Your IT department, without the payroll
ICS runs the help desk, the servers, the network and the security for New Zealand companies that are too big to muddle through and too small to employ a full IT team. When something needs hands on it, our engineer drives to you.
- Who it suits
- From 15 computers to a large network
- On-site coverage
- Bay of Plenty and Waikato
- Remote coverage
- New Zealand wide
- Support desk
- 24/7/365
Most businesses discover their IT arrangement is wrong on the worst possible day
The pattern is familiar. Someone in the office is good with computers, so they become the unofficial IT person. A vendor sold the server four years ago and has not been seen since. Backups run, probably. Nobody has looked at who can access what since the last two people left.
It works until the morning it does not, and then the cost is not the repair bill. It is the day of trading you lost while waiting for somebody to call back.
A managed arrangement moves you from reacting to that to preventing it. ICS helps businesses evolve from a reactive to a proactive approach, anticipating faults before they happen, which reduces cost and improves both quality and data security.
This is for you if
- You have between five and five hundred staff and no full-time IT team
- You are in the Bay of Plenty or Waikato and want somebody who can physically attend
- You have a server, a network, or data you cannot afford to lose
- You want the response time written down before you sign anything
What is actually included
Six service lines. You can take all of them or the ones that close your gaps.
Help desk support
The service people use most. Assistance by phone, email or chat for software faults, network problems and hardware failures. Reachable 24/7/365, with escalation to on-site attendance when a fault cannot be cleared remotely.
Network and server management
Installing, configuring and maintaining switches, routers, firewalls and servers, and monitoring performance, security and backups so that problems surface before users report them.
Cloud services
Migrating data and applications to the cloud and managing them afterwards, including backup and disaster recovery, so staff can work from a laptop, tablet or phone without losing control of where the data sits.
Cyber security
Security assessment and vulnerability testing, then implementation of firewalls, endpoint protection and encryption. Covered in more detail below.
Hardware and software procurement
Choosing the right equipment, negotiating with vendors, and making sure it is installed and configured correctly rather than dropped at reception in a box. We also run our own Hi-Tech Lab, so a failed laptop or phone is repaired here rather than couriered away for a fortnight. That includes board-level work, identifying and replacing motherboard components instead of condemning the whole machine, and we supply rugged smartphones where the job needs one.
IT consulting
Planning and delivering projects, assessing existing infrastructure, and recommending what to change and in what order. Including network audits and drive testing where a site survey is needed.
Training for your staff 7 areas
Charged by the hour and scheduled around your team. Most of the tickets a help desk receives are training problems wearing a fault costume.
- Microsoft Office suite
- Outlook and email troubleshooting
- Excel
- Word
- Wifi and connection problems
- General computer training for staff and home users
- Motherboard components and their functions, taught in our Hi-Tech Lab
- Sessions run by qualified ICS engineers, not a call centre script
Network deployment and audit capability 5 areas
- Office and home network deployment. Designing and rolling out secure networks for a business, including remote and hybrid working setups.
- Infrastructure audit. Reviewing an existing network to find the exposure that leads to a breach, before somebody else finds it.
- Active Directory configuration. Identity, group policy and access control set up so that permissions match roles.
- Network performance measurement. Setting KPIs for the network and reporting against them, so performance is a number you can see rather than an opinion.
- Cyber attack briefing. Explaining, in plain terms, how attacks against a business like yours actually work and what reduces the risk of each one.
- Drive testing. Field data collection for the first phase of a network audit, with post-processing and reporting of the results.
- Cloud migration. Moving data so it is secure and reachable from anywhere, with real-time visibility of who logged in, from where and when.
Security is not a product we sell you once
Most breaches at this end of the market are not sophisticated. They are a phishing email, an unpatched machine, a password that never changed, or a laptop on café wifi. The controls that stop them are unglamorous and cheap relative to the alternative.
| Control | The threat it addresses |
|---|---|
| Security assessment and vulnerability testing | Finding the gap before an attacker does |
| Firewall and endpoint protection | Viruses, worms, spyware, trojans and ransomware |
| Patch and update management | Zero-day exploits against unpatched software |
| Data encryption | Loss of a device, or interception in transit |
| Written access policies per role | Staff holding access they no longer need |
| Backup and disaster recovery | Ransomware, hardware failure, human error |
| Staff guidance and training | Phishing and social engineering, the most common entry point |
ICS also writes the technical job description for each role, setting out what that person can access on their office machines. It is a small document that prevents a surprising number of problems, and almost nobody does it.
What a security baseline actually costs a 30-person business
We hand the knowledge over rather than hoarding it
A managed IT provider that keeps you dependent on it has a commercial incentive not to explain anything. ICS does the opposite, because the customers who understand their own systems are the ones who stay longest.
Structured training
- Five days of on-site training and knowledge transfer to your staff
- No cap on the number of participants during the training period
- Functional description of every building block of the system
- Installation practice, failure analysis, operation and maintenance
- Theoretical and practical fault-finding and service restoration
- An assessment at the end, so any remaining gaps are identified
What you keep afterwards
- A detailed administration guide covering the whole platform
- Tutorial videos to refer back to when troubleshooting
- A trouble-ticketing record of every issue raised, tracked to closure
- Access to the ICS team by CRM portal, telephone, email and instant messaging
- Agreed timeframes for acknowledgement, status response and updates
Why this is different from the usual arrangement
| Question | Typical provider | ICS |
|---|---|---|
| Who attends when it needs hands? | A subcontractor, if available | An ICS engineer |
| When can you reach the desk? | Business hours | 24/7/365 |
| Is the response time published? | On request | On this website |
| Do they explain the system to you? | Rarely | Five days of training |
| Can they also run your phones? | Refers you elsewhere | We operate the switch |
| Where are they based? | Auckland or offshore | Rotorua |
Questions we get asked
How quickly can you get someone on site?
Rotorua is the base, and the towns we cover most often are within about an hour and a half of it. The committed response times are set out in the service level agreement rather than promised loosely here.
Do we have to move everything at once?
No. Most engagements start with an audit of what you already have, followed by a prioritised plan. The usual first steps are backup verification, patching and access review, because those close the largest risks for the least money.
What happens to the person who currently does our IT?
Usually they get their actual job back. Where a company has genuine in-house capability, ICS works alongside it and takes the out-of-hours and specialist load rather than displacing anyone.
Can you support us if we are outside the Bay of Plenty and Waikato?
Remote support, monitoring, cloud and platform work is delivered New Zealand wide. On-site attendance is where geography matters, and we will tell you honestly if you are too far away for that part to work well.
Do you resell the phone system too, or run it?
We run it. ICS operates its own Class 4 and Class 5 softswitch, which is unusual for a company that also does managed IT. See Business Voice and Carrier Services.
Start with an audit, not a contract
Twenty minutes on the phone, then a look at what you are running. You will get an honest read on the risks whether or not you engage us.