hi and thanks, 

Our activities are mainly in the support market,

to answer the question we have another company , ecogreen IT recycling, this enables us to serve customers requirements for repairs/stock/upgrades or any other IT equipment from our facility, we also recycle wherever possible to minimise the impact on the environment from IT equipment,. we also offer initial free upgrades to new customers and a referral program that potentially could give free IT support ,.... we also donate IT equipment to local schools/community centres, if we can help the next generation we will,...

Hi there. How do you get on with this? I've found in the past a lot of larger organisations and local authorities are unable to donate due to data protection issues, and the need to physically destroy bits like hard drives. The lower price of equipment then makes it a harder business case to recondition older stuff to enable to donate.

Maybe regulations or processes are more relaxed now. Be nice if more ex-corporate stuff was being re-used and helping people in the local area.

Ecogreen

We are in the process of developing our services specifically for this market (I.T Support) on the basis on what we have been hearing from new clients we take on (or don't take on in some cases).  Whilst we've generally taken on clients from referral as it's wasn't previously our core business the feedback generally get seems to be along the lines of things started out ok but the the level of support went downhill.  There appears to be a number of drivers behind this:

1.  The support company was unrealistic about the level of support it could provide.

2.  The client's expectations are unrealistic and the person they deal with hasn't been straight with them.

3.  Support has been provided on a reactive (break fix) basis.  Underlying minor problems get ignored, build up in to big expensive problems because there's no ongoing I.T strategy that's reviewed.  Eventually something goes pop and fingers get pointed all over the place all the while half the workforce cant do anything because nothing's working.

In my experience a lot of businesses are at the early stage of point 3 or worse are not happy with the setup / people they have but too scared to speak to an I.T support company because they assume it's going to cost them big time.  Classic head in the sand stuff.  The thing is a good I.T support company should be able to save you much more than you ever spend like any good professional (Accountant, Lawyer, Car Mechanic etc).  They should also be able to clearly demonstrate this to you long before you spend any money with them.  Burying your head in the sand hoping things won't go wrong  is rarely if ever the right move but in answer to your question it's the most common situation businesses experience from what I've seen over the years.

Hope that helps