BBIC, Innovation Way

Barnsley

S75 1JL

Tel: 01226 285600

Service Contracts

A service contract is the basis of almost all the support relationships with our clients.

With such an ongoing relationship, our technicians will become familiar with your systems and will therefore be able to service your requests more efficiently. Customers who utilise our services on a contract basis are also entitled to a reduced rate for our time and all cases are prioritised over cases from Ad-Hoc customers.

Our contracts operate based on what we consider to be a simple but innovative system which makes a single solution suitable for almost any type of customer from a company that calls on us once every few months to those that are in contact three or four times a day.

With a starting rate of £35 per month and the option to terminate the agreement at any time, our contracts are affordable and attractive to even the smallest of companies that would like the peace of mind of always having someone on hand to sort out little problems or even to ask those 'techie' questions to when you need an answer.

Our service operates in a very simple manner which is explained in detail below. We have gone into great detail here to try and ensure that you fully understand how this operates so please accept our apologies for the length of this document. If you would prefer for someone to explain this over the telephone or in person then please contact our office on 01226 285600 and someone will be happy to either call you to discuss this, or arrange a meeting to come out and see you in person.

Getting Started

We do not require you to sign an agreement to begin using our services on a contract basis.

If you have not already done so, you will need to register (Click Here) for access to our system. Part of this process requires you to accept our terms and conditions of service. Once this is done, we are generally happy to offer our contract services to you. We have no desire to tie you down to any long term contract or anything like that so there is nothing to sign, no paperwork and you can cancel at any time by simply providing written notice and ensuring that anything owed is paid promptly.

Once you have registered, you need to contact us to let us know you would like to start a contract.

The first thing we will do is to mutually agree a starting figure for the monthly payments. If you have an idea how much support you are going to need from us then it would make things run much smoother if you can tell us this so that we can start the payments off at the right level. If you dont expect to call on us very often then feel free to suggest the minimum of £35/month. Dont worry about getting it wrong; due to the way the contract operates, if you get it too high or too low it will be automatically adjusted at a later time to both work out the correct value and correct any under/over charging that happened in the meantime, once we have some history to work with.

Logging Cases

Once your account is setup, you can begin to use our services.

Each time you would like our help, you simply need to log a case with us. This can be done in a number of ways. The best way to do this is to use our online service area to submit your request to us electronically. This is the fastest and most efficient way to log a case. However, if you prefer you can call us on 01226285600 to speak to one of our technicians who will log the case on your behalf. You can also email directly to support@phase5.co.uk if you prefer to work this way.

When a case is logged by one of our staff, an automated email is sent to the contact email address that was logged with the case to confirm it has been entered into our system and to provide you with the case reference number.

The first thing that happens once a case is logged is that one of our technicians will perform an initial review of the case to determine its urgency, estimate the work involved and select an appropriate technician to take charge of the case. We call this process 'Classifying the job'. If the case is considered to be urgent (ie. you have logged a case regarding a fault this is causing major operational problems for you) then it is flagged as such and prioritised over all standard cases on our system at no extra cost to you. The agent who is selected to take the case is also notified immediately so that they can begin investigation as soon as possible.

As part of classification of a case, an estimated completion date is chosen by our technician. This date may be updated as the case develops if there are delays or the initial estimates were inaccurate. It is also possible that the case may be completed before this date. (Especially when the case has been flagged as urgent)

If you use our website to communicate with us then you can review the communication log of the case as well as the ETA and current cost of the case at any time through the service area on our website. If you choose to communicate with us over the phone or by email then you will not see the full details of the case online (since you will only see online correspondence) but you can still see the ETA and costs.

Once a case is closed by a member of our team, another automatic email will let you know. When a case is closed, it will remain active on our system (and online) for a period of 7 days in which time the case can be reopened either by one of our technicians or by yourself by using the online service area to post a reply to the case. Once the 7 day period has passed, the case is then archived from our system and the charge logged against your contract.

Contract Statements

We keep a running account to track the amount of work we do for you against the value of your contract. This system also provides the history that is used to re-estimate your retainer value at every review.

This system operates very much like a bank statement and the full details can be viewed through our website at any time by any authorised representative from your company.

At the end of each month, the retainer value is invoiced to you and an equal amount of credit is added to your account.  If you still have credit remaining from the previous month then it simply adds to it – excess credit is never lost while your account is active.

Any callout charges in relation to the case are clearly shown on the contract statement as a seperate item so that they are clear.

Throughout the course of the month, each job that reaches its 7-day period is charged to this account, thus reducing the balance.  When the balance hits zero, the account continues just like a bank account with an overdraft – with the specific exception that there is NO overdrawn charge!  The system is intended to operate on both sides of the zero mark.

Review Process

This is the section that provides our contracts with the flexibility to adapt so that they suit almost any client. This is done by occasionally reviewing the monthly contract value to match the ongoing trend of support requests and to correct the statement balance so that it operates as close to zero as possible. Once the system has enough history to properly asses your usage, the contract monthly value should only be reviewed around once every 12 months allowing you to better predict your costs for your own cashflow forecasts and budgets.

At the end of each month, after the retainer value has been added to the account, the account balance is checked against a simple set of rules to determine if a review of the retainer value is required.

A review is automatically flagged at 12 months from the last review to ‘fine tune’ your retainer value so that it operates as close to the zero mark as possible.  Once your account has settled down after being setup, this would generally be the only review that you see.

A review will be flagged early by our system when your account has exceeded a set amount of credit, (ie. Overdrawn) the limit of which is based on your monthly retainer value and your credit rating with us. (Your credit rating is shown on your invoice emails and will generally increase over time if you pay your bills on-time)

If you have a credit rating of ‘PERFECT!’ then your account will not be flagged until its balance is below zero by 10 times your retainer value.  There are various levels of credit rating coming down from PERFECT! to ABYSMAL.  If your rating is ABYSMAL then your account will be flagged if it is overdrawn by any amount at the end of the month. (after your monthly credit has been added.)

If your account is flagged for review then an email is sent to the accounts contact at your company giving you 1 month’s notice of an updated retainer value.

The new retainer value is calculated by our system based on 2 things.  Firstly, it takes the past 12 months (or whatever is available to date) history of your account to work out an average monthly spend figure.  It then looks at the current balance of your account and adds an adjustment to the first value that is designed to bring your account balance closer to zero over the next 12 months.

If the calculations determine a monthly value below the minimum of £35, then the minimum value of £35 is used in its place.

Ending the contract

You can end the contract at any time by providing us with written notice to do so.

There are no direct charges involved with terminating the contract other than paying for any support you have received that has not yet been paid for.

If you terminate a support contract with us then any negative balance on your account must be cleared before the account will be closed.  Any surplus credit on the account is lost when the account is closed.

Once we receive your cancellation request, all open cases will be closed and charged to your account. Your account will then be checked to see if there is a negative balance. If there is, an invoice will be generated immediately.

Once any outstanding invoices have been cleared, the contract will be terminated. If we are still awaiting payment for one or more invoices relating to the operation of the contract then your account will remain open until all charges (including any subsequent monthly charges) are paid.