Out of the Blue

As we move into the new financial year, we’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your business over the past 12 months. The 2009/10 financial year has been a testing time for us with many challenges in addition to the impacts of the global financial crisis.

We’re happy to report that our outlook for the coming year is much brighter. This is due primarily to the success we’ve enjoyed in transforming our business model into a Managed Services provider. We value each of our customers greatly, and we’re especially grateful to the majority of our client base who have placed their trust in us and made that journey with us.

If you haven’t already done so, and you’re interested in streamlining and fixing your support costs for the coming financial year – please give me a call to discuss how you can engage in a Managed Services and Fixed Support Cost program with Blueprint.

We have just a couple of important announcements to make in this bulletin. Please review them below and don't hesitate to contact me to discuss if you have any queries.

Thanks once again and we wish you a prosperous and successful new financial year.

As it has now been three years since our last price increase, we felt it was time to review our IT Support hourly rate. The review took into account our ongoing staff and running costs along with checks of industry standard pricing. The review showed that we would need to increase our hourly rate to offset increased costs and to bring us in line with industry standards.

For customers who participate in a Fixed Support Costs agreement with Blueprint, there is likely to be be no immediate impact from these changes. The rates will only apply to work excluded from your fixed cost agreement eg: infrastructure upgrades, machines not covered by managed services etc (please refer to your agreement for full details). We will be in touch to review and renegotiate Fixed Support Costs agreements individually on their anniversary.

Our base rate for IT Support services will be $155.00 ex GST ($170.50 inc GST) per hour.

Maintenance / Managed Services Rate

For customers using our maintenance or managed services, our base rate for services will be $140.00 ex GST ($154.00 inc GST) per hour.

We continue to resist the industry standard of charging for travelling time to/from site. However we have increased our call-out charge as follows: a call-out charge of $150.00 ex GST ($165.00 inc GST) will be charged for the first half hour of any onsite visitation during business hours. Additional onsite time after the first half hour during the visit will be charged in 15-minute intervals at the appropriate rate.

As many of you know Blueprint Technologies Australia have moved to the use of a Managed Services Portal (MSP) to assist with our monitoring, maintaining and provision of IT services. The MSP includes a helpdesk / ticketing system which allows us to log and track jobs entered into the system. Over the past few months we have been trialling the use of the ticketing system and have found it to be a reliable and efficient method of job tracking. As such we have decided to discontinue the use of our BTA Helpdesk and move fully to the MSP Ticketing system.

One of the main advantages of moving to this system is that our engineers are able to enter job details directly into the ticket itself as work is completed making it a more efficient system for recording and reporting on work performed for you. The system allows us to enter work summaries directly into our invoices rather than as separate documents – making it a simpler process for you to review work performed against fees charged. The process has streamlined our administration tasks and allows for reporting and invoicing on a more timely basis than our previous system.

Fixed Cost Customers - For clients already on our MSP with a fixed cost IT support package included - the only change you will see is the issuing of a ticketing summary report along with your monthly MSP invoice. The report will show a summary of your open tickets plus all tickets closed during the month.

Standard IT Support Customers - Clients using our IT support on an ad hoc basis will continue to receive invoices as work is performed however our invoices will be changing. Previously, our invoices itemised each support incident and referred to an attached work summary which showed the details of work performed. With our new system we are able to incorporate the work details into the invoice itself, removing then need to refer to attached documents for each line item.

As with our Helpdesk, clients are able to log into the MSP and enter jobs directly into the system themselves. Our support mailbox automatically receives an email alerting us to the job and allowing us to assign it to the next available engineer. If you are interested in learning how to use our new system please call and we will be happy to give you a demonstration. If you currently use our Helpdesk to log jobs please note we are in the process of migrating all open jobs over to the MSP ticketing system. Once the migration is complete BTA Helpdesk will be closed and no longer accessible externally.

Our team are happy to assist with any enquiries you might have and can be reached on the following:

Phone	(07) 3852 1250
Freecall (QLD Callers)	1800 064 906
Fax	(07) 3852 1194
email IT Support Sales Accounts	support@bta.com.au sales@bta.com.au accounts@bta.com.au
Online Shop	http://shop.bta.com.au
Website	http://www.bta.com.au/
Managed Services Portal	http://maintenance.bta.com.au

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Blueprint Technologies Australia makes no representation and gives no warranty as to the accuracy of the information contained in this document and does not accept any responsibility for any errors or inaccuracies in, or omissions from, the information contained herein (whether negligent or otherwise). Blueprint Technologies Australia shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising as a result of any person acting on any information contained in this document. This disclaimer does not exclude any warranties implied by law which may not be lawfully excluded.