IT providers tell you that you will have a guaranteed response time from them. Usually, the typical guaranteed response times comes in 4 or 6 hours. Emergency cases that hinder business operation such as server outage will have shorter guaranteed response time of 2 hours. You are not sure what it really meant. All you want is to have a stable technology that gives you a peace of mind, and even if there’s any technology breakdown, you want to be assured that a qualified technician is able to resolve the problem quickly.

Guaranteed response time commits an IT provider to a certain amount of time whether to answer your call, arrive at your office, or respond to an emergency. Response time is first and foremost remotely in nature. Usually IT provider will provide you with several means of reporting a problem using web ticketing system, email or phone call. After you have reported, IT provider will response to you remotely first via email, telephone or remote access within the guaranteed response time. When IT providers are able to do the above, they have already satisfied their commitment to you. If problem is unable to resolve remotely, depending on your service agreements, IT provider may charge accordingly for an onsite visit. Hence, it’s important for you to also find out what is their onsite response time.

A typical onsite response time may take up to 72 hours for non critical issues and up to 24 hours for critical issues. Do note that the response time and resolution time are not the same. Resolution time is the actual time taken to solve the IT problem and get it working. The worst case scenario that could happen is when IT provider responds to you at the 4th hour, and realized they can only resolve the problem onsite, which take them another 72 hours to arrive and spend another chunk of time to resolve your IT problem. Thus, total time taken would be 4 + 72 + resolution time, which is equivalent to 4 days or more. Once again, it is emphasis that this is a worst case scenario for non critical issues, which is still far better than sending the machines to manufacturer service center or any ad-hoc services.

You may ask why there is a need for guaranteed response time. Having a guaranteed response saves your time by knowing what to expect and not having to make repeated calls or requests for the same issue. On top of that, you know that the IT problem is to be addressed within a specific period of time helps to give you that feeling of security.

For more information on guaranteed response time, please do not hesitate to contact info@connectbit.com