IT Managed Services

Managed Services for IT :: Infrastructure and Support

Huon's Managed IT Services are customised to meet the demands of your business. We can proactively manage and support IT infrastructure with a winning combination of technical expertise and client dedication that enables organisations to simplify their IT environment and management, and focus on vital business growth and productivity.

Huon can work as an 'outsourced partner', offering flexible, cost-effective and risk-managed outsourced IT solutions. By working as an extension of your organisation, our team can completely manage your entire IT requirements or augment your current facilities and provide the specific applications, infrastructure or operational support required.

Our consultative approach to problem-solving assists in every aspect of business, from enhanced workflow and reporting processes, customer contact and accounting procedures, through to improved field communications and desktop productivity.

IT Health Check

Huon's business partnership begins with an IT Health Check - a comprehensive written report that identifies inherent weaknesses or risks in an organisation's IT system. This forms the basis for a strategic plan that empowers the implementation of an IT strategy critical to business success.

Is your finger on the pulse of your IT Network?
Effective risk management is an insurance policy on the life of your business. A healthy IT network is reliant on secure, efficient technology structures and regular maintenance. Untested risk leaves you vulnerable to security issues and costly downtime - potential threats that can undermine your business practices and profitability.

Huon IT offers IT Health Check - a streamlined IT fitness assessment service that analyses and compiles a report on the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities within your existing IT systems.

IT Health Check is conducted by a senior Huon consultant, and offers a holistic view of your business needs by providing an ethical, practical and affordable review of your network structure whilst adding value to your IT understanding. Creating the foundation for a strong and enduring IT partnership, it also forms the basis for the development of a strategic IT plan - a collaborative process which reflects our vision of the future for your business.

What can IT Health Check assess?

IT Health Check provides you with comprehensive system documentation and a fitness report tailored to your business, which clarifies short and long term recommendations for your existing IT network. Common areas for review include infrastructure purchases or upgrades, virus protection strategies, backup management programs, database design or fine-tuning, network reorganisation - in fact, any area large or small which is collaboratively deemed essential to the continued successful management of your business.

Want a 5 minute IT physical? Contact Huon IT for a more detailed examination of your IT network.

Security

IT security and risk management solutions are an integral part of all businesses today. Huon’s meticulous approach to your security provides the assurance that your business systems will be thoroughly assessed, potential risks identified, and the right security structures implemented. Our strategic approach to security focuses resources on your company’s most critical assets, creating comprehensive security solutions to mitigate risks and maximise results. Our consultants are up to date with the latest technologies, vulnerabilities and trends in this all-important area.

Firewalls, System Authentications, Email Protection, Backup Solutions, Redundancy Planning

Recent studies show that over 80% of business networks in Australia are easily accessible to the outside world. If you connect to the Internet and your security is not kept fully up-to-date, then you are open to attack via the Internet - anyone in the world could delete, view or change all of the files on your business network. A firewall offers protection of your internal network from malicious hackers on the Internet. Huon comprehensively assesses your security needs, configures and install your firewalls, and provides secure monitoring on a daily basis.

As external connections to your network expand with new staff members and more remote connectivity solutions, it is increasingly important to ensure that you can reliably authenticate who is accessing your company’s data. Simple password protection is no longer sufficient - Huon provides you with comprehensive certificate-based solutions that are specifically tailored to meet or exceed your security requirements.

Strong authentication refers to systems that require multiple factors to identify users when they access private networks and applications. These authentication systems use advanced technology such as token-generated one-time pass codes to verify (authenticate) a user's identity.

A common example of multi-factor authentication is your ATM card or bank card. This requires something you have (your card), and something you know (your PIN). You wouldn't want your bank to allow access to your account with just one of these factors - the risks are too great. Yet, many of your valuable network resources can be accessed with just one factor - a weak memorised password! Strong authentication eliminates the risks associated with passwords.

Email poses a daily threat to the security of your business. A multi-layered external email scanning system is essential to neutralise the threat of viruses to your network and email capabilities, by blocking virus threats before they enter your IT systems. Used in conjunction with anti-virus software and/or a firewall, an external scanning system will provide a 3 tier approach to total virus protection - effectively safeguarding your technology environment, your business workflow, and the predictability of your email operations.

