Business Solutions

Our IT Support Services

When your network is down, we understand it's costing time and money. That's why at Advanced Computers Ltd (refer to "ACL") our IT support methodologies are drawn from industry best practice, ensuring the maximum uptime of your computer system so you can focus on building your business.

We do this with our "No Loose Ends" IT support plans.

No Loose Ends Support

The ACL "No Loose Ends" support plan provides you the expertise of an entire IT department, for a known monthly fee.

With both 9/5 (Gold) and 24/7 (Platinum) support plans available, including full server melt-down insurance, we have the options that are just right for you. Each of our No Loose Ends IT services support plans include the following:

• Proactive monitoring of your servers - identifying and rectifying problems before they cause downtime
• Your dedicated and experienced IT manager - insuring your systems support your business objectives
• Full remote support ability to all of your computers, whether in or out of the office - fast response
• Network Audits and Consulting
• IT project management - on time, on budget, every time
• Management reporting - you are provided with the key performance indicators so you know what's going on at a glance
• Hardware & Software asset management
• Full network documentation

Call us today to find out how we can look after your IT, so you can focus on growing your business.

Please read through more detail about our specific IT services - backup systems, hardware and software procurement, anti-virus / anti-spyware, power protection, help with your business technology budget, asset management, proactive server monitoring, disaster recovery, remote IT support, firewall security and SPAM protection.

Backup systems

At ACL we take backups seriously. By law, New Zealand business is required to keep valid retention of business records by electronic form, including backup and storage offshore. The Inland Revenue requests information and requires access to business records and supporting background materials.

Based upon industry best practice, we have relationships with the leading providers of backup products in the market.

We then implement these and such a fashion that they can be reported on and tested regularly.

Our Gold and Platinum support plans see us checking our clients' backup systems on a daily basis – so any issues are resolved quickly.

The way we set up our backup systems give our clients some key benefits compared to others:

• Files can be restored from only 15 minutes prior rather than from the night before – if you have ever accidentally overwritten a file you will know how much time this saves you and your staff
• Ability to respond and resolve full disasters (fire or theft for example), in a fraction of the time compared to older traditional systems If you are concerned about your backup system, call us - we've been doing it for years

Hardware and Software procurement

Our customers find that our close relationships with leading technology vendors means that they don't have to deal with any third parties – ACL is a one stop shop, and they can be sure of the best pricing in the market.

We promise a quick turnaround for quotes, using the industry's leading quoting tool that provides us with pricing updates on a daily basis.

All leading vendors can be supplied through ACL, including:

• IBM
• Microsoft
• Lenovo (ThinkPads and ThinkCentres)
• HP
• Toshiba
• Nod 32
• Symantec
• And many, many more

Call us now for a competitive quote on your new IT solution

Anti-virus / Anti-spyware

It is imperative to have a robust and reliable antivirus system protecting your entire network.

The unique way we do it at ACL, allows us to have visibility across all of these areas of your network from a single screen.

This ensures that all of your servers, workstations, and e-mail system have the very latest protection.

In addition to this the products we use the least System Resources, to ensure that your workstations and servers are operating at full speed. Clients find that they don't have to worry about antivirus or antispyware. With ACL's just taken care of as part of the service.

Power Protection

Funnily enough this is one of the areas that we find is overlooked time and time again.

Having a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) that can allow your servers to operate when the power fails, and then gracefully shut them down seems simple enough at first glance.

Whilst it is, has this ever been tested on your network?

The UPS may be powering your server, but is it communicating to the server to be able to shut it down if the power fails?

This is a critical element of protecting your investment, and keeping your network running to service remote locations, even if the power is out at the main site.

Call us now to check this is configured right for you

Business technology budget

Having a budget in place for the financial year allows you to be planning in advance for network projects, upgrades, and workstation replacement.

There is good reason why our clients demand this, and good reason why we deliver in this area.

