Frequently asked questions about IT services.
Intervention times, what the subscription covers, who does the work, how the handover runs. We answer with figures and contractual terms.
The company and the team.
How long have you been running IT for companies?
HQ was founded in Bucharest in 2004, and we have managed company IT infrastructure for over 20 years. We work with organizations in Romania and with the local offices of international groups. Some clients have worked with us since 2008, 2010, and 2012, and these longstanding relationships reflect our experience and the continuity of our services.
Who does the work, your own team or subcontractors?
Remote support, monitoring and administration are handled by the HQ team. On site, in Bucharest and the surrounding area we come with our own people, and elsewhere in the country we work with local partners we have vetted and coordinate directly. The procedure and the standard stay ours, and so does responsibility for the result.
What certifications does the team hold?
Our specialists hold ITIL v4 Foundation, Fortinet NSE 4, Microsoft 365 Fundamentals, CompTIA ITF+, CompTIA A+, Bitdefender GravityZone Technical Solutions, TP-Link Omada Certified Network Administrator (OCNA), and Ubiquiti UniFi certifications, as well as certifications for HPE, Lenovo, and Dell hardware infrastructure. The team also has expertise in Microsoft, Google, Cisco, VMware, Proxmox, Linux, Acronis, Fortinet, and Veeam technologies and solutions.
What references can you provide?
On our website, we feature our clients and some of their recommendations. Our longstanding relationships include Innobyte, a client since 2008, Alfa Laval since 2010, Polon-Alfa since 2012, and Beijer Ref, with whom we have worked for over 8 years.
What we administer.
What does your administration cover?
We administer Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace accounts and licenses, physical and virtual servers (Windows and Linux), network equipment, workstations, printers, data storage systems (NAS and other storage), backup, and antivirus solutions. Managed servers and workstations have a remote monitoring and management (RMM) agent installed, which continuously reports on their status and operation. As part of IT administration, we apply cybersecurity measures including system updates, endpoint protection, access management, multifactor authentication (MFA), and infrastructure monitoring, alongside other specific measures.
Do you work with cloud infrastructure?
Yes. We administer public cloud infrastructure, including Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud, as well as private cloud infrastructure hosted on our own infrastructure or in third-party data centers. We can also manage hybrid infrastructure, where on-premise and cloud resources are integrated into a single IT environment.
Do you handle equipment procurement?
Yes. At the audit we inventory what you have and tell you what works and what needs replacing. If you want to avoid large capital outlays (CAPEX), we can supply the equipment on a monthly subscription (Hardware as a Service): a notebook from 20 €, a printer or multifunction from 20 €, network equipment from 20 €.
Do you help with new implementations and upgrades?
Yes. We support new projects and upgrades to existing infrastructure, from analysis and planning through to migration and implementation. We can work on a project separately or include it in the IT administration contract.
Intervention times and coverage.
What response times do you guarantee?
We contractually guarantee an intervention time of no more than 1 hour for critical incidents and 4 hours for other requests. These deadlines are the same for every service package and are set out in the service-level agreement (SLA). In practice, the average intervention time is about 25 minutes, and a ticket is resolved in about 48 minutes on average.
Does monitoring run outside business hours?
Monitoring runs 24/7 on every managed device. Equipment reports its state continuously, and a share of faults are fixed remotely before the working day starts.
Are interventions unlimited?
Yes. Interventions are part of the monthly subscription, remote or at your office, with no hourly billing and no cap on requests.
Do we work with the same people every time?
Yes. Your requests reach the same specialists, who already know your setup. We document the configuration and the history of every intervention, so continuity does not depend on one person remembering.
Do you cover offices in other cities?
Yes, coverage is nationwide. Remote support reaches anywhere in the country, and for on-site work we travel with our own team and through our network of local partners. The contractual times stay the same for every location.
Security and continuity.
Is endpoint protection part of the subscription?
The Security package, at 45 € per user per month, includes access control, workstation protection, and automatic response to attacks. The Enterprise package, at 55 € per user per month, includes rules to identify sensitive information and limit how it is shared through email and cloud files. Both packages include IT support and administration, preventive maintenance, and 24/7 monitoring.
How do we know a backup can actually be restored?
We run scheduled test restores and document the result of each one. An untested backup stays an assumption; we confirm the data is intact before a real restore is ever needed.
What happens if the main office becomes unavailable?
Data replicated to the cloud stays reachable whatever the state of the office. Recovery follows the plan agreed at implementation, with intervention beginning within the contractual deadlines (SLA).
How the engagement starts.
How does the handover run?
We start with an audit of the current infrastructure, move on to a plan, and take over administration gradually, without interrupting your team. We install monitoring agents on managed servers and workstations and organize access, and the first month begins with a clear action plan. The exact timeline comes out of the audit, because it depends on the size of the company and the state of the infrastructure.
What happens to the equipment we already own?
We take it over. At the audit we inventory everything, tell you what works and what needs an upgrade, and replacements happen gradually, at the pace and budget of the company.
Do we need to prepare anything beforehand?
No. The inventory and the priorities come out of the audit, and we organise access together with you, without interrupting your work.
Contract and pricing.
How is the price calculated?
Per user, per month. Five packages, from 25 € for User Desk, with IT support and administration, to 55 € for Enterprise, with controls for sensitive data in email and cloud files. Every package includes IT support and administration. You choose the applications and level of protection each user needs.
What is billed separately?
Infrastructure: server administration at 30 € a month, network equipment at 30 € per site, cloud backup at 30 € per 500 GB, DNS hosting and a presentation website at 10 €. Equipment we supply on subscription is also billed separately.
Is a long-term contract required?
No. The published prices apply to a 12-month commitment, but you can also work with us with no minimum term, in which case the rates are 10% higher. All prices are quoted without VAT.
Do you put intervention times in the contract?
Yes, always. Intervention times are written into the contract (SLA), alongside a clear split of responsibilities between the two parties.
We answer the questions specific to your company too.
The free audit starts from your actual infrastructure: what equipment exists, what risks are open and what running it would cost. The report is yours to keep, whatever you decide.