If your business uses Reliance See-Through Managed Technologies don't call them computer geeks.

"We are not geeks, we don't speak geek, and we are not trying to be geeks," says Ricardo Chisholm, who set up the business in Cambridge, with brother Damian and business partner Jarrod Dowd, in November.

"There's nothing worse than some technobabble guy coming in and telling you what's gone wrong. We just speak layman's English."

The trio, who have employed two others, provide remote preventative IT maintenance after partnering with Canadian software developer N-able Technologies which featured in the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 last year.

"The software polls the client's system every few minutes to ask if everything is okay," Mr Dowd said.

It enables Reliance to fix faults before they become a problem, sometimes without the customer even knowing.

Reliance is the only New Zealand firm to use the N-able software although it is widespread in Canada and the UK. It offers small business those with only a handful of computers 24-hour IT support without clients having to employ an IT technician.

"As soon as the IT guy comes in they think it is going to cost them thousands, but that's not what we are about," Mr Dowd said. "We can provide the same, or similar service, at a fraction of the cost."

Monitoring costs $20 a month per computer, with a monthly $300 charge for server monitoring which, Mr Dowd said, could be money well spent if a crashed computer system meant goods were delivered late or a large order placed in jeopardy.

"You have got to weigh it up," Mr Dowd said.

Reliance signed up two clients before Christmas and Mr Dowd said there were another half-dozen poised to sign. Reliance doesn't have any lofty goals for its first trading year with the biggest challenge, Mr Dowd said, changing business attitudes to computers. Most people wait until the