IT Support & Helpdesk
A person answers.
IT support is the everyday service your team calls when something stops working: a laptop, a login, a printer, an email that will not send. happier IT provides it for Canadian organizations of roughly 15 to 200 people by phone, email or portal, with on-site visits when a problem cannot be fixed remotely.
Who it's for
This is the part of IT your staff actually experience.
Nobody in your organization has an opinion about your firewall. Everybody has an opinion about how long it takes to get a laptop fixed.
People ask each other instead of asking anyone. The unofficial IT person is whoever is good with computers, and the real cost is the hour they lose helping.
Tickets get closed, but nothing gets better. The same printer, the same login, the same slow morning, month after month. Closing a ticket is not the same as fixing a cause.
New starters are not ready on day one. A laptop ordered late, an account made the morning they arrive, permissions copied from somebody else because nobody knows what the role needs.
Leavers linger. Accounts stay active, licences keep billing, and files sit in a personal drive nobody can open. Awkward with an auditor, and easy to fix with a process.
Support vs project
A laptop that will not boot is support. A new office network is a project. We tell you which side of the line something falls on before we start, not on the invoice afterwards.
What's included
What the helpdesk covers.
Support is not only the answering. Half of what keeps a helpdesk quiet happens before anyone calls.
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Three ways in, one queue
Phone happier IT’s service line on 1 (888) 974-2779, send an email, or raise it in the portal at my.happierit.com. All three land in the same queue.
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Triage by impact, not by who shouted
Everyone down beats one person down, which beats a request that can wait until Thursday. The priority is set when the ticket opens.
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Escalation with a name on it
Most issues are solved by the first technician. When one is not, it goes to a senior engineer, and where a vendor is involved we hold that queue for you.
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On-site when remote cannot do it
Failed hardware, a network fault, a new office, or a person who would rather have someone beside them. Some jobs need hands.
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Onboarding as a defined process
One form, one lead time. Account, mailbox, licences, permissions set by role rather than copied from a colleague, and a device built to standard before day one.
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Offboarding done properly, the same day
Account disabled and sessions revoked, disabling alone leaves a signed-in session working. Files reassigned, MFA (multi-factor authentication: a second check, usually on a phone, before a login is accepted) registration cleared, licence reclaimed.
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Device standards and a standard build
Two or three approved models rather than whatever was on sale. Disk encryption on by default, administrator rights removed, enrolled in MDM (mobile device management, the tool that configures a device remotely).
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Reporting that shows causes
Each quarter: what was raised, how long it took, and what came up repeatedly. The last column is the useful one, a recurring ticket is a fixable cause.
How it works
What happens when someone calls.
The design goal is that your staff explain the problem once.
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A person answers, and a ticket opens
You reach a technician rather than a menu tree. The ticket is created while you talk, with your environment and history on screen, so nobody asks which company you are with, or makes you re-explain last month’s issue.
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Fixed on the call, or triaged with a next step
A large share of issues are solved during that first contact. If one cannot be, you are told what happens next, who has it and roughly when, before the call ends.
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Closed, then checked for a pattern
The fix is written up in plain English so the next technician does not start from scratch. Recurring issues get raised at the quarterly review, not absorbed as normal.
What it costs
Per user, per month, with the scope written down.
Support is priced per user because that is what drives the work. What the number covers matters more.
happier IT’s support is included in a per-user, per-month managed ITpricing guide explains what moves it.
Read any agreement, ours included, for three things:
- What counts as support and what counts as a project. This is where surprise invoices come from. It should be in writing, with examples.
- Whether after-hours is included or billed. Ask what happens at 7pm on a Tuesday, and get the answer in the contract rather than in conversation.
- What the targets are. An SLA, service level agreement, is only meaningful if it states how quickly someone responds and resolves at each priority level. We respond in minutes, not hours, and the agreement sets what happens after that at each priority level.
On “unlimited”
Unlimited support usually means unlimited support tickets, not unlimited work of any kind. That is a reasonable arrangement, and it should be written plainly rather than left for you to discover.
Go deeper
Specialisms under this service
Each of these is a distinct piece of work with its own page. Most clients need some of them, not all of them.
On-Site IT Support
Someone there, when it needs hands.
On-site IT technicians for Canadian organizations of 15 to 200 people: scheduled visits, callouts, new offices, moves and cabling, with honest coverage areas.
Device as a Service
Laptops, handled end to end.
Laptops and desktops as a monthly cost rather than a purchase: specified, imaged, shipped, supported, refreshed on a cycle and securely disposed of at end of term.
Why us for this
A person answers, and they are in Canada.
The helpdesk is staffed by happier IT employees in Canada, working alongside our own security operations centre, the team watching for unusual activity, rather than a subcontracted call centre reading a script. Whoever picks up can see your environment and has probably worked in it before.
Because monitoring and support sit in one organization, a suspicious login and a laptop problem are handled by people who talk to each other. The security team is on duty 24/7, with the Surrey office on Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific, The Surrey office keeps business hours, Monday to Friday, 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Pacific, but the helpdesk does not close: it is staffed 24/7 on 1 (888) 974-2779 and [email protected].
Go deeper
- On-site IT support When remote cannot fix it, and where we travel.
- Device as a service Laptops as a monthly cost, refreshed on a cycle.
- What is an SLA? How to read a response-time commitment.
Questions
What people ask before they sign anything.
What happens when I call?
A technician answers and opens a ticket while you talk, with your organization’s details and history in front of them. Many issues are solved on that first call, through a remote session you approve and can watch. If it needs more work, you are told who has it before you hang up.
How fast do you respond?
Response and resolution targets are set by priority, so an issue affecting everyone is treated differently from a request that can wait. happier IT responds in minutes, not hours. When comparing providers, ask what the target is at each level and what happens when it is missed. Our SLA explainer covers how to read one.
Is support unlimited?
Support tickets are included in the monthly fee rather than billed by the hour, which is what most people mean by unlimited. What sits outside is project work, an office fit-out, a server migration, a phone system replacement, quoted separately.
Do you come on site?
Yes, when the problem needs hands: failed hardware, cabling and network faults, a new office, or an install that cannot be done remotely. happier IT works across Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario; coverage is on our on-site IT support page.
What do you need from us when someone joins or leaves?
One form, and as much notice as you can give. For a joiner: name, start date, role, manager, and which team they mirror for permissions. The limiting factor is usually laptop lead time. For a leaver: the last day, and whether their mailbox and files need keeping.
Can our staff use their own laptops?
Sometimes, and it deserves a decision rather than a drift. Personal devices, BYOD, or bring your own device, work well for phones and occasional access, and awkwardly for a main machine, because supporting a computer we do not manage is slow. A common middle ground is company laptops and controlled access from personal phones.
Do you support Macs and mobile devices?
macOS, iOS and Android are all supported What we will always do is tell you what we support well before you sign, rather than letting you discover a gap in month two. If you run a mixed environment, raise it on the first call.
Related
Where to go next.
In this service
Related services
Worth reading
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happier IT facilitated a very smooth cut over from a previous supplier and the initial onboarding process went quickly and well. happier IT’s team members have demonstrated a high degree of professionalism on site and both proficiency and timeliness in problem solving from their operations centre. This all has a direct impact on our need for consistent workflow productivity.
Want to know what this would look like for you?
A 30-minute call. No slides, no audit fee, no obligation. We ask what is breaking and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit.