Everything is logged
However you contact us — phone, email or portal — it becomes a ticket with a reference, so nothing depends on someone remembering.
Service standards
How support works, before you need to find out.
What counts as urgent, what happens when you raise something, how it escalates, and what we will tell you along the way. Written down so that it is the same on a bad day as on a good one.
- Four priority levels
- 24/7 monitoring · business-hours helpdesk
- You are kept informed
- Monitored 24/7systems, not the helpdesk
- Helpdesk, business hoursMon–Fri, 09:00–18:00 WEST
- Out-of-hours coverfor critical incidents, by service level
- Service reviewsregular, with real numbers
What you can expect
The commitments behind the service
Response times belong in your service agreement, because they differ by service level. These are the things that are the same for every client.
Priority set consistently
Against the published criteria, not by who shouted loudest. If we have judged it wrongly, tell us and we will change it.
You are kept informed
Updates as work progresses, and a straight answer when we do not yet know. Silence is the complaint we hear most about other providers.
Escalation that works
A defined path to senior engineers and to management, which we trigger ourselves rather than waiting to be asked.
Monitoring, continuously
Systems watched around the clock. A good proportion of tickets are opened by us before anyone reports anything.
Visible in your portal
Every ticket, its priority, its status and its history — so you never have to ring to ask where something is.
People who know you
Your environment is documented and shared, so whoever picks up a ticket is not starting from a blank page.
Causes, not just symptoms
Recurring tickets are treated as a problem to fix rather than a job to repeat.
Service reviews
Regular reviews covering volumes, recurring issues, patching, backup health and what should change next.
Hours and cover
Monitoring is constant. The helpdesk is staffed.
It matters that these are two different things, and plenty of providers blur them. Automated monitoring watches your systems 24 hours a day. The helpdesk — actual people — is staffed during business hours, with out-of-hours cover for critical incidents depending on your service level.
- Monitoring and alerting: 24 hours a day, every day
- Helpdesk: Monday to Friday, 09:00 – 18:00 (WEST)
- Out-of-hours response for critical incidents: available by service level
- Planned work outside business hours where it would otherwise disrupt you
- On-site attendance in the Algarve and Alentejo; UK by arrangement
- Support in English and Portuguese
A ticket’s life
One example ticket, from raised to closed
Priority
What you see in the portal
CIT-20417
P3 · Normal
Can’t open the finance shared folder
Closed
Marta · CaminhoIT
Closed after you confirmed. Thanks, Ana.
Stage 6 of 6
Closed
Confirmed with Ana before closing. Repeat tickets on the same cause are picked up at the service review.
Illustration with an example ticket and fictional names. Response targets are set in your service agreement.
What happens
From raising it to closing it.
-
Logged
However it arrives, it becomes a ticket with a reference and an owner. You can see it in the portal immediately.
-
Triaged
Priority is set against the criteria below, and urgent work goes to the front rather than to the back of a queue.
-
Worked
Assigned to an engineer, escalated if it needs it, and updated as it progresses.
-
Closed & reviewed
Confirmed with you before closing. Repeat tickets on the same cause are picked up at the service review.
Priority levels
How we decide what is urgent
Priority is about business impact, not about how the problem feels. One person unable to print is a different thing from a site that cannot take payments, even when both are frustrating.
Example ticketsPrioritised by impact
Every ticket is given a priority by its impact on the business, not by who asks loudest.
| Priority | What it means | Typical examples | What we do | Target response |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 Critical | The business has stopped, or a security incident is in progress. | No internet at a site; a server down; suspected ransomware; email unavailable for everyone; payments cannot be taken. | Worked immediately and continuously. You get a named contact and regular updates until it is resolved or downgraded. | Per your service agreement |
| P2 High | A team or a critical function is badly affected, but the business is still trading. | One department cannot reach a key application; a shared mailbox is down; a site is on failover; a manager cannot work. | Prioritised above routine work, with updates as it progresses. | Per your service agreement |
| P3 Normal | One person is affected, or something is degraded but workable. | A laptop running slowly; a printer not working; an application error with a workaround; a password reset. | Scheduled into the queue in turn, and you can see its status in the portal. | Per your service agreement |
| P4 Request | Nothing is broken. You are asking us to do or supply something. | A new starter; a licence change; software installed; a quote for equipment; an access change. | Planned work, scheduled against the date you need it by. | Per your service agreement |
Response targets differ by service level, so they are set in your own service agreement rather than published here. We would rather point you at the figure that actually applies to you than quote one that might not.
Being straight about it
Why we do not publish response times here.
Because a single published figure would be either meaningless or misleading. Targets differ by service level and by what you have agreed, and a number on a marketing page is not the number that would apply to you. Yours is in your service agreement, where it is actually binding — ask us for it at any point and we will tell you exactly what it says.
- Your agreement is the sourcenot a marketing page
- Ask us any timewe will read it back to you
- Measured at reviewagainst what was agreed
Questions
Questions about how support works
What are your response times?
They depend on your service level and are set out in your service agreement, which is where they are actually binding. We have not published a figure here because a single number would apply to nobody in particular. If you are an existing client, ask us and we will tell you precisely what yours says; if you are considering working with us, the targets will be stated in your proposal before you sign anything.
Who decides the priority of my ticket?
We set it on receipt, against the criteria in the table above, based on business impact. If you think we have judged it wrongly, say so — that is a normal conversation and we will change it where you are right. What we will not do is treat everything as P1, because when everything is critical nothing is.
What counts as out of hours?
Anything outside Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00 WEST. Monitoring continues around the clock regardless. Whether a person responds out of hours, and how quickly, depends on your service level — and it is worth agreeing that deliberately rather than discovering it at seven on a Saturday.
Do you charge extra for out-of-hours work?
It depends on your agreement. Some service levels include out-of-hours response for critical incidents; others cover it on a callout basis. Planned work that we schedule outside business hours to avoid disrupting you is normally part of the service. Your proposal sets this out, and we would rather be specific than leave it vague.
How do I escalate something?
Tell us, through any channel, that you want it escalated — you do not need to find the right person or the right form. We also escalate on our own initiative when something is taking too long or has recurred. If a ticket is genuinely stuck, ring us; that is what the phone is for.
What is in a service review?
Ticket volumes and types, anything recurring, patch and backup health, security posture, device lifecycle and licensing, and a list of recommendations. The useful part is usually the recurring issues: five tickets a month about the same thing is a problem to fix, not a queue to work through.
Related
Where this is put into practice.
Ready to get started?
Ask us what your response times would be.
We will set them out in your proposal, in writing, before you commit to anything.