1) How do you price your services?
Our Managed Service plans are based entirely on the number of computers and servers being supported. If the number goes up from one month to the next, your monthly price goes up. If the number goes down, your price goes down.
In addition, Connectability offers various Cybersecurity tools, Backup solutions, hosting services, and consulting services as needed. If you would like to inquire about our Managed Service plans, or our add-on services such as cybersecurity, backup, or consulting, please call our office and ask to speak with our Marketing Associate.
2) What are your service hours?
Connectability’s help desk operates between the hours of 8 am and 5:30 pm from Monday to Friday. On weekdays, between the hours of 5:30 pm and 11 pm we have an on-call Network Engineer to assist with emergency requests, and on weekends our on-call Engineer is available between the hours of 9 am to 9 pm.
Outside of the above hours (11:30 pm to 8 am on weekdays, or 9 pm to 9 am on weekends) we offer a 24/7 service, for an additional fee.
Connectability also schedules project and maintenance work outside of business hours. If you are interested in learning more about a 24/7 support plan, please call our office at 416-966-3306
3) What are your contract terms?
Connectability understands that many businesses have negative experiences with IT providers in the past. That’s why we offer our Managed Service plans on a month-to-month basis. We also offer 1-year, and 3-year contract terms, with increasing discounts applied on longer term agreements. If you are interested in seeing what a long-term agreement might look like, please email [email protected] or call our office at 416-966-3306
4) Do you have any guarantees?
We believe that any professional service provider should be willing to put their money where their mouth is. To that end, we offer 3 service guarantees, of which 2 have monetary penalties for Connectability if we do not meet our standards. These are the guarantees that help us ensure that our clients receive professional and prompt support.
Guarantee 1: Timeliness
If you are a Managed Services client and we make an appointment for on-site services, and we do not arrive within 15 minutes of our appointment time – for any reason at all – (if we have not contacted you at least one hour prior to reschedule), then you will receive a 10% credit on your next service invoice.
Guarantee 2: Emergency Response
If you are a Managed Services client and you call us regarding an emergency (failure of a critical business function affecting multiple people), during business hours, and we do not return your call within 30 minutes, then you will receive a 10% credit on your next service invoice.
Guarantee 3: Check-in Calls
If you are a Managed Services Customer, and you have agreed on a schedule for check-in calls, your primary technician will call you on your agreed upon schedule. If not, you get a 5% discount on all hardware for the month.
5) What types of technology do you support?
Connectability is a multi-platform Managed Services Provider. To that end, we support Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems, in addition to mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. We believe that it is important for your business to have the correct tools for YOUR needs, not just the tools your IT provider knows how to work with. That’s why we invest in training our technical team on a wide range of technologies and upgrading those skills continuously.
That doesn’t mean we are experts in every software tool used by our clients, but part of our onboarding process is to learn about what critical tools you use regularly and invest time in learning about how they work and how we can support them.
6) What do your plans include?
We offer a range of Managed Service plans, and cybersecurity packages, dependent on your unique needs. We offer support plans that include a block of monthly support hours at the low end, all the way up to unlimited IT support, including project work on our top tier plan. Based on our discussions, we can provide more information on the plan that is the best fit for your needs.
All our service plans include the following tools, at a minimum:
- Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) software
- Remote Access software
- Antivirus software
- Patch Management software
- Ransomware Detection
- Access to our Documentation & Password Portal
In addition, we also offer different packages of Cybersecurity tools, and can even offer each of those tools individually on an ad-hoc basis.
If you are interested in learning more about our Managed Service options, please go to: Schedule an IT consultation to schedule a meeting, or call our office at 416-966-3306 and ask to speak to our Marketing Associate, for more information.
7) How quickly can we get started?
If you are interested in working with Connectability, please go to: Schedule an IT consultation and enter your information in the form. Someone from our office will give you a call back shortly. Alternatively, please call our office at 416-966-3306 and ask to speak with our Marketing Associate
In general, we begin this process by scheduling a 60 minute “Discovery Call” with our President and Vice President. This meeting typically involves a discussion of your IT needs, a review of any issues you are currently experiencing, a high-level budget review, and clarification around what you view as a successful relationship with an IT Provider. This meeting can be conducted either virtually or in-person.
Assuming we determinate that we can help, and our services are within your budget, a Senior Network Engineer come onsite to conduct a Network Assessment. The assessment helps us to understand your network, and any issues you are currently experiencing. Once complete, we will put together a Report of Findings outlining any issues we identified, along with our suggestions for remediation.
During the Discovery Call, we will schedule a subsequent meeting to review a formal IT Plan based on your unique needs, along with the results of the Network assessment. This can be presented to you either onsite or virtually.
If you are eager to get started, just let us know, and we will do our best to meet your timeline. That said, the initial diagnostics we conduct as part of the Discovery Call and the Network Assessment are very important in helping us accurately identify the solution that will meet your needs now, and in the future.
8) What is your onboarding process?
