Do I need anything special to get connected?
No.  Because our goal is for you to work from anywhere, we have adopted a "thin client" approach meaning that all the applications, files and emails you use in your day to day business are held in our secure data centre.  You simply need a PC of almost any age with anti virus protection, an Internet connection protected with a firewall and that's it!

What is the minimum spec hardware I need?
Once you are connected into Road to Work, your PC turns into a "dumb terminal" and does no processing whatsoever; consequently the spec is really not important.  Even a Pentium 2 would work fine providing it can access the Internet.

What happens to our data?
All clients are given secure partitions on the server which are private and visible to them and only them.  The same applies to email, which is provided by Microsoft Outlook and also over the mobile via ActiveSync Technology.

What happens if we fall out?
Your data is yours and the contract clearly states this.  In addition to our routine disaster recovery, we also offer a regular client backup service to DVD or tape depending on the size, and this can be couriered to you as regularly as you wish. 

How secure are you?
All user passwords to logon to the platform are highly secure requiring at least 6 characters, have not been used in the previous 20 occasions, do not contain your account or full name and contain at least three of the following four character groups:
English uppercase characters (A through to Z);
English lowercase characters (a through to z);
Numerals (0 through to 9);
Non-alphabetic characters (such as !, $, #, %)

In addition to the credentials set above, we also offer the RSA encryption security fobs for added security.  To use this, you would have a key ring type fob which has a six or eight digit number on it which changes every minute.  This number would also need to be entered to unlock the system and allow you clearance.

The firewalls we use are from Fortinet who they are one of the leading security businesses in the marketplace and highly respected.  They have undergone and passed the utmost security testing regimes for Governments and other public bodies.

What software can we use on Road to Work?
As a standard, we provide access to the majority of Microsoft applications, Adobe Acrobat Reader and Cute PDF Writer.  If you would like to use applications such as Sage accounting or ACT, or BlackBerry, we can also accommodate these but would need to understand your requirements further.  The pricing model is determined by what products you subscribe to.

We have some proprietary software that we want loading, can you handle this?
Yes, of course.  Providing it is compatible with the system, we will load it onto a server and away you go!  We can confirm to you about its compatibility almost immediately.

Is there a limit to the amount of data I can store?
Yes and no!  By default you will be allocated 256Mb for emails and 256Mb for files, so 512Mb per person.  If you would like more space, this can be purchased as an extra.

What is the contract period?
You can cancel the contract and walk away whenever you wish by giving just 3 months notice at any time.

What is the lead time for us to be up and running?
We can have you setup within 4 hours from your order form being received.  The longest delay will be "re-pointing" your domain MX email records to Road to Work.    This can take as little as an hour if you have not yet registered a domain, or up to 48 hours for existing domains. 

I do not want to transfer my domain name to you?
Not a problem!  We simply need your webmaster to make a change to the email records which will direct them to us.  The "re-pointing" required will not affect any other services and the domain will remain exactly where it is.

What support do you include as part of the service?
Full technical support is offered from the point of connecting to Road to Work.  We do not offer "user" related support or technical support outside of the platform.  For example, if you are getting a bounce back on an email you are trying to send, this would be covered.  If you wanted help with a mail merge in Word, or help connecting your laptop to a wireless hotspot at the airport, this would be outside the scope and not covered within the contract.  We do however offer user support as an additional service, so if you're interested in an "all encompassing" contract, please ask for further details.

How much does this service cost?
The service has an ongoing monthly charge which debits your account by standing order on the 1st working day of the month, and also an initial setup fee.

It must be cheaper putting in a server and maintaining it ourselves?
We would suggest this is not the case! 
Not only are the ongoing costs less than maintaining your own network in-house, but the capital costs are significantly less.

Additionally, the time will come when the in-house equipment will all need upgrading.  With Road to Work, all hardware and software upgrades are included in your ongoing fee.

What now - can we have a free trial?
We understand in many instances, that the concept of Road to Work is intriguing and we hear from many prospective customers quotes such as "if it works, it sounds ideal and exactly what we need".  Well, if that's you, why not try it out? 

Trial accounts are active for two weeks, and we would welcome you to give it a go!

What are the pitfalls as it sounds too good to be true?  Why don't ALL businesses adopt this approach?!

• Some businesses have many "proprietary" applications they rely on that are not compatible with the "thin client" approach we use at roadtowork.com.  In this example, the business has no option but to continue using their in-house equipment.
• Some users run very graphics hungry applications such as designers working with Adobe or AutoCAD.  Graphics can slow down the performance and make the user experience noticeably different to what it would be if the server was located locally onsite.  Again this example, the business is far better off working locally on these applications and may therefore decide to continue using their in-house equipment.  If you only have a small number of users needing access to proprietary applications, and are still interested in us managing your core infrastructure, we can easily implement a mixed environment with some users running certain applications locally whilst the remainder are accessed via the roadtowork.com platform.
• You may be concerned about confidentiality or the security of your data being hosted by us.  As mentioned elsewhere, there is no need to be concerned, and we can offer you a regular backup service of your data whenever you want by courier should you require it, and after all, wouldn't you prefer your data to be offsite in a professionally managed datacentre used by the likes of Microsoft, Google, T-Mobile giving you an instant disaster recovery platform?
• Some businesses simply don't get it!!  If you analyse the cost of installing your own server for 5 users and maintaining it, you will think the costs come out roughly the same.  What people fail to realise is that with roadtowork.com, our fee:
  • is a monthly fee, so no up front costs and more like a rental model, so projecting cashflow is easy as you know your exact IT costs every month;
  • includes the very best hardware configured in a way few businesses would consider affording on their own;
  • provides you with all hardware built for ultimate redundancy with dual power supplies, network cards, RAID cards and so on;
  • includes all software upgrades, so you will never have to worry about that again!
  • means you will never have to pay for expensive upgrade work, office moves, software or hardware failures:  it is all inclusive.

See the following table for an example of the costs for a typical 5 user business on roadtowork.com compared to the costs associated with setting up a network internally.  Even if you have your own network in place already, given all the benefits of hosting data offsite coupled with the superior service and equipment offered by roadtowork.com, it is clear there is only one winner!