Frequently Asked Questions
Answers to common questions about Smart CT and our IT lifecycle services.
Smart CT Onboarding & Engagement
Anyone can request a quote, and 90% of our quotes can be turned around within 4 working hours. However, so we understand your requirements and make sure we are both the right fit, we recommend booking an appointment with our experienced sales team. After this, customers can be onboarded within 24 hours. Let’s make sure we’re the ideal partner for your business. Meet the Team and contact us.
This ranges from 2 to 10 days. The skill set required, size of the estate, agreed scope and availability within your required areas will influence timing. Our service teams are used to operating in rapid-response environments, as they know how important it is to keep technology connected.
Through the use of technology and our training and briefing of our engineers. Smart CT uses the latest digital tools, which are modified for you and/or your customer to ensure the brief is clear and the execution is consistent, no matter your location.
By getting a part and/or engineer to site rapidly. Our service teams work 24×7, track engineer locations, and are used to operating in rapid-response environments, as they know how important it is to keep technology connected. They’ll even help you if you don’t have an end customer’s device under support. We’re invested in our partnership to help you and your customers.
New engagements, once purchase orders are committed:
1) A transition Manager and associated expert from each department is appointed to plan the activity.
2) Communication of this plan is shared with you.
3) Once agreed, we’ll provide you with weekly updates to ensure the new service is within scope and on track.
4) The very best plans don’t always work perfectly; Smart CT works together with you to overcome obstacles and challenges along the way.
5) Typically, after 90 days, the service will move into business as usual and monthly service reviews will operate. If more reviews are required, we’re here for you and always ready to answer your requests. You can always see the status of work completed in our portal.
New project rollouts, once the Scope of Works and purchase orders are agreed:
1) A Project Manager is appointed to plan the activity.
2) Communication of this plan is shared with you.
3) Once agreed, we’ll provide you with weekly updates to ensure the new service is within scope and on track, more often if required.
4) The very best plans don’t always work perfectly; Smart CT works together with you to overcome obstacles and challenges along the way.
5) If more reviews are required, we’re here for you and always ready to answer your requests.
6) You’ll receive full documentation of the works performed. You can always see the status of work completed in our portal.
Within business hours: Our portal, telephone or email.
Outside of business hours: Contact us by telephone.
The fastest way is to use the portal. There, you’ll find a form where, by typing in some of the end customer’s information, you can find the serial numbers and devices under support. Please have the following information ready:
- End customer name
- Address
- Site contact
- Site opening times
- Device under support
- Serial number
- Description of the live issue
The same rules apply out of hours; however, any urgent portal requests or emails must be followed up by a telephone call to ensure the on-call agent is made aware.
Smart CT Commercials
Our specialist break/fix support team is ready to help if you email us at quotes@smartct.com. The team will typically require the following information:
- Quantity under support
- Manufacturer
- Part number
- End customer name
- Term start and end date
- Site address, including postcode
- Required SLA
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Once you receive the quote and are ready to confirm, please send an email with a purchase order to orders@smartct.com. Don’t worry if details are incomplete at quote stage, we’ll review and follow up if needed. If you’re unsure, our Account Managers are happy to help.
Our specialist project deployment team is ready to help if you email us at engineeringquotes@smartct.com. The team will typically require the following information: details of the work required, number of days on-site, part numbers of devices to be deployed/installed, end customer name, start and end dates, and site address, including postcode.
Contact us for a scoping form to help ensure we’ve captured your full requirements. Once you receive the quote and are ready to confirm, please send an email with a purchase order to orders@smartct.com.
If you don’t have all the details at the quote stage, don’t worry; we’ll provide an indicative quote. However, we may require further details to confirm your order at a later stage to ensure we deliver as promised. If you’re still unsure, contact one of our experienced Account Managers.
A Smart CT maintenance quote provides a clear and detailed breakdown of the devices and services covered. This includes key device information such as quantities, serial numbers, part numbers and the site address.
Each quote also outlines the agreed SLA for the devices, along with the contract term. Pricing is presented on a per-unit basis, ensuring full visibility of costs.
Where applicable, the quote will indicate if vendor baseline support is included and will highlight any relevant EOL dates for the equipment.
Third-party maintenance offers you greater flexibility and a cost-efficient solution. In some cases, third-party maintenance can be blended with manufacturer support to ensure you get the best maintenance solution. Learn more here.
