Support & Outsourcing

When it comes to installing structured cabling into a premises there are certain critical decisions to be made prior to order. 

Price/Performance

Whilst labour costs remain roughly the same per point in a larger installation, the variable cost is the cable and terminations. CAT5 is by far the cheapest, but is limited to 10mbit/s performance, CAT5e takes that to 100mbit/s which is sufficient for most needs, but if you can afford it then CAT6 or higher are definitely the choice for future proofing your investment. 

Planning

A poorly planned installation can use significantly more cable (the expensive variable) and lead to excessively long runs, and the longer the run the harder it is to certify. At GEN we take the structural drawings, office layouts etc and then will pre-plan every cable route prior to doing any work. Our advanced CAD system will not only give the engineers detailed drawings to work from but will also accurately project the lengths of all the cable runs allowing designers to keep them as short as possible. You'll receive floorpans prior to any work to change/approve. 

Certification

Often overlooked is the grade of certification provided with your network installation and so often a budget certification (or none at all) will leave the infrastructure riddled with small issues that will fester and cause unexpected and intermittent network issues. All GEN Network Installations are certified fully to the installed standard using only the best Agilent Network Certification equipment, and, your will receive not only a certification report, but the raw certification data to guarantee our competence and compliance. 

Warranty

Assuming your installation is professionally installed, terminated and tested then it should last almost indefinitely as long as no one plugs anything into it, but in the real world sockets will fail from time to time with use and having an extended warranty such as the 10 year warranty provided by GEN guarantees that should a socket fail we'll come and repair/replace it. 

GEN Managed Storage Options is a comprehensive portfolio of storage services that can be localised on site, cloud based or a mixture of the two. With GEN MSO there is no up front charge for the storage hardware, installation or transfer and the service is fully supported 24/7 for a single monthly payment. All hardware and software management including patching, updating, upgrading, replacement hardware and access control is included in the price. Common GEN MSO configurations are: 

• Single MSO Server located on the LAN for local clients to use. 
• Single MSO Server located on the LAN with live sync to a cloud based Server to provide remote access to some files. 
• Single MSO Server hosted in the cloud with secure remote access from the LAN (and optionally from the internet via GEN SAS). 
• Multiple MSO Servers hosted in the LAN to provide high availability and synchronous versioning in high performance environments. 
• Multiple MSO Servers at Multiple sites to provide load balanced access to synchronised storage on the WAN. 

GEN MSO Servers are customised for each and every installation to ensure a perfect fit solution, and with all services the following add-ons are available : 

• Synchronous offsite backup to ensure your data is protected at all times. 
• Onsite and Offsite versioning with up to 64 levels to provide an extra buffer of protection in high dependability environments. 
• High Availability Service with multiples of hardware to ensure 100% uptime guaranteed. 
• Same day swap and go service for business critical systems. 

Our storage servers start at a base line storage of 4TB over RAID1, and extend to 32TB over RAID6 with optional filesystem level encryption and high availability. In-life upgrades as possible and are performed using synchronisation technology to ensure no downtime. 

If your looking for high performance storage but don't want to spend a fortune up front and then have to install and support it, then contact us today for a quote!

Managed Services, is a term which refers to outsourcing part of the services your business uses to be installed, maintained and supported by an outside company, in many cases a specialist in the field. For example, a company may require a new CRM system to manage their customers, and not want to have it floating in the internet somewhere which would be a sensible decision, but can their in house IT support person(s) support the system if it goes down? Do you even want to go to the expense of technical training for your IT staff in the knowledge that even then they will probably have to call the supplier for help? Managed services solves all the problems; The supplier installs the system, migrates data, and then in one simple contract its maintained, updated, configured, and most importantly fixed if it ever goes wrong. At GEN we commonly manage the following area's for our customers; 

• Security and Firewalls: With the risks increasing daily and the technology matching those risks, outsourcing the management of your internet gateways, firewalls, and proxies makes perfect sense as our networks team specialise in network security. We know the risks and mitigate them on an hourly basis for our customers. 
• Web Services: Websites are a fairly common target for hackers and other undesirables, and when GEN takes over the management we ensure that your website is safe 24/7 with our proactive monitoring backed with our technical teams. 
• Network Storage: Sounds a simple one, to have servers to store company data, but so many companies get it wrong and then wind up with downtime, and downtime = £££. At GEN we not only provide and maintain the hardware, but also the software and systems that support it. No matter what the issue, we're then and will have it resolved pronto. 
• Encryption and Protection strategies to protect your data both in storage and in transit can so often be overlooked leading to potential compromise. We'll make sure its secure at all points and provide you with a regular security audit to confirm this. 

