Managed Services

Take the surprises out of your telecom and network spending

Our Managed Services program provides our customers with the latest communication and data tools and support for a fixed monthly fee.

Total Cost of Ownership
With any investment in equipment, the purchase price is just one component of the actual cost to your business. Voice and data networks are no different. In fact, a Wilofsky Gruen Associates survey showed that the purchase price is under half (43%) of the true cost of ownership of a phone system.

Managed Services were designed to address this problem, by putting the Total Cost of Ownership in a single monthly fee.

Wilofsky Gruen Associates

Why do companies choose Managed Services?

• Some companies want a fixed monthly expense covering the entire cost of the their voice and data networks, including maintenance, training and repairs.
• Companies taking advantage of the latest technology want a flexible agreement that allows them to upgrade their equipment and software periodically without penalty.
• Growing companies want to make sure that they can accurately budget and easily add on products and services when they are needed to accommodate additional personnel.
• Firms with a lot of turnover or internal movement want to take advantage of periodic remote and in-person training from their vendor.
• Many companies do not have an interest in becoming experts on their telephone system, or have the budget to hire a dedicated telecom or IT manager. Managed Services allows companies to outsource the management of their voice and data networks for a fixed monthly price.
• Some companies with a part-time telecom or IT administrator want to have a backup number to dial for remote support and assistance, and extra hands on deck in the event that they experience an outage.
• Smaller companies looking at hosted PBX / IP Centrex solutions are often frustrated by the call quality and feature limitations of those solutions. Managed Services provides the best of both worlds – feature-rich, business-quality voice systems with the fixed costs and included support of off-premise solutions.

Some program advantages are:

• Fixed Costs for adding equipment – we provide you with a price list at the start of your term showing the monthly costs for adding equipment.
• Comprehensive Coverage includes annual preventative maintenance, annual user training, a bundled allotment of labor for programming and changes, and expanded no-fault warranty protection including lightning and electrical spike protection.
• Flexible, Fixed End of Term Options – after the initial five year term, our customers can continue their agreement at half price, buy the equipment outright, or upgrade their equipment.
• No-Penalty Upgrades empower our customers to upgrade their system after the first 24 months of the term without having to pay off their existing agreement
• Managed Services Survive Extenda – if Extenda goes out of business, or you are unhappy with us, you can choose a different provider to support your equipment under the same agreement.
• We guarantee our response times or provide you with a credit.

But Didn’t the Nice Salesman Tell Me I Had a Warranty?
Warranties are designed to protect you from the risk that your equipment will break in a new or nearly new condition. This is a valid concern, and the length of the warranty is a good measure of the reliability of the equipment.

Warranties are just not designed to protect you against every risk. These include:

• Catastrophic risks, such as a lightning strike or a power surge after a brown out,
• Underutilization risks from poorly programmed equipment and poorly trained personnel,
• Loss of business risks when your systems are down and your vendor is nowhere to be found,
• Obsolescence risk

What’s the Catch?
Just as there is no such thing as a free lunch, getting a comprehensive support agreement and new equipment is more expensive on a monthly basis than just getting the equipment without any associated support. Our customers find that this is still less expensive than paying out of pocket for ongoing service, but more importantly, our customers are actually taking advantage of their investment in hardware and software because they are not afraid to get a bill every time they call their vendor with a question.