Our onboarding process involves 7 distinct steps. However, the order and timeline generally depends on the number of issues identified at onboarding, and the scale of those issues. For example, if your server is regularly failing and preventing your staff from effectively accessing company data, then our first step would be to address that issue given the impact on your bottom line.
On the other hand, if you aren’t having any significant issues right now, we would focus on installing our toolset, and scanning your entire network (computers, servers, switches, firewalls, etc.) for evidence of operating systems that are out of date, equipment that requires replacing or updating, or security gaps that need plugging. This process varies depending on your situation.
That said, here are the 7 steps of onboarding:
- Handoff: This involves familiarizing ourselves with your unique environment, gathering passwords and documentation, and changing access credentials.
- Day-to-day support & administration: Next we install our toolset on your machines. That includes our Remote Monitoring & Management (RMM), Remote Access, Antivirus, and Patch Management software. Once installed, we can support your team remotely or onsite.
- Stabilization: We then conduct remote maintenance on all managed devices. That includes disk cleanups, installation of software patches, updates to any relevant programs, and performing a virus and malware scan. It also includes updating the firmware on all switches and firewalls and ensuring other network equipment has active security subscriptions. If you are currently experiencing a major issue, we would address it as part of the stabilization component.
- Short-Term Problem Analysis and Remediation: Once computers, and the network as a whole are stabilized, we continue to evaluate any other issues impacting the reliability of the network. Once complete, we will work with your management team to develop plans, priorities, and where necessary, budgets, for remediating these issues.
- Training: This is an ongoing item, but as part of our engagement, you will be learning our processes and support procedures. We expect this will require some ongoing training and review as our relationship develops. That may mean providing training on how to submit a service request, our hardware procurement process, or how to initiate a project.
- Project Identification and Prioritization: Once step 4 is complete, Connectability’s project management staff will work with you to create detailed project plans and budgets for long-term/large-scale efforts. This could include cloud migrations, workstation replacements, server consolidation, wireless upgrades, or any other such project.
- Ongoing Management & Planning: This ties in directly with our Technology Business Review Process. We meet with your team regularly to review your experience, discuss changes in the technology landscape, and offer suggestions for improved security, efficiency, or cost saving opportunities.
If you would like more information on our Onboarding process, please give our office a call at 416-966-3306, or go to: Schedule an IT consultation to schedule a meeting.
9) How are Engineers assigned to our account?
Connectability assigns a Primary and a Secondary Network Engineer to all Managed Service accounts. Your primary will be the technician responsible for ensuring that all passwords, documentation, and issues are tracked and logged throughout onboarding. They are also the person you will work with regularly to address requests, track the status of issues, and provide updates and suggestions for improving efficiency.
Your secondary technician is also available to assist whenever your primary is unavailable. Finally, we also have a fully staffed help desk available to assist. We don’t hire Level 1 technicians, so you will always be dealing with someone who can assist. And if a request requires a specific set of skills or experience, we can assign it to the subject matter expert.
10) How do you continue to meet changing business objectives?
As your IT issues are resolved and technology projects are undertaken, your IT needs will change over time. In addition, the cybersecurity landscape is constantly changing, so it’s important that we keep you in the loop as to what that means for your business.
The primary method Connectability uses to stay on top of your changing business objectives is through a recurring Technology Business Review (TBR) meeting with you and your leadership team. Depending on your service plan, we conduct TBR’s on a quarterly, semi-annual, or annual basis.
The intent of these discussions is to review how we’ve been, discuss feedback around our services, learn about upcoming changes and projects you are undertaking and review how they impact technology. It is also an opportunity to discuss changes in cybersecurity protection, different methods of access, and even opportunities for cost reductions and performance improvements.
11) How do you address the cybersecurity needs of your clients with the constantly changing threats from hackers?
First, as your IT provider, we view keeping our clients up to date on new and changing threats and vulnerabilities as one of our most critical responsibilities. With the constantly changing threat landscape, our role is to ensure you have the information you need to remain secure.
Connectability is constantly monitoring forums, vendor announcements, news feeds, and communications from our peer group of over 8000 Managed Service/IT Providers across the world to identify and find tools for remediating some of the newest and most harmful cyberthreats. We also regularly participate in conferences and events focused on cybersecurity, and new approaches to protecting your organization.
We regularly learn about new security vendors, trends in the marketplace, and new methods hackers use to break in. We’ll then share this with you during our next TBR, or in advance, depending on the urgency.
12) How can my team submit service requests?
We offer our clients 3 methods for submitting support requests. The intent is for you and your team to submit tickets in the manner that works best for you.
Email [email protected] and a ticket is automatically created. Simply provide some details about your issue, and an Engineer will be in touch.
Call our office at 416-966-3306 and provide some details about the issue. If an Engineer is available, you will be directed to them. If not, someone will be in touch shortly as they become available.
Navigate to Client Support Portal and enter the credentials supplied to you at onboarding. You can then submit a request, and depending on your approvals, can also view all other tickets, and their status, for your organization.