Outsourcing is an integral part of the ECC e-partnership offering. Skilled ECC staff are placed on-site, supported by a direct link to the ECC main office to ensure systems are managed effectively and that business expectations continue to be fulfilled by existing systems. Input provided from the outsourced programme can be blended with strategic input from ECC's own e-partnership team to specify clearly the deliverables required to fulfil specific targets and needs. This approach maximises opportunity and avoids issues of problem-ownership and responsibility.

Functional service provision includes:

Business support – system management
A team will work on the customer's site to ensure systems are kept in an operational state at all times. This team will follow documented service levels and will assume full responsibility for:

Server management
This ensures that the hardware and operating software of the many servers across the business, which themselves represent the heartbeat of the company's IT infrastructure, are kept in an operational and collaborative state through a programme of preventative maintenance. Where unforeseen problems occur, these will be dealt with via a fast response service.

Recommendations on the capacity of servers to fulfil the growing needs placed upon them will be made on an ongoing basis.

Storage management
This is a proactive service to monitor storage levels across the enterprise, reinforced by building and enforcing policies to minimise unnecessary costs arising from badly managed storage.

Recommendations on growth requirements for storage will be provided on an ongoing basis.

Back-up management
This is an essential service that ensures the form, criticality and dynamic nature of all data in the enterprise is well understood and catered for using resilient back-up procedures.

This service will extend where required to include disaster recovery plans. The DRP will clearly document the procedures required to restore the IT structure of the enterprise in the event of unexpected major problems.

Ongoing recommendations will be made to improve the robustness of back-up solutions.

Database management
This service regularly monitors the utilisation of databases, proactively planning and completing maintenance in periods of low activity to avoid unnecessary problems, such as insufficient space, causing downtime.

This work dovetails with storage and back-up management to ensure increases in database transaction volumes do not compromise resilience.

Network management
Most companies have a fairly straightforward LAN/WAN architecture which requires continual management to trace problems caused by faulty equipment, wiring and other factors. A robust and supportive network is essential for e-business. The management of WAN connections to customers and business partners is of critical importance as it fundamentally affects the ability to deliver service.

Security management
Few modern organisations realise the importance of security management until it is too late. Security issues are an important factor in all areas of IT, from the location of physical systems to database connections, software user profiles and public-facing connections such as the Internet.

Security matters include ensuring unauthorised access to data is prevented and that data is not corrupted through misuse or virus infection.

Our service takes a proactive approach to security, positively identifying every location in the enterprise where a potential breach could take place. For each area a policy is agreed with your board and management team and subsequently enforced on an ongoing basis, with instances of actual or suspected breaches being communicated swiftly.

Communications management
As the worlds of voice and data communication begin to merge against a backdrop of unprecedented incentives from network providers, the importance of managing external communications and aligning them with the changing requirements of the business increases.

ECC will monitor expenditure on such connections on an ongoing basis, as well as keeping abreast of developments in the communications marketplace.

Software management
From a legal standpoint this is probably one of the most important services of all. It ensures that software products in use within the enterprise are appropriately licensed, that proof of such licensing is both available and documented, and that policies are both established and managed to ensure this position is not compromised.

To eliminate unnecessary costs brought about by 'upgrade fever', ongoing recommendations are made regarding upgrade requirements, substantiated by cost and/or business justifications.