These FAQs answer some common questions about who we are and how we operate. We want you to be totally confident before contacting us that we’re just what your business needs.
Our goal is to develop a mutually beneficial partnership with all our customers.
Your success is our success.
We have always tried to avoid per-hour billing, in favour of a fixed cost for a defined project specification.
Our Helpdesk service operates on an unlimited remote support basis, with the price set according to the number of users within your business. If a problem arises with an existing user, device or system, it will be put right inclusively in your contract with no additional labour charges – no matter how long it takes.
This incentivises us to maintain your systems, keeping downtime and niggles to a minimum. In return, you are guaranteed a fast response to any problems which do unavoidably crop up (courtesy of our broad team of engineers), ensuring your staff and business remains on-task and as productive as possible.
Configuration work involving new staff, new devices and new systems is chargeable at a fixed price, by quotation, in addition to your support contact. This is simply because we cannot influence the changing dynamics of your business. We can however influence reliability, which is why we offer unlimited remote support for all existing systems as standard.
Support prices are £38 + VAT per user per month and our guideline day rate for project work is £600 + VAT, but all projects are costed on a fixed-price basis so we shoulder the risk in terms of the time required to complete.
Absolutely not.
If you are a new business customer with IT requirements which correspond with our service offering, we will gladly send an engineer to you for a free initial system audit, consultation and written proposal with quotation.
There’s no hard sell, no obligation and we won’t hassle you forevermore with sales calls – we may just follow up a handful of times if we don’t hear back from you, one way or the other.
Absolutely yes.
Our specialism is Apple hardware, but Apple kit does not operate in a bubble. No business or individual can use Apple equipment without good network infrastructure, peripherals and software to meet their needs.
Likewise, many businesses have specific software requirements which can only be served by a Windows PC or equivalent.
Our team of engineers have a diverse range of skills across multiple vendors and manufacturers. Although the majority of our client base use Macs, almost every one of our clients has one or more Windows PCs somewhere in the environment. Many of our clients use Macs within in a wider Windows Server environment, such as schools or design sub-teams in larger organisations.
We of course have to support all makes of printer, scanner and commonly used peripherals.
So – we are the Apple specialists, but in many cases our clients have found Purple to be uniquely positioned as the IT provider who isn’t afraid to say “yes, we can” when complex requirements arise. We have often been approached by new clients whose existing provider refuses to reach beyond their comfort zone and put the business’ needs before their own.
If this sounds familiar, give us a call.
Historically, Macs were the domain of designers. Nowadays, the Mac, iPhone and iPad have a large market share and we have clients in a hugely diverse range of industries.
We have multiple clients in each of the following industries, making Purple uniquely placed to make the best possible recommendations to your specific business – chances are we’ve seen it before, and we understand your needs based on our experience with similar clients:
Many of our clients choose Apple products for their back-office and administrative functions, due to the low cost of ownership.
The hardware may be expensive, but residual values are exceptionally high and the vast reduction in downtime compared with the Windows environment (think viruses, malware, maintenance, updates) is highly tangible for most businesses using Apple hardware.
We have regional ‘hubs’ in Southampton, Reading, Bristol and Exeter.
Our engineers are located across the South and variously work from home, client sites or our regional offices. We also have an engineer in Toronto, Canada providing us with extended working hours during the week into the evenings.
The systems we use are entirely geared for collaborative remote working. This allows us to position a range of experienced engineers across the South and near to our clients, but also enjoy the benefits of a virtual ‘central office’ where we can collaborate on the helpdesk, project management and administrative parts of the business.
Unfortunately not – the nature of Purple is that our engineers are on the road almost every day, so our office / helpdesk operation will change location daily depending on who is booked to go where.
Our regional hubs in Southampton, Exeter, Bristol and Reading are all Regus office facilities where we can gladly meet you by appointment, but mostly we will visit you directly at your place of work or at home.
We currently offer support during standard working hours Monday to Friday, with some exceptions.
We do operate an out-of-hours service several days a week by appointment, where we can complete more fiddly or disruptive maintenance and troubleshooting tasks. Our job is to keep you productive, so this is a great way to ensure that more time-consuming issues can be dealt with outside of regular working hours – particularly if we need to conduct extensive testing on one or more of your staff workstations.
Customers requiring extended support hours are encouraged to call us to discuss their exact requirements, as arrangements can be made to accommodate. A bespoke support package can be proposed to cover your needs including a keyholder service for weekend support emergencies.
For existing clients we recommend emailing help@purplecomputing.com to raise a ticket, or call us on 0845 565 1021 if you are unable to email.
For new clients we recommend picking your nearest location on our Contact Pages and you can either call, email or fill out the enquiry form.
Accounts queries can be sent to accounts@purplecomputing.com
We currently have a team of 7 core staff directly delivering our service, plus some additional partners who provide us with marketing and finance, accountancy and payroll services.
New customers enter into a 24 month contract and we fix our prices over this period, dropping to a 12 month rolling contract thereafter.
Project work is quoted separately with no minimum terms applicable.
If you like what we’re about, give us a call or send us an email today with your requirements. We’ll look forward to speaking with you.
Got some more questions? We’ll be very glad to answer them and post them to the FAQs list, just send us an email or give us a call to discuss.
When we solve a support ticket, clients are given the choice of leaving good or bad feedback along with an optional comment. We post the 10 most recent comments here automatically and in real-time. You can view even more on our reviews page.
| Date | Name | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 12th | Sue T | Excellent service, always prompt and a clear resolution. |
| Jan 11th | Amanda H | Thanks. I seen to have saved it as 9 rather than 3 MB, which we think is ok and at least makes it easy to send by email. Amanda |
| Jan 8th | Zoe | Very quick and helpful service! Thank you |
| Jan 6th | Denise S | Great service, quick and prompt. Thank you |
| Dec 18th | Pedro M | 5 stars service! Very helpful, knowledgeable and friendly. |
| Dec 18th | Pedro M | 5 stars service! Very helpful, knowledgeble and friendly. |
| Dec 14th | David R | I cannot speak highly enough of James and Purple. He walked me through what I needed to do online, I did it and it worked. The highest service level I have come across for a long time. Thank you. Should I need to, I would return instantly. Regards, David |
| Dec 4th | Sally & | Very quick and clear - thank you again! |
| Dec 4th | Christina D | once again very prompt response for which I am hugely grateful. Thank you |
| Dec 2nd | Helen B | Always so helpful - very grateful to have Purple at the end of the phone/email especially in WFH times! |
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