External support alternative to Local Authority

There are currently two of us supporting our school's IT.
We have a 60 hour support contract with our Local Authority which we call on when we have broken hardware that needs parts replacing(they take it away and replace parts without further charge) or more importantly if we need help with a server breaking down or want advise on how to do something particulalry vexing (In the past this has been sorting out domain sync issues etc)
Anyway I have been asked by the finance director to find out if we are getting value for money.
I want to have somewhere else to turn to in the event that we do have some sort of disaster or when edugeek and google don't have the answers so I thought I'd see what everyone else does for this sort of insurance?
Any help appreciated!

Where I worked just left there today used BDS Solutions down Cornwall way. Most of the work was by remote but they did visit for some of the bigger things. They were ok but not brilliant, dont think the changes in the NHS is helping them as a lot of their work is for NHS places but they do do other places. There are others out there but this is one I've personally had experience of.

I'm surprised that no edugeek sponsors replied to this? :p

We only have one company that we use when citrix gets realy stuffed. But we are learning all the time , building the next version of the environment from scratch as we speak so we are improving our knowledge of how it all slots together..

Very few external support companies offer value for money.

Rob

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Originally Posted by reggiep

There are currently two of us supporting our school's IT.
We have a 60 hour support contract with our Local Authority which we call on when we have broken hardware that needs parts replacing(they take it away and replace parts without further charge) or more importantly if we need help with a server breaking down or want advise on how to do something particulalry vexing (In the past this has been sorting out domain sync issues etc)
Anyway I have been asked by the finance director to find out if we are getting value for money.
I want to have somewhere else to turn to in the event that we do have some sort of disaster or when edugeek and google don't have the answers so I thought I'd see what everyone else does for this sort of insurance?
Any help appreciated!

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Whilst I can't help with networking / software issues. We can provide replacement hardware / components for you should anything break down. We ship 24 hour next day too which is nice.

The warranty we offer on desktops is pretty tidy too!

Do some companies offer support when called upon rather than an annual agreement?
So for example if we were to drop completely out of the LA support contract and then have a massive meltdown could we call on Microsoft/Private company to help us?

Yes, companies will offer an emergancy uncontracetd service.

But you need to sort it out first, often they have a base cost and then a per incident model. Or a "Credits" model.

Be aware though that they willl spend some of your support payment familiarising themself before they even get close to fixing a problem.

Rob