Stringent backup solutions are paramount to the successful management of any IT System. As IT consultants, it is frightening how frequently we see backups left to staff with little or no training. We see situations where tapes are changed but no-one bothers to check whether the backup actually ran, let alone whether it ran successfully. Businesses assume they will be able to restore from backups when they need to without successfully testing that theory. When the unthinkable happens and systems fail, everyone heads for the backup, by which time it is often too late.

At Huon we aim to reverse this thinking - careful backup strategies are custom-designed to your business, and media rotations are thoroughly planned. Huon’s Dawn Patrol service ensures that our clients receive daily backup monitoring by our expert technical staff. Through our Site Management program, our client networks undergo regular test restores. For professional backup advice and management, Contact Huon.

IT Redundancy Planning represents a broad scope of activities designed to sustain and recover critical IT services following an emergency. To put IT Redundancy Planning into context, it is an essential plan that fits into an organisation’s risk management, security and emergency preparedness program. Risk management should identify threats and vulnerabilities so that appropriate controls can be put into place to either prevent incidents or to limit the effects of such incidents. In the world of IT we have three broad threats:

•   Natural – fire, flood, storm
•   Human – operator error, sabotage, implant of malicious code, terrorist attack
•   Environmental – equipment failure, software error, telecommunications network outage, electric   power failure

Business Impact Analysis (BIA) aims to identify critical resources to your operation and define allowable outage timeframes. Bearing in mind there is an optimum point of balance between the investment in redundancy systems versus the cost of a potential outage.

Develop Recovery Strategies – recovery strategies provide a means to restore IT operations quickly and effectively following a service disruption. The strategies should address disruption impacts and allowable outage times identified in the BIA. Several alternatives should be considered when developing the strategy, including cost, allowable outage time, security, and integration with larger, organisation-level contingency plans.

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) focuses on sustaining an organisation’s business functions during and after a disruption. A BCP may be written for a specific business process or may address all key business processes. In some cases a BCP may address short-term business requirements solely covering interim continuity planning.

IT Redundancy Plan Development – once the above issues have been considered, the next phase is to develop a document that clearly defines the IT Redundancy Plan.

Security - All your security issues taken care of - total peace of mind delivered by a team dedicated to your company’s well-being.

Maintenance Services

In keeping with our ‘Best Practice Maintenance Agenda’, a regular maintenance program is undertaken to ensure all preventative steps are carried out to reduce the possibility of IT system down-time. The program is designed to suit your individual needs with consideration to staffing, system complexity and budget.

Our support teams carry out routine updates and preventative maintenance at worksites, maintaining a detailed ‘IT Task List’ that summarises all support requests, work already undertaken and future actions planned.

Dawn Patrol – IT Systems Security

Dawn Patrol is Huon’s unique approach to proactive IT Management. Being alert to potential or existing threats within your technology environment is an essential part of managing risk in your business. Early detection of technology problems before they impact on your business workflow helps protect your profitability and productivity, and provides you with peace of mind that your network won’t let you down - even when you’re not there.

Huon IT offers Dawn Patrol - a comprehensive online monitoring program that provides pre-emptive detection of potential problems within your IT network. Dawn Patrol provides an ‘early bird’s-eye view’ of your entire network environment - servers, backups, security, system overloads and corruptions - effectively checking your business network before you start business. Dawn Patrol also builds statistics on your network performance, helping the process of reviewing and recommending courses of action to strengthen your systems.

The Huon team provides Dawn Patrol Active Response Facility 5 days a week from 6 a.m. In the event that a server deviates from standard operating range in load or fails to respond, Huon staff will assess and resolve the problem before it cuts into business hours. Using revolutionary tools to proactively manage impending problem ‘events’, DAWN PATROL identifies issues before the typical business day commences and responds to them in a timely manner - a vital key to system availability and performance.

Dawn Patrol provides an Active Response Facility 5 Days A Week from 6am for pre-emptive detection of:

•  Hardware problems
•  Security
•  Backup
•  Corruptions
•  Internet Connectivity
•  Network problems

Offering the ultimate cost-effective safeguard to the comprehensive management of your IT systems, Dawn Patrol can put your mind at rest that your business systems will be covered day and night, for only $10 per business day.

