Why choose Arden over a local support company?
The fact is that many companies oversell themselves by claiming expertise in far-flung fields in which they have none. This is what we call the "All things to all people" approach and tends to produce uneven results - if any at all. If you do locate a company that seems to have real skills and experience in a field, you will find that the demands for their legitimate services are such that any one of the following scenarios might occur:

Local Support Scenarios:

• In the midst of your 12-month contract with a support company, their sole staff member with Internet experience leaves and you remain contractually bound.
• Your local support company's consultant has been trained to bill clients by the hour - and the hours are adding up as he daily "discovers" more problems.
• This same consultant, trained to maximize his billing time, will be spread thinly over a number of other jobs and thus be tempted to cut corners and skim over details.

Facts - Arden Support:

• Arden Support Services Division is entirely committed to the Internet support business. To that end, we have staff redundancy plans, regular training programs and, if required, offer support around the clock.
• Depending on where you are, Arden's rates often come in at as little as 25% of a local consultant's costs.
• This is what Arden does - we are experts in Internet and Intranet Support Services. Experience has refined our skills and taught us the value of attention to detail, thorough documentation and long range planning - we pass all of this on to you, the client.
• We are always in touch and always reachable. Whatever the project we will keep you informed with weekly reports and our On-Line Support System is an easily accessible source for answers.

How can Arden support us when it is a million miles away?
Our in-house resources - our staff and our systems - will ensure that no matter where your company is based Arden will be able to provide virtual support in the same, or less time that a local company could. Via system replication and thorough planning, Arden can get a crashed system back on-line, ensure daily back-ups are made and equip your staff with all of the tools needed to rebuild a system.

How can we monitor Arden's activity and progress?
Documentation is paramount at Arden. We provide weekly project reports to every client that logically layout our progress for the week. In addition, as both the Internet and Intranet are essentially transparent systems, you will generally be able to chart our efforts and progress on-line and in real time.

In addition to the weekly reports, all Arden clients also have access to the Arden database system where daily site reports are stored. Please check our "Arden Demo" for more details.

Can Arden provide us with on-site services as well?
Arden offers both on-site and offshore support services according to your needs. Though we try to maximize our offshore work in the interest of saving you time and money, we can also have Arden consultants available on-site if required. In addition to Arden's own staff, in many cities we can also provide on-site support via our network of Local Partners. All Arden Partner firms have been thoroughly reviewed by Arden's technical and management staff to ensure that they match and maintain Arden's own high quality standards. We conduct regular assessments of their performance and guarantee that we will oversee their work from start to finish.

Exactly what services does Arden's offshore facility offer?
Arden is lucky to have a broadly talented team of system support professionals - some of their areas of expertise include:

• Monitoring of Bandwidth, ISP and Server Performance
• Firewall/Security Management and Auditing
• Modifications to System Software
• OS and Software Upgrades
• Modification to DNS, Mail and other software

What qualifications does Arden require of its support staff?
Arden believes that a company's first strength is its people and has gone to great lengths to ensure that the Arden Team represents some of the best professionals in their respective fields. Pre-requisites for our support service staff include:

• A Bachelor's Degree MCSE (obtained or in the process of)
• Cisco Certification
• A minimum 2 years experience in the Networking and Internet fields
• A commitment to quality and to maintaining Arden standards