So Managed services are certainly an attractive proposition especially when you consider that an annual support contract is often far less than the cost of on site IT support staff, and the level of response, coverage and quality is far superior. 

If your interested in seeing if we can help then give us a call, chat or send us a message! 

Outsourcing is often though as a new age method of reducing costs and increasing coverage, but we've been doing it since the mid 90's. Whether to outsource or not, and how much to outsource really depends on your business and core objectives, and outsourcing isn't a one size fits all solution as many companies start the journey with Managed Services, then slowly migrate over to outsourcing. There are however 4 main reasons why outsourcing should be a consideration of every business from small to large and here they are: 

1. Expertise. Whilst your in house staff may be able to take on day to day, there's always going to be something they can't solve and you can't always afford to have a team of technical experts in house just in case it does. With outsourcing your IT even if you keep some in house staff (or we supply them) there is nothing we cannot solve quickly and efficiently. Upgrades, Rollbacks, Disaster Recovery, we can do it all because that's what we do and you never find yourself in the situation where your IT guy is on holiday and its all gone down the tubes. If we say 24/7 we mean it, every single day of the year our technical teams are supporting our customers day and night. 
2. Quality. Often in IT, there's the right way and the wrong way to solve every problem. The option taken depends on the knowledge and competence of your IT staff. At GEN, we never compromise, not on hardware, not on software and certainly not on quality staff.
3. Revenue. In most companies today, IT takes a major role in the corporate revenue stream, whether that be via a CRM or through websites, and the better these systems work, the more efficient they become the more effective they are at fulfilling their purpose - revenue. 
4. Savings. Probably the easiest of all is real world £ savings and the reason is probably best illustrated with some examples: 

Firstly let's assume you have two IT staff on 30K each, so 60K annually not including employers contributions and the such like, and what do they actually do? Well that's a hard one because every company is different, but in all probability they will be doing a mixture of (a) Fixing Faults with printers, screens, PC's, etc, (b) Fixing system issues and (c) Upgrading and patching software. When you consider this, people often overlook the obvious, which is WHY does everything always need fixing?? In a properly supported environment the number of system issues should be minimal, and the number of hardware issues should be non existent. So once everything is fixed properly, what are your two IT guys going to do? Not much in reality, which is why in the majority of cases, when we take over your IT we actually take on your IT staff and manage them for you to ensure the minimal disruption. 

So, how does it sound now? Take your existing IT department and supplement or replace it with 24/7 support from a team of experts in just about everything. No excuses, no fails, just doing it right every time. If you're looking for holiday, absence or supplemental cover then we've got a range of services including a flat rate pay per use option that costs you nothing unless you need us. 

If you want to discuss the options then give us a call today, or chat online, or even email us via the contact form and we'll come right back to you! 

GENSupport is a leading edge technology support and consultancy provider. We have been providing professional services since 1992 and have built up a wide and varied customer base from sole traders to multinationals.

The Information Technology Business is still rapidly evolving even today, and there are so many vendors on the field all promoting their systems as if they will solve your every problem. Of course in reality that's never the case, but making the right choices has become increasingly hard in recent years. Do you choose Microsoft Windows, or Linux? Central or Distributed Computing? and What workstations.. Thin or Thick? and we've only just started.... In our business, we so often see technology badly applied to business systems, either through inappropriate equipment or services, or through inefficient or ineffective integration and technology doesn't come cheap. We can help you make the right choices and be there to propose, document and implement the right processes to ensure your investment works for you and not the other way around.

GENSupport has always been ahead of the game when it comes to providing the very best service and this is part of our company ethos. We embrace technology with open arms and work it hard. We have, for example been providing Remote Support since 1999 and remain a market leader in this field. Our Emergency Support services provide rapid on-site response to organisations 24 hours a day and our Forensic and Security Services are well regarded in the Industry. Take a look at our Service Level Agreements and Maintenance Agreements and you'll see that we're a no-nonsense company. We provide what we promise and work hard to ensure we maintain our reputation for professional and competitive services.

With Service Hubs in Nottingham (Nottinghamshire), Birmingham (West Midlands), Manchester, Hull (Humberside) and Uxbridge (Middlesex) we have a range of high performance localised services which include, 1 hour on-site response services, 15 minute remote response, and 4 hour hardware swap-out services. In addition we provide some discount to local businesses as our travel times are greatly reduced.

As a company we care for our environment and community with such initiatives as the Community Support Fund, which provides funding for local community projects and initiatives. We offer significant discounts to Educational Establishments, Charities and Non-Profit Community or Environmental organisations, and Public Service Operators such as the Police, Fire and Ambulance Services.