Yes. On-site or remote experts can be available when you need them. This could be 1 day, 1 week, 1 month, or 12 months or more. Resources include project managers, technical architects, technical consultants, engineers and more.
Smart CT Service
There are more than 20 service level agreements. They typically follow:
- 2-hour
- 3-hour
- 4-hour
- 8-hour
- Next Business Day (NBD)
- Next Day
- 5 Business Day response times
Flexibility can be offered, including changing the hours and keeping support within business hours only. Smart CT has consistently delivered 99% on time for the past 5 years.
Planning: For new support contracts, a specialist will build a plan to assess the right part, right place, and right time using a digital tool, which will assess operational readiness. Transfers will take place to move existing parts into the right location, and any purchases shall be made within a 30-day ramp-up period.
Monitoring: With over 10,000 changes to the support base daily and the consumption of parts, Smart CT operates a live digital monitoring tool to assess its ability to achieve the SLA, which prompts repairs and purchasing.
Yes. Contact one of our experts to learn more.
Sometimes the unexpected can happen. We’ll keep you informed during the SLA window via the portal or email updates.
Smart CT offers on-site engineering for Networking, Server & Storage and Workplace Technologies. Remote support is provided for activities of a highly technical nature; this is often the case when there is in-life technology under support or when engaging with Smart CT’s consultants.
Our engineers operate as an extension of your team, representing your organisation professionally on-site. We support white-label delivery through the use of a partner-branded sign-off reporting process, professional on-site representation, and alignment with partner workflows and escalation processes.
Smart CT’s purpose is to grow technology services with people you can trust. Our team will be transparent and flexible to ensure your customers get their technology connected, utilising the very best people and digital tools to ensure consistency of service, at scale.
We plan the structure of the works to be performed in advance and use this scope digitally so that any engineer, in any location, has the right guidance and instructions to complete the works upon arrival. You’ll receive documentation of all works performed.
We understand the level of uncertainty that can happen during installations and migrations. We focus on minimising downtime and ensuring you have the very best engineers available to you. For certain migrations, particularly data centre migrations, we often provision additional hardware and standby engineers, just in case.
The engineer will call into your technical support team to validate the situation before next steps are taken and seek approval before commencing work. If conditions present a risk of an unsuccessful install or fix, we’ll speak with you to assess the risk before proceeding.
Smart CT offers a range of SLAs, most notably:
- 2-hour
- 4-hour
- 8-hour
- Next Business Day response
When a support request arrives, we’ll match our action with the SLA set. If you need it earlier or later, we’ll do everything we can to achieve your request.
Sometimes the unexpected can happen. We’ll keep you informed during the SLA window via the portal or email updates. There will be an escalation matrix in place so you know who to contact. We’ll ask for the same from you so we have 100% alignment.
Here’s a list of vendors we service the most.
Networking: Cisco, Cisco Meraki, Fortinet, HPE Aruba, Juniper, Ruckus, Starlink, Ubiquiti.
Server & Storage: Dell, HP, Lenovo.
Workplace Technologies: A range of vendors across audiovisual, retail point of sale (e.g. Diebold Nixdorf, NCR, Toshiba and HP), retail intelligence, and CCTV.
Smart CT Engineers
Our engineers are appropriately qualified and can be deployed with a range of industry-recognised certifications, depending on site and client requirements. These certifications include:
- Health & Safety training
- Security clearance (SC/DV)
- Asbestos Awareness training
- PASMA certification
- IPAF licence
- ECS/CSCS cards
- iHASCO training
- DBS certification
Smart CT engineers attend site equipped with a range of standard tools and a selection of materials to support installation activities. In situations where client-supplied hardware is unavailable at the time of installation, engineers carry van stock to help ensure work can proceed without delay.
This contingency stock typically includes: patch cables, power cables, power strips and basic fixings.
Where these materials are used, Smart CT reserves the right to charge for them post-installation.
In addition, all engineers are equipped with the necessary tools and equipment to carry out installation work safely and efficiently, including:
Cordless drills, impact drivers, steps and ladders, multi-tools, jigsaws, laser levelling equipment, fish wires and cable rods, spare patch cables, power cables, and cable testers.
All Smart CT-employed engineers undergo rigorous training as part of their onboarding and undergo periodic checks to assess their performance.