Our Technology

Insol is changing the rules for Business Technology by introducing new technologies and a new approach that helps businesses lower the cost of managing networks and supporting employee productivity - making IT more efficient, more cost effective, more valuable.

These technologies, that used to be affordable only to Fortune 1000 enterprises, comprise a suite of remote monitoring, management and administration tools which enable us to drive consistent, repeatable results and maximum efficiencies. Not only can our team of expert network, systems and help desk engineers now support more users and devices, but we can also determine the current patch level of any system as well as review all recent maintenance adjustments that have been made, at a moment's notice. It is these configuration management capabilities, combined with the industry best practices methodologies we use to guide our service delivery operations, that facilitate our systematic approach to IT management.

Network Monitoring

Insol's proactive approach to network management includes remote monitoring of your critical systems and devices to allow early warning of service outages and potential failures. These advanced diagnostic tools, previously available to only large Fortune 1000 corporations, allow Insol or your IT Manager reduce downtime by providing immediate notification of system anomalies so that they can addressed before they cause more severe issues.

Our services go beyond just checking if your server or network is functioning or not. We also monitor each device's services, ports, resources and events. This allows us to identify problematic trends, such as peaked CPU or memory utilization, before they cause your systems to go down. And when a system or device does fail, Insol is instantly alerted and frequently resolves the issue before you even notice!

Alerts are delivered in real time to a PDA, cell phone, email or pager. Insol's Client Web Portal tracks device and application availability and response times to assist you in holding your service providers accountable. These metrics also provide leading indicators for capacity planning and resource management.

In addition to the Device Dashboard that shows the status of each system or network device - Insol provides weekly, monthly and annual averages for outages and utilization. These indicators help you to determine when you are reaching the critical limits of your existing systems and where you have achieved your desired performance gradients.

By establishing this complex monitoring backbone within our eNOC, Insol has been able to offer our clients an alternative to individually investing the considerable time and expense into building their own infrastructure management solutions and training their IT resources to manage and maintain these systems.

Network Management and System Administration

At Insol we utilize advanced remote network management and system administration technology to manage and expedite our maintenance activities. Through our VPN connection into your network, we can utilize a variety of software tools to navigate through your server files and configurations and make any necessary changes. Our security event log monitor and network security scanner alert us to the vulnerabilities that emerge within your systems such as missing security patches, open shares, open ports, services/applications active on the computer, key registry entries, weak passwords, users and groups, and more.

For the most routine functions such as patches and security updates, Insol employs a SUS (Software Update Services) server or Microsoft® SMS Server (System Management Server) that pushes the updates out to your systems. Our tools monitor the progress of these updates and report on successful completion or alert us to any issues that may occur to prevent a full update.

We determine that your system needs to be patched or updated using a Security Scan. During our initial setup, the information from Insol's Network Planning Evaluation is utilized to configure the scan to cover all your key IT assets and report on any changes. The scan is run daily, during off-hours so as not to affect your systems' performance, and alerts us to your update needs. Then, after the required quality control measures have been taken, we schedule the update.

The timing of updates is also carefully planned to occur during non-business hours to avoid interruption of your business operations.

Our stringent quality control methodology requires that we test every patch prior to installation in order to determine potential compatibility issues that may arise. Insol maintains test environments that mirror the major operating system installations utilized by our clients, and tests each patch, hotfix, and critical update in these environments before pushing the update to your server.

Remote User Help Desk

Insol has implemented a unique trouble ticket and scheduling system to track all end user and client issues to resolution, enable rapid and effective escalation, assign tasks to the engineer with that specific skill set and maintain a searchable knowledgebase for reporting and expediting future issue resolution.

All issues are displayed via our Client Web Portal so that you retain full visibility and control. This portal also supplies your IT department (and all your staff if using Insol's Remote User Help Desk services) with easy access to our online support system to submit a ticket or request immediate assistance via Online Chat.

In addition to the chat feature, our Help Desk engineers can also expedite immediate issue resolution by utilizing Desktop Sharing technology, whereby they can remotely view your employee's computer screens. The representative and user may also share mouse and keyboard control to either resolve the problem while the user watches or to demonstrate a step-by-step solution.

Insol's first level support engineers are selected for their precision and attention to detail, their ability to communicate effectively and personably with our clientele, and their solid breadth of technical knowledge. Some of the key skills required to join our Help Desk team include:

• Working knowledge of installation, troubleshooting and maintenance of Windows 95/98/ME, NT, 2000, XP, 2003, Novell and Macintosh desktop operating systems and server operating systems.
• Ability to read and understand common error messages contained in the various error log files for Windows, Novell and Macintosh systems
• Working knowledge of installation, troubleshooting and use of Microsoft Office applications (version 97, 2000, XP and 2003)
• Basic understanding of command line diagnostics to perform network configuration and status check (ping, tracert, ipconfig, etc.)
• Ability to perform remote management activities using VPN, FTP, Terminal Services, and other tools and methods
• Ability to detect and troubleshoot hardware and configuration issues that may cause desktops and servers to fail. These skills are consistent with the breadth of study required for A+ Certification
• User administration including setup, password reset and management, permissions, and coordination with office applications such as Microsoft Outlook profiles
• In depth experience with Internet Explorer configuration options including cookies, security, caching, toolbars, temporary files, and printing

Client Web Portal

Insol is constantly enhancing the functionality of its Client Web Portal where all Insol support clients have access to their own personalized reports, network monitoring status, and help desk access. Currently, clients can find comprehensive information about:

• Your IT systems and network
• Up-to-date reports on issues that have been logged and resolved
• History of all work performed on your network to date
• Remote Monitoring Device Dashboard
• Contract start and expiry dates and terms of coverage
• Online Site Book detailing the specific attributes and configurations of each of your covered systems and network devices. Desktops are recorded in a straight-line inventory list
• Account and contact management functions

Planned enhancements to the Client Web Portal will bring forth additional information and extend our reporting functionality, customer account management and comprehensive knowledgebase for self-service issue resolution.