Support Agreement

Reliable, experienced support with minimal recurring cost.

Businesses like yours need reliable technology support.
When you have a problem, you need it fixed, fixed quickly, and fixed right.

However, many small/midsize businesses find:

• You cannot afford or justify a full-time analyst, much less one with experience.

But:

• Wait times for contract support while critical systems are down can have devastating effects on your bottom line.

Many support businesses in our area charge $125 per hour - every hour, unless you pay thousands of dollars for hundreds of hours in advance, non-refundable of course. They often charge double for work after-hours and weekends, if they do it at all.

Even then, they often offer a next-day response for emergencies - while your business is losing money. If you would like help that's not an emergency, they respond with "How does Thursday at 2pm sound? No? Our next availability is next Tuesday at 4pm; does that work?" Sales managers want the techs to get done as quickly as possible, whether or not the problem is fully corrected - as long as it looks like it's fixed. And the technician will be whoever is available next, likely knowing - or caring - little about your business.

I have a solution.

If you are in or within 5 miles of Bristol Virginia, I want to be your in-house IT, just one you don't pay full-time.

I will guarantee my availability, anytime within two hours (three hours for nights and weekends), and I will usually be available within an hour, at the low cost of $100 for the first hour of any such emergency call, with additional hours at only $50 per hour. I will support other locations for you, but my response time will need to allow for travel - your main location needs to be within 5 miles of Bristol Virginia, and other locations need to be within an hour drive - so I can still respond to emergencies at your main location.

I will also be available the next day (or earlier) for non-emergency issues, for only $50 per hour. Even better, I will do project and maintenance work (work that can be done at odd hours without needing to coordinate scheduling with your staff) for only $25 per hour. This includes such projects as new computer setup and network wiring.

If I sell you anything, such as computers, cable, or network infrastructure, I will do so at cost. I am a technician, acting as your agent, not a salesperson. This also means that I will not have to handle sales tax.

I will also promise you that I will not accept more than ten total clients, to ensure my availability for non-emergency or project work.

All I ask is that you will guarantee a $100 minimum per week, 50 weeks per year*, with this minimum payable quarterly in advance. Any work I do will first come out of the week's prepayment, with the balance payable within 30 days of invoice.

I want to be your full-time in-house IT. I want to keep my rates low, so you can call anytime you need something, without worrying about the cost.

If you are interested in being my support client, please contact me at Michael@MichaelPollard.biz.

Business Hosting

Businesses need a professional Internet presence. Perhaps more importantly, businesses need a professional email address.

A small business may have a website provided with a service plan, but the site may be at some address like "www.BusinessAssociation.com/members/member13579", with email at "joescars1945@yahoo.com". That is not professional.

You need JoesCarsOfBristol.com. You need to be emailed at Joe@JoesCarsOfBristol.com. And you can get that for only $10 per month. These names can just forward to your existing website and email, but by simply looking more professional, you will attract more customers.

Personal Hosting

Increasingly, individuals want a website they can call their own. Are you satisfied with your blog at "www.blogwebsite.com/lisasawesomerecipies", when you can have LisasAwesomeRecipies.com?

Are you satisfied with being "lisa97431357@emailprovider.com" when you can be Lisa@LisasAwesomeRecipies.com or Lisa@LisaOfBristolTN.us? You can be "Lisa" instead of "lisa97431357" for only $10 per month.

I am not an artist. I am a technician. I will provide hosting space for you to create your own website. Or I can redirect your new name to your existing site or page elsewhere. But I also will not charge you for "free" design with your monthly hosting.

If you are interested in low-cost web hosting, please contact me at the email address above.

Have email with your company name for $10 per month, either with your existing website name, or with a new domain name for only the additional cost of registration.

Either forward your new email addresses to your existing email, or get new email accounts for only $10 per address per year.

If you are interested in professional email addresses, please contact me at the email address above.

Have personal email for only $10 per year, with additional personal addresses in the same household for only $5 per year.

Fully-encrypted, using the same technology as your bank uses for financial transactions.

Use your own email program, get email on your phone, or use webmail.

It's available now at PrivateAmericans.com

While I have several college degrees in Computer Information Systems, I also know what I am doing.

Across more than 20 years, I have provided support for hardware and software, network administration for small (one person) and large (multinational) organizations, infrastructure administration, network engineering, and programming in several languages.