The way we work, written down.
Most of what goes wrong between a company and its IT provider is a mismatch of expectations. These are ours, in writing, so you can hold us to them.
Who you'll deal with
The people you talk to are the people who do the work. There's no account manager between you and the engineer, and nobody reads from a script. The person who quoted your storage array is the person who can tell you how it behaves at 3 a.m., and the person who set up your office network is the one who answers when it's slow.
Novalis is a small firm, and we keep the parts of that worth keeping: the person on the phone knows your environment without looking it up, decisions get made in one conversation, and nothing is handed off to someone who wasn't in the room.
How things are priced
Procurement is quoted per request, through each vendor's authorized channel, with lead times stated on the quote. If something is constrained or about to be replaced by a newer model, the quote says so and offers the alternative.
Managed IT is a fixed monthly price per person, in writing, with what's included spelled out. It doesn't go up because you called more. If the work is done right, you shouldn't need to call much at all; when you do, nobody is watching a meter.
Projects are priced before they start. An office move, a migration, a compliance effort: scoped in writing, with a fixed price or an estimate whose assumptions are stated, before anything begins.
Hardware and licensing are always quoted separately from services, so you can see what each thing costs and compare either one on its own.
What we hold ourselves to
-
Everything is in your name.
Domains, licenses, cloud tenants and vendor accounts are registered to you, documented, and yours to take with you. Leaving us should be a handoff, not a hostage negotiation.
-
We quote what we'd run.
If we wouldn't want to live with it, we say so and offer what we would, even when the thing you asked for carries a bigger margin.
-
Renewals never surprise you.
You hear from us before anything lapses, with the renewal quote attached and a plain note on whether you still need it.
-
Plain language.
If an explanation needs jargon to sound convincing, it isn't a good explanation. You get the reason, the options and our recommendation, in that order.
-
Our mistakes are on us.
Time spent fixing something we got wrong isn't billed. You'll also hear about it from us first.
Where we work
Talk to a person.
Phone and email reach the people who do the work, not a call center.