Services
Network Support and Maintenance
Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
Our Services
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ITSS is able to assist our clients with the procurement of IT. This can be done in any number of ways. Firstly, through our relationship and partnerships with some of the Leading Global IT vendors we can assist our clients in getting pricing structure usually only available to large corporate clients. Secondly, ITSS is able to assist our clients in the decision making process. Too often smaller enterprises are sold products that either exceed or barely meet their requirements. Purchases of this nature ultimately lead to poor return on investment and generally lead to additional purchases. ITSS offer a comprehensive procurement management process where we ensure that return on investment and business need are the two key drivers. This eliminates the enterprise from having to spend huge amounts of time, effort and capital on decisions that can be governed by sound process and principles. |
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Installations, Additions, Moves and Changes (IMAC), are a post sales activity of procurement. Most often the smaller enterprise will complete the procurement activity under intensive activity of the vendor providing the product. Once the ‘sale’ has been concluded, the vendor tends to downgrade the level of interest and follow through in the post sales process. This leads to the situation where the new products are not fully customised for best fit and optimum performance. As the new product moves past the magical three month ‘post-implementation’ period the vendor activity ceases to exist. ITSS eliminate this problem by means of continual service provision which can be concluded and undertaken by way of a service level agreement. ITSS will remain cognisant of the ever changing requirements of the enterprise and can adapt the technologies implemented to meet these changes. Having one organisation responsible for these services ensures standardisation and conformity thereby improving the effectiveness of deployed IT. |
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ITSS have been providing hardware maintenance services to organisations for the past 15 years. Ranging from printers to mid-range file servers, ITSS is able to provide on-site, carry-in, and bench maintenance to almost every brand of IT hardware. These services include warranty and post-warranty maintenance. ITSS are able to offer these services on a 24x7x365 basis under the provision of a Service Level Agreement established on the clients specific service requirements. |
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The maintenance of most commercial applications as well as some unique software applications can be supported by ITSS. Including services such as installations, configuration and user administration we are able to offer an end-to-end service based upon the requirements of our clients. |
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Network support and maintenance services are offered in the following categories. |
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Lan Services |
ITSS is able through an extensive network of partners to supply LAN services ranging from product based solutions through to on-site management and remote management services. |
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WAN Services |
ITSS is able to offer connectivity services through a number of national and international networks. Our business partners own and operate state-of-the-art switched ATM backbones which enable them to maintain a highly redundant sub-continent-wide network with access points in most major locations. These networks both nationally and globally and can guarantee our customers the highest levels of service, efficiency and flexibility. ITSS are further to this solution offering, able to assist clients in designing, developing, implementing and maintaining their Wide Area Networks. |
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Internet Services |
ITSS offer an extensive range of internet services, which are both products and service supplier agnostic in the same manner as we offer WAN connectivity services. |
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Cabling and Connectivity |
The following services can be provided to clients in respect of cabling and Networking by ITSS.
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ITSS has extensive experience in providing mail services. These range from the provision of an end-to-end solution that is designed to cater for all electronic mail and fax requirements and is built upon a pay-for-use basis, to the management and maintenance of the existing mail environment. |
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See our suite of unique methodologies. |
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User support is a very broad based category of services. In its most simple form ITSS make staff skilled in the IT infrastructure and service requirements of the client’s enterprise available to the client to manage all or part of the incoming user support requirements. A more adaptive solution is one based upon the ITSS Service Management Framework. This solution is based upon a broad range of infrastructure management processes designed to improve user effectiveness and IT infrastructure efficiency. (Please see the section titled Service Management, that follows in this Value Proposition) |
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ITSS are able to offer a number of services in this area of IT management namely:
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Backup and Restore |
Servers could be maintained and upgraded by onsite Systems Engineers. We will make available a Backup Server, which will be kept onsite at the client facility, on which weekly “ghost images” will be downloaded, to ensure quick and efficient recovery on the server when required. We will also keep a backup server available at our Facility in case of emergency requirements. Ensuring data integrity will be done by implementing procedures, including but not limited to the following :
We will also investigate and implement processes and procedures to enable redundancy on the current servers, making recommendations and pricing available to client if required. |
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ITSS has developed a Service Management Framework based upon the ITIL framework for the management of IT Infrastructure. This framework is deployed in part or in whole as per the specific requirements of our clients. |
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Service Desk |
The Service Desk is implemented as the single point of contact for the logging and tracking of all incidents, problems, changes and queries relating to the IT environment. Due to the nature of the client environment, it is normally recommended that a centralised service desk be implemented. This service desk will provide the following:
The service hours and response time of the service desk will be: Standard
hours of support 7x24x365 Standard Support Response Times
Resource
Management This function will be responsible for ensuring that all staff are lead through an induction program, familiarizing them with the client environment, as well as the processes and procedures of the service desk. The service desk will be responsible for identifying and fulfilling the training requirements of its staff, in order to deliver competent 1st and 2nd line IT support to the business. It will also be accountable for ensuring that resource levels are maintained to fulfill the requirements of the Draft SLA. Once the implementation of the Service desk is complete, the 3 minor disciplines incorporated within, will be separate and each will be formed into an independent framework component. These minor disciplines are:
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Service Level Management |
Service Level Management is vital management function as it is used to understand, document and manage the customer’s business information requirements and needs. It is also used to present and market the services offered to the client by the service organisation. A well managed SLM function and process will contribute to the development of a strong and prosperous relationship between the client and ITSS. Trending and Reporting The Service Level Management process has a number of outputs. One of these is regular (Daily, Weekly, Monthly) trend analysis and reporting all geared toward effective decision making for the business. |
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Information Technology departments can only deliver true value to an organisation when they understand and fulfill the requirements of the business using a service management framework based on globally accepted best practice. The purpose of the Service Management Framework is to deliver business orientated, cost effective services to our client, using a service management framework incorporating globally accepted best practice guidelines. The framework has been designed to facilitate the implementation of the core service management functions, which will enable a managed implementation and handover of services, ensuring minimal impact on the infrastructure and end user environment. These core functions will also lay the foundation for the future implementation of further service management disciplines. |
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Change Management |
Change Management is vital in minimizing the risk posed to business resulting from un-authorised changes to the environment. The change management process will be used to manage and control the implementation of infrastructure and services for our clients. This function will be accountable for all authorised and un-authorised changes carried out in the organisation and the investigation and reporting there of. |
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Capacity Management |
Capacity
Management will be responsible for maintaining sufficient capacity
in the infrastructure, in order to deliver the required services. This
will be achieved through defining and implementing a customer
approved capacity plan. This plan will be used to manage capacity,
therefore it requires strict and disciplined processes for the
monitoring and maintenance of the plan. Business
Capacity requirements will be defined in the SLA. These will be
communicated to this function and be used as the baselines for the
Capacity planning process. The
Capacity plan will be sub-divided into 3 categories, each focusing
on a separate component of this discipline. These are: Business
Capacity The
client requirements Service
Capacity The
service supplied by ITSS Resource
Capacity The
infrastructure Once the capacity plan is approve and implemented, it will be used as the single point of reference for any changes, additions and upgrades to the environment. |
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Configuration and Asset Management |
Configuration Management will be implemented as a subset of the change management discipline. This eliminates the initial need for a separate configuration management function and also gives change management a lot more control over the changes made to the infrastructure. Included in this service is a broad spectrum asset management service. |
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Release Management |
The
control and testing of a release into the live environment is
necessary to prevent any unexpected or unscheduled downtime.
Releasing an untested piece of software or hardware into the
production environment can have a detrimental impact on the
operations of the business. Release
management will make use of the methodology and processes
prescribed by the project office. All release initiatives will be
managed as seperate projects. Change
Management will be used to manage the release and ensure that the
necessary tests and quality checks have taken place. The
Definitive Software library, The software and document library and
the definitive hardware store will be owned and maintained by this
function. Release Management will be responsible for all aspects of planning, testing and managing the implementation of new Configuration items into the live environment. |
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IT Services and Continuity Management |
This
function will cater for the definition and development of a
service continuity plan for the mission critical systems defined
in the SLA. Change
Management will be responsible for the delivery of this process,
ensuring that the plan is kept up to date at all times. Once the implementation of the core service framework is complete, this function, like configuration management will be matured and separated into an independent entity. |
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Fiancial Management |
The delivery of a cost effective service to the client is of utmost importance to ITSS. This discipline will be implemented under the care of the SLM function. Strong financial management processes will ensure that costs and TCO are measured and managed across all aspects of the IT infrastructure. Suitable costing mechanisms and charge back services will also assist in the management of finances. |
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Within the Service Management Framework, ITSS offers all of its clients a vendor management service. This service is focused on managing the complex multi-vendor environment against the procurement specifications of our clients. The single management interface for all vendors ensures compliance to a single set of Service Levels and ensures effectiveness of delivery and efficiency of engagement. |
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The adoption and implementation of a globally accepted Project Management methodology is a fundamental element of a stable and managed environment. The use of a well defined methodology with manageable supporting processes and procedures will guarantee the success of this function. Depending on the type and nature of the project environment, ITSS can either make one or more project managers available or we can implement an entire project office methodology. A centrally managed project office can be implemented to manage and control all projects initiated in order to satisfy the needs expressed by the client. The project office (or single project managers) will be responsible for:
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Strategic consulting as applied by ITSS is primarily in two areas. ITIL (IT Infrastructure Library) and TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). Whilst we have established an entire Infrastructure Management Methodology on these two key standards, we also offer separate consultancy services in this regard. Additionally, ITSS are able to offer a number of other IT related Consulting services such as:
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