Black Line IT has three Monthly Service Agreements options to meet the IT needs of your business:
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Time & Materials (T&M) Agreement: A “pay as you go” agreement that allows companies to receive support only as services are requested. Charges for T&M efforts will be billed in 30-minute increments.
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Proactive Agreement: Includes some form of recurring, monthly proactive service(s) such as hosting, maintenance, or supporting toolsets. Some service offerings are optional and may be included depending on the specific client service agreement, whereas others will be charged on a T&M basis. Any T&M efforts will be billed in 30-minute increments.
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All-In Agreement: Inclusive of all service offerings (with the exceptions of some services having limitations) and is also prioritized for support.
The below tables outline those three Agreement types, along with what services are and are not included to distinguish the differences, and provide transparency regarding expected charges per month.
Please note, for T&M and Proactive agreements, services that are not included can still be performed, but will be charged at an hourly Time & Materials rate.
Maintenance
| Service | T&M | Proactive | All-In |
|---|---|---|---|
| Server/Solution Hosting | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Server Check | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Backup Check | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Backup Verification | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Alert System Checks | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Infrastructure Maintenance (servers, networking, PCs, etc.) | ✔ | ✔ |
IT Management
| Service | T&M | Proactive | All-In |
|---|---|---|---|
| Help Desk Request Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Asset Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Engineer Coordination | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Support Quality Management | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Dedicated Senior Engineer | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Service Level Agreement (SLA) Level | Elevated | Priority | |
| IT Policies and Procedures | Limited | Limited | |
| Technical Documentation | Limited | ✔ | |
| Training (security, application, productivity) | Optional | Limited | |
| Account Management (meetings, questions) | Optional | ✔ | |
| Technology Recommendations | Optional | ✔ | |
| Business Process Recommendations | Optional | ✔ | |
| Technology Standardization | Optional | ✔ | |
| IT Budgeting, Projections, Timing, Planning | Optional | ✔ | |
| Vendor Coordination | Optional | ✔ | |
| Compliance (SOC, ISO, PCI, etc..) | Optional | Limited |
Support
| Service | T&M | Proactive | All-In |
|---|---|---|---|
| End-user Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Server Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Network Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Storage Device Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Virtualization Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Cloud Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Data Protection Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Security Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Phone System Support | Optional | ✔ | |
| Line of Business/Third-party application support | Optional | Limited |