Ticket Submission

Super Power Agreements

Super Power Agreements

World Class IT Relationships

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

First Call’s two team leaders (vCIO and Technology Alignment Manager) will report directly to the leadership team and work hands on with the IT team.

IT Capital budgeting will be performed annually with leadership approval. vCIO will provide quarterly projections and First Call solution proposals for approval.

A true IT team will be formed spanning the leadership team, internal IT team, First Call, Key Line of Business Application providers, Telecommunications, Internet Service Providers, Cloud Providers, Copy/Print/Scan, Physical Security/Access Controls/Cameras, and Professional Skills Development resources.

Covered IT Services

What is included within a Super Power agreements?

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
    - Microsoft Tenant

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
  • Adding new user accounts
  • Removing existing user accounts
  • User account password reset
  • Mobile Device Email Setup
  • Set up of Exchange, Office365, or Google Apps email on mobile devices

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
  • Monthly Alignment visits by TAM
  • Quarterly Technology Steering meetings with vCIO
  • Other advice, budgeting, solution quotes
  • Customer issue resolution

Accountability & Support

Responsibility Matrix

IT Function
FCCS Responsibility
Client Responsibility
Intake/Triage/Dispatch
Receive, prioritize, and assign support requests to the appropriate teams.
Report issues promptly, provide descriptions, help coordinate user schedule/avaiability and follow proper request channels.
Support
Provide help desk and on-site support, resolve end-user and system issues in a timely, effective, friendly way.
Ensure employees use IT systems correctly, have required user skills, and participate in troubleshooting steps.
Centralized Administration
Remotely administer systems under management.
For customer owned equipment maintain current, supportable systems, and retire end of life systems no longer supported by the manufacturer.
Strategy/Budget/Solution Design
Provide Virtual CIO (vCIO) services, IT roadmap planning, and budget recommendations.
Participate in strategic planning, approve IT budgets, and align IT initiatives with business goals.
Cybersecurity
Deploy and manage First Call's security solutions.
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.
Projects
Plan, implement, and manage IT projects (network upgrades, cloud migrations, etc.).
Approve projects, provide input on business needs, and allocate internal resources for coordination.
Standards Auditing/Alignment
Assess IT systems against industry standards, enforce best practices systems owned by First Call, and provide improvement recommendations.
Participate in compliance reviews and implement recommended improvements.
Regulatory Auditing/Compliance
Coordinate with 3rd party assessors through exams. Provide improvement recommendations.
Hire 3rd party examiners when necessary, maintain business compliance policies, and cooperate with audits.
Documentation
Maintain IT documentation, network diagrams, and knowledge base.
Provide user, vendor contact information, internal process documentation and update records as needed. Allow First Call physical and remote access to system.
User Behavior/Development
Provide security awareness training.
Ensure employees participate in training and address underperformers.
Result Management
Measure IT service performance, report metrics, and provide recommendations.
Review IT reports, provide feedback, and communicate business needs for optimization.
Odd Jobs
Assist with ad-hoc IT tasks, special requests, and legacy system support when needed.
Define and request specific tasks that fall outside standard IT support.

IT Costs

How do the fees work?

Onboarding

First Call charges an onboarding fee equal to 1x 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.

Simple & Straightforward

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 a Super Power agreement you meet with them formally four times 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.

The vCIO intimately understands the organization’s mission, objectives, leadership team and desired organizational and departmental outcomes. This individual serves as your account manager. This is a key role that First Call does provide with its agreement and can add extensive value for organizations highly regulated.

What Does a vCIO do?

  • Manage the overall account
  • On-Boarding
  • Ongoing services and outcomes
  • Solutions Proposals (such as M365 adoption and Phones)
  • Formal IT Planning & Budgeting
  • 4 Formal tech steering meetings each year
  • Helping the organization avoid variables/misalignment with standards
  • Additional services available for additional fees
  • Regulatory Audits
  • IT main point of contact
  • Communications & Reporting
  • Q&A, etc.

Your Tech Planned and Managed

The importance of a TAM (Technology Alignment Manager)

Think of a TAM like an IT auditor. They are regularly coming onsite, performing a review of your technology against our 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.

First Call actively works onsite with customers to maintain key standards:

Each client is assigned a TAM. The TAM is scheduled a year in advance for 1 -2 on-site per month. Their job is to audit clients against these standards, working proactively with the team to create and maintain alignment. The greater the alignment as a % of standards the lower the risk and the lower the number of issues clients experience. All client locations managed by First Call would stay audited and aligned.

The TAM elevates Documentation quality as they go. Every on-site is focused not only on standards alignment and documentation but also on building strong relationships on the ground, establishing greater awareness of issues, needs, variables etc.

Beyond our standards over time, clients also want to implement their own standards, specific either to their organization or a division therein. The TAM helps establish these standards and then audits at a specified interval (minimum once a year) to insure alignment.

Minimizing technical gaps and variables is key to driving successful outcomes both in the day to day but also in longer term planning.

  • General IT Standards
  • Regulatory Standards/Gaps
  • General Cybersecurity Standards/Gaps/% of alignment
  • Advanced Cybersecurity Standards/Gaps/% of alignment

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.