The essentials agreement
The Essentials Agreement
We Make IT Better
We Make Your team Better
Thanks for meeting with us. I hope the time had value and helped you better determine the issues, pains and a solution to help you address them.
Our mission is to be a world class IT relationship provider.
Key points from our meeting:
What is Success from an IT & Cybersecurity department
Fewer Issues
- Key Performance Indicators:
- Number of issues
- Severity/impact of issues
- Hours of technical resolution time divided by the number of endpoints (PC’s and Servers)
Less Risk
- Key Performance Indicators:
- Regulatory Standards/Gaps/% of alignment
- General Cybersecurity Standards/Gaps/% of alignment
- Advanced Cybersecurity Standards/Gaps/% of alignment
Business & Budget Alignment
- Key Performance Indicators:
- IT Operational Expense % of Budget
- IT Capital Expense % of Budget
Operational Boosts
- Key Performance Indicators:
- General IT Standards/Gaps/% of alignment
- Quarterly IT Objectives % Completed
- (Scope, budget, schedule, satisfaction score)
- Annual IT Objectives % Completed
Happy End Users
- Key Performance Indicators:
- IT Support Client Satisfaction Score
- IT Project (end user facing) Client Satisfaction Score
Why do we have tech and security standards?
We can’t manage to the 7 things without quality standards in place and compliance around them.
Employee productivity
Risk Management
Optimal spending (opex/capex)
Yes – we leverage technologies from major, publicly traded American companies.
We have on staff a small number of very skilled people who’s job it is to continually evaluate things like antivirus and firewalls, so you don’t have to.
They judiciously choose not only based on features but also on price. Example there are many security awareness training programs that meet the needs but some sare 3x more expensive than others.
Yes.
User Device Hardware, Printers, Server Hardware are good examples where we care less about the manufacturer and more about hardware performance standards.
Another example would be low risk/low impact infrastructure such as racks, or Category 5e versus 6 cabling.
Maybe you prefer M365 or Google Workplace § But backups, firewall, the tools we use to manage and secure your endpoints, your network infrastructure (wireless and wired), your server configurations, M365 Security Configurations. Those are all non-negotiables.
That depends on how quickly you want to improve employee productivity, manage risks, and optimize spending.
To determine the timeline for achieving compliance, First Call will first evaluate your environment. Based on this evaluation, we can provide a detailed plan and associated costs to align with the required standards. Additionally, we will make recommendations for longer-term improvements to be implemented within the first 90 days.
To make the transition to compliance more affordable, we offer a leasing option that shifts the expense from capital to operational costs.
What are the distinct roles of IT
Covered Services
What is included within an essentials agreement?
Managed Security - Hardware, Software and Services
- Anti-Virus Software
- Endpoint Protection Software
- Remote Monitoring & Alerting
- Firewall Hardware
- Firewall Security Services
- Dark Web Monitoring
- Security Awareness Training
- Phish Testing
- Patch Management
- 3rd Party General Application Updates
- IT Admin Account Password Management
- Backups Encryption
- Central Services
- Enhanced Defenses
IT Support (please discuss with me your options here as we have different structures available)
- Help Desk
- Field Support
- Active Directory / Google Apps / Office365 Accounts Management
- Mobile Device Email Set up
Backups/Business Continuity – Hardware, Software and Services
- Onsite Server Backup Software
- Onsite Server Backup Hardware
- Offsite Server Cloud Backup
- File Recovery
- File System, Operating System or System Failure Recovery
Account Management
- Onboarding
- Annual Review
- Annual Technology Steering Meeting
- Other advice, budgeting, solution quotes
- Customer issue resolution
We've Got You Covered
Responsibility Matrix
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IT Function
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FCCS Responsibility
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Client Responsibility
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Intake/Triage/Dispatch
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Support
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Centralized Administration
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Remotely administer systems under management.
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For customer owned equipment maintain current, supportable systems, and retire end of life systems no longer supported by the manufacturer.
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Strategy/Budget/Solution Design
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Provide Virtual CIO (vCIO) services, IT roadmap planning, and budget recommendations.
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Participate in strategic planning, approve IT budgets, and align IT initiatives with business goals.
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Cybersecurity
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Deploy and manage First Call's security solutions.
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Complete security awareness training, understand gaps, address risks, report suspicious activities. Maintain good password and MFA standards spanning all the 3rd party solutions not enforceable by First Call.
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Projects
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Plan, implement, and manage IT projects (network upgrades, cloud migrations, etc.).
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Approve projects, provide input on business needs, and allocate internal resources for coordination.
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Standards Auditing/Alignment
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Assess IT systems against industry standards, enforce best practices systems owned by First Call, and provide improvement recommendations.
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Participate in compliance reviews and implement recommended improvements.
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Regulatory Auditing/Compliance
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Coordinate with 3rd party assessors through exams. Provide improvement recommendations.
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Hire 3rd party examiners when necessary, maintain business compliance policies, and cooperate with audits.
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Documentation
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Maintain IT documentation, network diagrams, and knowledge base.
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Provide user, vendor contact information, internal process documentation and update records as needed. Allow First Call physical and remote access to system.
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User Behavior/Development
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Provide security awareness training.
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Ensure employees participate in training and address underperformers.
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Result Management
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Measure IT service performance, report metrics, and provide recommendations.
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Review IT reports, provide feedback, and communicate business needs for optimization.
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Odd Jobs
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Assist with ad-hoc IT tasks, special requests, and legacy system support when needed.
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Define and request specific tasks that fall outside standard IT support.
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IT Costs
How do the fees work?
Onboarding
First Call charges an onboarding fee equal to 2x the recurring monthly fee. This is charged upfront and must be paid before work begins.
Recurring
The agreement is billed monthly at the beginning of the month. Credit card, e-check or ACH payment is required.
Better IT
Agreement Terms
Super simple with very little teeth – agreement is month to month for the first 12 months (no penalty to exit) after your first 12 months the agreement extends by another 24 months (2-month penalty to exit during that time).
Your Point of Contact
The importance of a vCIO (virtual Chief Information Officer)
It’s a fancy title. We didn’t invent it. A vCIO is a smart technology professional with business experience. They create relationships with the key people in your organization to understand your business, operations, objectives, challenges and opportunities. When they understand you, your team and the needs they can help steer your IT over time to better serve the organization. They understand the technology and the operational challenges organizations face.
In an Essentials agreement you meet with them formally once a year for a Technology Steering Meeting. You also have their direct line, email address and can engage them informally throughout the year as needs for solutions and advice arise.
Tech Planning & Ownership
The importance of a TAM (Technology Alignment Manager)
Think of a TAM like an IT auditor. Once a year they are coming onsite, doing an “Essential” review of your technology against our Essential set of IT and cybersecurity standards. Finding the gaps, improving documentation, proactively reviewing the environment to reduce issues, improve standards alignment and improve the documentation for all parties involved.
The TAM and the vCIO work closely to raise issues up that need attention from the organization, so that good decisions and investments are consistently made.
Choosing an IT Partner
We hope the time spent and information provided has been helpful so far. We want a successful long term relationship, not to be a faceless remote IT vendor. Please provide us feedback on how else we can make the journey of finding a good fit better.