If un-budgeted expense items have come up with your supplier, maybe it's time to partner with ACL, and plan to the future

Asset management

As your network grows, keeping a handle on exactly what hardware and software your own can be difficult to manage.

Whenever one of our clients wants to know exactly what they own, be it hardware or software, we can press a button and provide an up to the minute report of exactly what assets they own.

This is how we can draw up a budget to be aware of potential replacements required for the coming year, and click a button to see simple things such as "How many copies of Microsoft Project do we have installed?".

If your provider cannot supply this without time consuming manual labour, give us a call – our clients have it in seconds.

Proactive Server Monitoring

For years preventive maintenance has been a critical component of keeping your computer network running as it should, and it still is.

However proactive monitoring takes it to another level.

In most cases we can catch IT problems before they occur, not just through preventive maintenance, but also because all of our client's servers' report back to us to let us know just exactly how they're performing.

Issues pop up on one of our monitoring screens, so that we can jump on things before they cause downtime – keeping your computer network running all day every day.

Has your network gone down recently for a reason that seemed quite simple to prevent?

Give us a call, and we'll make sure that you are looked after from day one.

Disaster Recovery

If one of your servers failed, or you had a fire/theft occur, how long would it take your business to be operating again?

Disaster recovery is an area that we take seriously.

Our services range from the full image backups to ensure that you can be up and running quickly if a server was to fail, right through to relationships with third parties to allow you "on call" office space to get you up and running as fast as possible should a disaster occur and your office is unavailable.

Call us now, to talk through what disaster recovery options would be appropriate for your business.

Industry's best remote IT support

Our leading edge tools allow us to remotely control any of our client's computers, whether they are in the office, working from home, or sitting in LAX.

This allows for the quickest possible response and resolution time to any problems that might occur.

What does this mean to you? Lower cost, and faster resolution.

If your supplier spend a lot of time onsite, or travelling to site, maybe is time to partner with ACL – we do it smarter.

Firewall security

Whilst a firewall is only part of your total security solution, it is a key component.

Our partnership with leading edge security vendors, ensure that your investment and business information is protected.

Allowing remote access for staff, whilst at the same time preventing intrusions, and looking down Internet threats come as part and parcel with our firewall implementations.

Call us now to find the security solution that's just right for you

SPAM protection

SPAM is an issue costing New Zealand businesses time and money each and every day.

As well as productivity costs, spam also costs with additional Internet usage, and potentially viruses.

Products are available for purchase to resolve this problem, however many of them are only good for a certain time once put in place – if they are not kept up to date, spam moves on, but they don't.

At ACL we use the very smartest Pre-Filter Service that filters out spam messages before they arrive to your site.

This gives you the following advantages:

• Improved staff productivity
• Less frustration
• Lower Internet charges
• No long contracts – just use on a month by month basis
• And ever improving proving and up-to-date system

The ACL Network Health Check

Do you feel confident that your Computer Network will adequately support your business objectives?

Have you ever had a complete bird's eye view of your Computer Network?

What potential business risks do you have? How does your network compare to industry best practice? What unrealized efficiency gains might there be?

We will provide you a simple and easy to understand report, which addresses all of these items in layman's terms, so that you can make an educated decision going forward.

The technology is important sure, but what's more important is what the risks to your business are, and will your network support your business objectives?

Our report addresses these items in a way that you can understand, and put a plan in place to resolve your network problems so that you can focus on building your business.

What is covered?

All key areas of your infrastructure are covered in the report, including but not limited to the following:

• Potential business risks
• Unrealized efficiency gains
• Business I.T. projects prioritized
• Cabling, Switching
• Power Protection
• Virus Protection
• Backup Processes
• Server Hardware and Software
• E-mail system
• Resilience
• Security
• Disaster Recovery
• Policies

Any projects, weaknesses, potential risks, and unrealized efficiencies that are recognized are then prioritized using a cost/benefit matrix and presented to you for selection.

From there the decision is up to you and we work with you to help you make the best decision

What does it cost?

The investment for a Network Health check varies depending on the organizations' network size.