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The Business Advantage ICT Management Solution is a fixed fee, unlimited support agreement which changes the focus of your IT partnership from reacting (fixing IT problems as they occur), to focusing on planning, alignment, problem prevention, user productivity improvements, operational risk reduction and ultimately predictable results. 

By providing all ICT Services and Support for a fixed monthly fee we assume the risk associated with managing your ICT environment. What does this mean? Issues that occur now cost us both money, not just you. This changes the dynamic of your ICT partnership from simply fixing ICT problems reactively, to focusing on user productivity, risk management and predictable positive results - giving you back freedom to focus on what is important to you: your core products, your services and your clients. 

Benefits that you will expect to receive include: 

• Reduced issues that are “reactionary” in nature. 
• Faster response time to issues, incidents and problems 
• Reduction in and greater control over your operating costs 
• Reduction in your exposure to technological and operational risks 
• Predictive, proactive ICT support to you and your users 
• Increased operational efficiency to your business 
• Cost effective access to enterprise-grade ICT professionals 
• Minimised system downtime for your ICT systems 
• More time -regaining your ability to focus on running your business, not your vendors 
• Peace of mind knowing that your network is being monitored 24/7 

Read more: Business Advantage ICT Management Solution

Proactive Network Administration and Best Practice Standards Alignment

Our team will perform proactive network administration to ensure your environment is operating efficiency. In order to achieve this result, our Network Administration team will:

• develop, document and maintain technical knowledge of your environment
• perform regular, proactive maintenance
• drive standardisation through best practices
• identify and manage technical risk to reduce the impact on business operations
• continuously enhance best practice standards with industry and technical changes.

Monthly Server Maintenance

In addition to receiving proactive server monitoring, we will perform monthly server maintenance including but not limited to the following:

• System updates/patches/hotfixes
• Core system check (UPS, services)
• Review event log & resolve any critical errors

Real-time Monitoring 24x7x365

As we assume the risk of managing your IT environment, it makes it important to ensure your critical systems remain available and running at optimal efficiently for all staff. A critical part of managing this risk is monitoring your systems in real-time from our Network Operations Centre (NOC) in Brisbane, QLD.

This monitoring not only saves you time and money, but serves two key functions:

• It ensures we proactively identify serious problems before they are noticed by users
• It allows the team to determine the state and health of the network, and take action immediately where required

Unlimited remote and on-site support

Our team of qualified ICT engineers are available and ready to meet your service requirements. As we now take full responsibility for any problems that occur, Business Advantage clients receive the following:

• Unlimited phone support through PKML's Service Desk.
• Unlimited remote and onsite support for day-to-day user assistance during business hours 8.30am – 5pm M-F, AEST (excl. Public Holidays)
• All monthly server maintenance tasks
• After-hours 24x7 emergency support(charges apply)

Vendor Management

Vendor Management is integral to the Business Advantage Solution. Vendor management saves clients’ significant money, time and aggravation. PKML will take ownership over managing external ICT vendors including internet, printer, phone, website and software suppliers, and will provide the following functions:

• Liaise directly with one or multiple vendors to facilitate the resolution of any problems between vendor and client systems
• Managing and following up on issues and tasks lodged with other vendors on behalf of the client
• Scheduling and overseeing on-site visits and work completed by external vendors

Staff now no longer need to relay technical information between vendors or determine who is responsible for a particular fault, as PKML assumes complete ownership over all your technology systems on your behalf.

Monthly Health, Standards Alignment and Service Reporting

Each month you will receive a report on the performance of not only your system but on the contractual terms of the delivery of services:

• Client Network Report showing general system health, including any identifiable concerns and tasks undertaken for the month
• General report on all maintenance tasks undertaken during the month
• Monthly report showing our response times to support requests broken down by priority, and an explanation on any breaches by your nominated Technical Account Manager

Complete Full Service IT Service and Support Functional Team

Your IT Team is structured on IT Service and Support functional best practice. The full service includes Service Desk (SD), Technical Account and Alignment Management (TAM) and virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO).

