Support - like computers, it comes in all shapes, sizes and prices. The best support for you is a package that gives you peace of mind, so when a problem occurs, it will be rectified with the minimum of fuss and impact on your business. Hardware is more reliable than ever, but when a major failure occurs, the cost of parts and the associated labour charges can mean a repair is not economically viable.

Manufacturers' warranties go a long way to alleviating the hardware risk and have become fairly popular over the last few years, but they often fall short in the expectations of customers who purchase them as there can be significant delays in achieving a satisfactory resolution. In addition, it is often down to you - their customer - to prove that a hardware fault really exists. We know, because we call upon them on our customers' behalf from time to time!

Imagine this scenario - Your system is intermittantly crashing and its rapidly become much more than an irritation. The manufacturer's 'help-line' might guide you through re-installing the operating system and all your applications without any regard for your data ("you did take a backup, didn't you...?") before admitting that the motherboard, hard drive or RAM might be faulty and despatching a courier to collect your equipment. Several days or maybe even weeks later when its eventually returned, you find they've probably wiped the hard drive anyway in order to return it to its 'factory supplied' condition!

Of course, you may not have a hardware problem at all, in which case your extended warranty will be of no benefit to you. Very often, this type of problem is associated with a recent change or addition to your system or its configuration - possibly caused by spyware, adware, virus or breach of network security. What then? Can you unravel the changes made over the last few weeks, uninstall that patch a colleague recommended or perhaps you need to search hard and long on the Internet for a further patch to fix a problem created by an upgrade or hardware addition? Maybe a full restore to a previous 'known working' state is the right thing to do? "You did take a backup, didn't you...?"

We are a technical company, and the staff here have been supporting customers just like you on a huge range of systems for well over a decade. We can offer anything from telephone support for those niggling problems, through to fully managed proactive fault detection and resolution for your critical system components. You just choose the level of 'peace of mind' you want. And with many businesses permanently connected to the Internet via low cost ADSL, our secure remote support and administration capability via VPN is more affordable and secure than ever.

Above all, developing a relationship with a support organisation you can trust to help you when you need it is key. A Company that knows who you are, what your Company does and how you use your systems is much more likely to resolve your difficulties than someone sitting in a call-centre in India. Computer systems cannot fix themselves (yet!) and have a habit of failing when you need them most - usually just as you approach that 'critical deadline'!