Email Patrol

Email security
Email poses a daily threat to the security of your business. A multi-layered external email scanning system is essential to neutralise the threat of viruses to your network and email capabilities, by blocking virus threats before they enter your IT systems. Used in conjunction with anti-virus software and/or a firewall, an external scanning system will provide a 3 tier approach to total virus protection - effectively safeguarding your technology environment, your business workflow, and the predictability of your email operations.

The smart solution - Email Patrol
Huon IT offers Email Patrol - a complete email security suite for business. Providing you with a watertight security foundation for your email systems, Email Patrol is a full in-bound mail management system that blocks threats at the Internet gateway and repairs, resolves and eradicates viruses before they reach your network and jeopardise your business continuity and productivity.

Requiring no hardware or software installation, Email Patrol Proactive Threat Response System is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, scanning and monitoring outside your network for long-term protection. It provides you with 100% peace of mind that your email is safe - always.

Email Patrol is also a powerful anti-spam solution. Utilising advanced filtering layers to block unsolicited emails and targeted email attacks and overloads, it protects your network against information loss through email-based identity theft, fraud, and email harvesting activities of Internet spammers and thieves intent on compromising your systems and stealing your business-critical information.

Email Patrol incorporates a Proactive Threat Response System that monitors 24 Hours A Day, 7 Days A Week and provides:

•  Antivirus protection
•  Anti-spam service that detects and blocks spam
•  Blockage of unsolicited emails and targeted email attacks
•  Protection against email address harvesting, identity theft and fraud

Email Patrol won’t interrupt your mail services and instantly protects your email at the highest level available, providing your business with maximum email security at a minimal cost per business day.

Monthly IT Reporting

Huon’s monthly IT reporting system provides an overview of vital aspects of information systems and is a proactive review service of your organisation’s IT environment. Once the report is compiled, it is reviewed by a senior systems consultant as part of our commitment to providing total quality IT network management.

Help Desk

Log help desk calls online

Your first point of contact within Huon is to a Service Co-Coordinator who will escalate your call appropriately via sophisticated workflow management tools. Our clients also enjoy the opportunity to log help desk calls and manage outstanding IT tasks via the web through our online system. The nature of your IT problem will be quickly ascertained and the most appropriate consultant will be scheduled to attend to your needs within a timeframe reflecting your requirements or service level agreement, whether they be deemed critical or of lesser priority.

Our day-to-day help desk is open from 7.30am-5pm on business days.

Our specialist consultants are constantly updating their training skills, product knowledge and general IT expertise to assist you where possible, to troubleshoot and solve your IT issues rapidly via the telephone or online.

Our call services are predominantly delivered within normal operating hours and issues are logged as ‘critical’, ‘high’, ‘medium’, or ‘low’. However, we recognise that working outside business hours on infrastructure/server issues is an essential part of our ‘can do’ business model.

Your job will be tracked from start to finish - to the point of a PR call a few days after our attendance to ensure you are completely satisfied with the service you have received.

Our support programs offer priority support, and service contracts offer three levels of support: phone, on-line or on-site. Our rapid recovery service means a fast response and minimum downtime, with loan equipment available when needed. Our support services are available on-call or on a guaranteed service basis.

Hosted Services / The Virtual Workplace

We have invested in infrastructure to facilitate a complete outsourced model, thus providing our clients with all their infrastructure needs on demand for a single rental fee. For small businesses who appreciate high-end technologies however cannot manage the upfront investment or ongoing maintenance, this hosted solution provides vast flexibility and resulting business efficiencies.

Huon IT’s infrastructure hosting solutions allow you to focus your time and capital in your business whilst we deliver full-time solutions, continual monitoring and expert support services. Huon’s hosted services provide you with the dynamic solution that delivers best-of-breed solutions and world class services to your business at cost-effective rates on a rental model.

If...

• your business is experiencing significant growth
• your team need the ability to work from anywhere
• your business is housed over multiple locations

...then there are compelling cost benefits and solutions you should consider. Contact Huon IT.

Outlook / Blackberry Hosting

Huon has assisted many clients to implement and manage wireless email solutions from Blackberry to Pocket PC. We can provide hosted infrastructure for individuals or companies not wishing to invest in or support the technology.

Domain Services

The importance of proper domain management is often overlooked. At Huon we have experts to assist you with all your domain registration and management needs. Huon’s Managed Services team can advise and assist with new domain registrations or renewals and offer services to host websites and mail packages. Contact our Managed Services team for more information Contact Huon.