Your Service Desk team (for day to day operational service) is responsible for:

• Call handling and reporting
• Incident and problem management
• Desktop and server management
• LAN/WAN (network) management
• Core application facilitation
• Field services for break/fix, preventative maintenance and setup of new IT equipment
• Expectation management

Read more: What is included?

Your Technical Account and Alignment Manager is additionally responsible for:

• Escalated incident and problem management
• Developing and maintaining a strong technical relationship with your team.
• Monitoring and driving service quality through proactive network administration.
• Providing the first point of contact of escalation for any concerns regarding service or quality in the delivery of the Business Advantage solution.
• Ensuring you are satisfied with the technical services, expectations are delivered and contractual obligations are met.
• Manage your other IT vendors and drive any third parties to ensure services are seamlessly delivered.
• Provide technical service focus meetings, provide system health reports.
• Monitor standard processes, procedures and SLA’s to ensure correct daily operations.
• Interface directly with the Project Services Team to ensure project requirements are considerate of your operational requirements and are fit for purpose.

Read more: Technical Account and Alignment Manager

Your virtual Chief Information Manager (vCIO) is responsible for:

• Escalated incident and problem management
• Developing and maintaining a strong business relationship with your team.
• Monitoring and driving operational risk, productivity and opportunity costs.
• Ensuring you are satisfied with our service results, expectations are delivered and obligations are met.
• Provide strategic IT planning services.
• Provide an advisory council function on ICT procurement and project requirements.
• Interface directly with the Project Services Team to ensure project requirements are considerate of your operational requirements and are fit for purpose.
• Drive joint ownership of technology strategy and technology budgeting.

Strategic IT Management Meetings

Your vCIO will also arrange a quarterly IT planning meeting to present a report on the overall state of your IT systems and projects, address any challenges you may have and discuss your overall IT strategy. This will include planning & budgeting as well as suggestions and improvements as to how you can better utilise technology to meet business outcomes.

Read more: Virtual Chief Information Manager (vCIO)

• Your business support services team is responsible for:
• Preparing product quotations
• Processing sales orders and procurement workflows
• Conducting regular price and availability checks
• Managing and driving ETA’s, including informing customers of delivery dates and back orders.
• Managing the complete lifecycle of your customer account.

The Executive Management Team are also there for you, and their responsibilities include:

• Escalation points for any issues or concerns regarding PKML quality and service.
• Overseeing and direct engagement in account/relationship management activities.
• Developing and maintaining strong relationships with your senior and executive management team to ensure open and direct communications at all times.
• Provide an environment and framework to ensure the wider PKML team is fully empowered to perform as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Read more: Business Support Services and Management Escalation

Read more: Industry Best Practice IT Service Management Framework

Business Advantage customers have contracted service delivery key performance indicators written into their agreement which covers guaranteed response times, through Service Level Agreements (SLAs). Service requests and incidents are logged through the Service Desk or your Technical Account Manager (TAM), and the following table describes our standard SLA.

Note: Response matrix assumes 1 hour = 1 “business hour” (outside of business hours does not factor towards response SLA) When a job is added to the system it is assigned a priority based on the SLA and the severity of the issue as agreed by TAM and/or the customer, or as defined by the Monitoring System. Escalation occurs when the time exceeds the “Escalated” column in the table above. Our job monitoring solution automatically notifies the management team that the ticket will soon exceed the SLA.

Read more: Assured metric driven performance with Service Level Agreement

PKML Professional IT Services team guarantees its services. Should we fail to perform within SLA or we are not performing in accordance to the service levels and scope of service committed to you, we offer a full or partial refund for each particular period (month) in question.

