Frequently Asked Questions
Why are you better than other support companies?
Which other operating systems do you support?
What sort of companies do you work for?
What proportion of your staff are technical?
What happens if I have a problem outside office hours?
What else does Vision Sound and Light do apart from IT support?
What do your support contracts cover?
We have a specialist application developed for us. Can you cover that?
Is there anything in IT you don’t do?
How quickly can you respond to problems?
How do you support customers?
How do you charge for IT support?
Do your support contracts cover replacement parts?
Can we have the same engineer each time we need support?
Why are you better than other support companies?

We care about providing the results you need quickly, whether it’s a fault to be fixed or a new system to be installed. We invest in skilled staff who are both technically skilled and recognise the importance of customer service. We call you back when we say we will, turn up on time and keep you informed of progress. (If this isn’t true of your current support company, perhaps you should give us a call). We will give you a straightforward opinion of what you need for any upgrades or new systems rather than try to make you buy more technology than you need.

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Which other operating systems do you support?

Most of the businesses we support use Microsoft Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Novell Netware 3.x and 4.x and Linux. Our engineers also have experience supporting AS400, Novell 5.x, IBM mainframes, DEC VMS, SUN Solaris and a host of other systems however additional charges apply for these systems.

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What sort of companies do you work for?

Our customers range from small offices of three people to multinational organisations with hundreds of staff. They can be working in any business or be a public sector organisation or a charity. For the smaller companies we act as the main IT resource whereas with larger companies we work to support the in-house IT department and provide specialist skills or extra manpower when needed.

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What proportion of your staff are technical?

80% of our staff are experienced in a range of IT disciplines. Everyone in our organisation, bar the admin and accounts staff, come from a technical background.

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What happens if I have a problem outside office hours?

A duty engineer handles any incident outside office hours. This service is an optional extra above the normal standard costs.

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What else does Vision IT do apart from IT support?

We supply any kind of IT software, hardware or consumables from us. We can organise office relocations or equip a new office for you. We can provide you with advice on any aspect of computing or networking. We can back up your data to our secure data centre. If you have a question about anything to do with computing or networking from the technical or from the business point of view, we are here to help.

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What do your support contracts cover?

We support any computer or network hardware including servers, desktops, laptops, printers, tape drives, disk arrays, routers, switches, hubs or cabling. We also look after operating systems and any off the shelf software. If anything goes wrong with any of your IT systems, we are the people to call.

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We have a specialist application developed for us. Can you cover that?

Many customers have specialist applications that are written and supported by another supplier. We normally work with the supplier to make sure that their application works correctly and to resolve problems if they arise. We will ensure that the application is backed-up correctly and has adequate hardware to run on. For software faults, we liaise with the supplier and help get to the solution quickly. This service may incur additional costs not covered by our standard Ts & Cs

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Is there anything in IT you don’t do?

We currently do not have any support available for Mac users.

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How quickly can you respond to problems?

You will ordinarily get through to someone technical who can help with your problem straight away. For our contract customers we will endeavour to be on site if required within eight working hours. That’s the worst case, in practice we can often act much more quickly. At all times we put the customer first and will do our utmost to help as quickly as possible.

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How do you support customers?

Customers contact us for support initially by phone or email. As well as telephone support, we use remote control tools, which allow us to resolve problems on your computers quickly and without losing time in travelling. However, we don’t hesitate to go on-site if a problem can best be resolved that way.

All calls are tracked on our help desk system so that we can ensure that incidents are resolved in good time and nothing is left to chance. Should you require SLAs built into contracts then this service can be discussed.

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How do you charge for IT support?

We offer our services in three different ways:

Pay on Use - No contract to sign. You pay an hourly rate whenever you need help.

Fixed Monthly Fee Contract – After an initial stabilisation we cover faults and errors for a monthly fee calculated per machine.

Package of Hours Contract – Guaranteed response times. Preferential hourly rates. Covers faults and project work.

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Do your support contracts cover replacement parts?

Should you purchase new equipment from us then we can offer a maintenance and service contract that will cover a variety of components on a swap out basis. Should you wish this cover on items purchased from other sources then a pre maintenance acceptance survey will be conducted prior to a contract being put in place. We are happy to diagnose faults with any kind of hardware and get it running again but we do not hold a supply of parts for every piece of equipment. The manufacturer is usually the only reliable source of spares and customers are expected to pay for the cost of any parts needed for a repair. For this reason we would advise customers, when they buy a major hardware item, to buy a manufacturer's warranty which will include replacement parts.

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Can we have the same engineer each time we need support?

If the customer wishes, we will provide a dedicated engineer. We also ensure that a second engineer is familiar with the site and additionally any member of our staff can access the site documentation and problem tracking systems, which we maintain to allow any one of our engineers to get up to speed quickly.

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