Keeping your business critical system running to guaranteed service levels – at a fixed cost

SSI’s Managed Services

The services that our customers may require can be varied to suit their needs and therefore SSI offers a flexible and comprehensive range, including;

• Hosted Solutions

  Locate your entire IT infrastructure and servers including application, database, business to business and person to business technology (but excluding client peripherals and related telecommunications) at SSI’s service centre. You are responsible for putting paper into printers and maintaining the data in the database – we do the rest (including data security and integrity). You have full Internet access, e-mail and e-business capability. As well as giving your own personnel the maximum opportunity to provide improved service to your business, this model can provide total one-stop shopping for all your IT requirements.

• Out tasked solutions

  You own your own solution, including all technology components, on your site but SSI manage it remotely. You own and manage the technical infrastructure and servers but SSI manage all software components to ensure that your system is available, performs, is up to date in terms of software patches, that your data is secure, and that you have all the technical resource and expertise you need – when you need it.

  This model enables your own IT personnel to utilise their skills without having to undergo constant training to keep themselves, and your solution, up to date with the latest technologies and best practices in their management to enable them to provide the maximum benefits to your business.

• Out tasked applications

  You own your solution, including all technology components, on your site. SSI manage your application, database, and operating system remotely (as with out tasking) but you, or another service provider, manage the business to business and person to business components of your solution.

• Hosted Collaboration

  Locate your application, database technology, client peripherals and related telecommunications, on your site, but outsource business to business and person to business technology to SSI’s service centre.

  Of course all our services are fully flexible to suit your needs and we can create a unique service package for any customer e.g. you may out task the management of your application but insource management of your database and operating system.

New Technologies, New Services

The current major driver in IT technology is the Internet. It is widely accepted that the next five years will see even more radical changes in the way companies operate as a result of increased use of the Internet. Internet technology and supporting infrastructure are now available to support the requirements of companies throughout their supply chain operations. The degree of take-up however, will depend on the breadth and quality of services provided by the Internet IT partners – and there are new genres of service providers appearing to deliver these services: Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs), and Internet Application Services Providers (IAPs). The technical, and therefore cultural, changes that occur over the next three to five years will be more significant and will occur more quickly than they ever have before.

The key to success will be to partner with an organisation that will deliver leading edge services so that your business can optimise the opportunities presented by the changes in technology that are available now and will become available in the future – quickly and safely.

SSI offers customers access to software applications, infrastructure, and related services over the Internet with all the technology (excluding client peripherals and necessary telecommunications) at its site. This enables the customer to concentrate on their core business – making and delivering products and services to the highest quality, in the shortest possible time, and at the optimum cost.

SSI offers:

• "Future proofing". SSI owns the hardware and software infrastructure so the customer does not have to replace equipment frequently to keep up to date. Also, it is not necessary for the customer to have IT personnel continually keeping up to date with the latest technologies. These are SSI's problems.
• Reduced start-up costs. There is no need for the customer to purchase servers, database software, application software, expensive training plans, or allow time for their IT personnel to develop the experience required. These are all provided by the SSI under a Service Agreement.
• Speed of deployment. Because SSI has the necessary technology available, it is not necessary to wait long lead times for hardware and software supply and installation.
• More cost effective resilience. If a customer implements failover technology to ensure increased uptime in the event of a failure, they have to have a dedicated failover server. SSI can provide shared failover servers across its customer base

Why SSI ?

SSI has been providing technology services for approaching twenty years. We can provide true "One Stop Shop” offering services which provide:

• Flexibility – our services can complement your own expertise/resources to offer the optimum service to your business, and, if required, your cash flow can be regulated by renting your solution rather than capital purchase.
• Business level security
• Data Integrity
• The correct level of performance for the required task.
• Reliable system availability – through resilient hardware configurations and technical support, 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
• Predictable capacity planning – we monitor the system continuously so that hardware upgrades, if necessary, can be planned well in advance and, through the use of backup hardware, downtime is minimised.
• Use of all relevant technologies, including, for example, all available "e" technologies from electronic faxing through to full Internet facilities including B2B through interactive Web Sites or simple Internet Browsers.
• Remote end-user support tools
• Customer care systems – we monitor your activity and calls so that we can pro-actively identify potential problem areas before they become a problem.
• Help desk: to ensure that there is always expertise available to respond to queries.