Read more: Assurance by Financially Backed Guarantees and Penalties

As PKML assumes shared risk of your IT systems, a thorough on-boarding procedure is undertaken including documentation, auditing and requisite activities to bring your IT systems up to an acceptable best practice level – allowing our services to be implemented effectively and efficiently. Your staff or nominated point(s) of contact will benefit from the on-boarding process through a complete understanding of how to best engage and work with us for support, service, business support and management escalation – just like we are one of your team! The following table gives an overview of the on-boarding process:

Discovery & Audit Tasks

• Comprehensive IT audit conducted
• Report supplied to the with recommended tasks to bring ICT up to acceptable Best Practice Standards
• Complete required work to bring site up to acceptable Best Practice Standards

Site Preparation Process

• Create network diagram
• Create user creation checklist
• Create Standard Operating Environment / Workstation checklist
• Create basic IT Disaster Recovery plan
• Create Server Maintenance Policies
• Create Workstation Maintenance Policies
• Create any relevant Technical Procedures (added to Knowledge Base)
• Create monitoring set for critical systems
• Physical labelling of all servers & critical network equipment
• Photos taken of relevant equipment and uploaded into knowledgebase

Site Review Meeting with site IT contact to confirm documentation & understanding

• Install monitoring agents and setup alerting
• Modify backup notifications
• Fine tune monitoring sets and alerting
• Change and document all passwords (including testing)

Read more: Comprehensive On-Boarding Process

Service Exclusions

The following are outside the scope of the Business Advantage fixed fee agreement and will incur a fee to deliver.

• Services relating to significant moves, adds and changes. E.g., the installation and setup of net new hardware and / or software, server re-build, new office setup1
• Project work (within business hours)
• After hours support (general)
• After Hours Project Work

1Contract exclusions are items generally considered as “moves, adds and changes” to the baselined systems. Examples of contract exclusion items include:

• New addition of any physical or virtual ICT systems to the baselined environment such as workstations, printers, servers and internet services.
• Significant moves or changes such as complete machine re-build / re-install, physical office relocation, change of software platform, etc.
• Project work, whether business hours or after hours. Projects are bodies of work, which are temporary in nature, have a beginning / end date, have a set of objectives and are initiated by a requirement for “change” (as opposed to operational matters maintaining the current state). An example of project work would be to migrate email from an in-house service to a hosted service.

Read more: What is not covered by the service agreement?

For major escalations and move, add or change requests, our Project Services team is there to help.

• Project services are empowered to:
• Develop holistic and compelling (low risk, high value) solutions to deliver your required business outcomes
• Develop and maintain strong relationships with preferred technology vendors, to maintain currency and capability with technology, innovation and implementation best practice
• Deliver services, with a constant focus on the required business outcomes.
• Foster knowledge transfer to the managed services team.

Read more: Project Services

Best in Class Managed Endpoint Security

Managed endpoint security is a value-added managed security service, we highly recommend, that complements Business Advantage Managed ICT. PKML managed endpoint security is powered by best in class Sophos security technology. We configure, monitor and maintain to our minimum best practice standards. Unlike traditional “anti-virus” products, PKML managed endpoint security works hand in hand with the PKML managed network security bundle, and includes the following capabilities:

Endpoint Protection

• Anti-malware
• Live protection
• Exploit prevention and behaviour analytics
• Download reputation
• Endpoint control (Application control, device control, URL filtering)
• Malicious Traffic Detection

General

• Active Directory Services synchronisation
• User based policy
• Supports Windows and Macintosh client operating systems

Best in class Managed Server Security

PKML managed server security, also powered by Sophos best in class security technology is configured, monitored and maintained to our minimum best practice standards or higher. Unlike traditional “anti-virus” products, PKML managed server security works hand in hand with the PKML managed network security bundle, and includes the following capabilities:

Server Protection

• Anti-malware
• Live protection
• Exploit prevention and behaviour analytics
• Automatic Scanning Exclusion

General

• Server based policy
• Supports Windows Server operating systems

Best in class Managed and Dedicated Network Security Bundle

PKML managed network, powered by market leading Sophos security technology, is configured, monitored and managed to our minimum best practice standards or higher. The PKML managed network security bundle is configured for practical integrated industry best practices in network security, and includes the following capabilities:

Essential Firewall Capabilities

• 1 x Dedicated Next Generation Network Security Hardware Appliance
• Network Firewall
• Network Address Translation
• Native Windows Remote Access

Network Protection Capabilities

• Secure VPN (Virtual Private Network) Access and Site to Site VPN Capability
• Intrusion Prevention System
• Advanced Threat Protection
• Self Service User Portal

Web Protection Capabilities

• Web Malware Protection
• Web URL Filtering Policies
• Safesearch integration
• HTTPS Scanning
• Layer 7 Application Control

Email Protection Capabilities

• SPX Email Encyption
• Standards Based Encryption
• Data Loss Prevention
• Live Anti-Spam
• Self-Service Quarantine
• Microsoft Outlook Add-in

Wireless Protection Capabilities

• Multiple Wireless Zones
• Mobile Network Access Control
• Guest WiFi Hotspot

Webserver Protection Capabilities

• Web Application Firewall
• Server Hardening
• Reverse Proxy Authentication
• Anti-Virus Scanning
• SSL Offloading

Wireless Network Access Points

• Optional extra

Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) and Zero Day Defence

• Optional Extra

Managed Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium Productivity Bundle

PKML will manage your investment in Microsoft Office 365 productivity bundle. You will obtain access to world-class hosted email server platform, backed by #1 integrated Office productivity software, always staying up to date with the latest standard revisions and capabilities. Microsoft Office 365 Business Premium productivity bundle includes the following capabilities:

Core Features

• Business Class Email – access via desktop outlook client or web browser using Outlook Web Access
• Shared Calendaring
• Up to 50GB Storage per user mailbox
• Team Sites: Easily access and share documents
• Simple File Storage and Sharing using OneDrive for Business with up to 1TB of data storage available per user
• Full Office Standard Suite (latest stable available for Windows and Mac) – Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, OneNote
• Skype for Business).
• Install Office on up to 5 Devices per user (for compatible Windows, Mac, Tablet, Phone)
• Online Meetings
• Instant Messaging
• Meeting Broadcast

Read more: What optional extras and add-ons are available?

PKML offers a wide range of value added services and solutions, including:

• Application integration and software development
• Business process and workflow optimisation
• Business Internet and Secure Private Networks
• Infrastructure as a Service
• Cloud delivered Enterprise Email, Calendaring, Collaboration and Office Productivity.

If you are interested in exploring any of these solutions, please contact one of our friendly staff and we will arrange a consultation and needs assessment.

Read more: Appendix A – PKML's value-adding services and solutions

Why PKML Professional IT Services?

PKML's Professional IT Services vision is to build better businesses. We deliver real results.

We leverage proven management principles with innovative technology and effective business processes to deliver outcomes that matter. We take a fresh perspective to delivering innovative and effective solutions and communicate clearly and in a language, you can understand. Key technology trends are enablers and were properly applied to your business, can help achieve competitive advantage and drive down the cost of doing business. Some of the key technology trends today impacting businesses include:

• Cloud Services and Cloud Applications
• Mobile Device and Application Improvements
• Explosive Growth in Information, Data and Content
• Proliferation of Social Media and Web 2.0 Applications
• Content Management and Collaboration Technologies
• Increased Internet network performance and access
• Expanded capabilities with Virtualisation Technology
• Proliferation of global cybercriminal activity

We work with you to understand the implications of these trends, in light of the economic climate, understand how these trends impact your industry and business. We jointly formulate plans and solutions to mitigate risks, drive efficiency and align with strategic objectives. Together we execute in a results-oriented fashion to produce real outcomes.

Read more: Appendix B - About PKML Professional Services