What you get for the monthly fee, what an IT support contract should say, what drives the price and when you do not need a subscription.
How to compare offers, what must be written down and when you do not need a subscription at all.
Your company has computers, printers, a network, email, and often a server or cloud services. Someone has to look after them. There are three options: your own IT employee, an outside company you call when something breaks and pay by the hour, or an outside company on a monthly subscription.
With a subscription you pay the same amount every month. It covers an agreed scope: number of devices, users and systems. In return you get help when there is a problem, plus work you do not see: updates, backup checks, disk and service monitoring, renewing certificates before they expire.
That invisible work is the difference. When you pay by the hour, nobody looks at your systems until something breaks.
| Subscription | Hourly | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | A known amount every month | Different every month, higher after a serious problem |
| Maintenance | Included: updates, backups, monitoring | Usually none unless ordered separately |
| Response | Agreed response time | When someone is free |
| Knowing your setup | One team knows your systems | Often a different person each time |
| Best for | Companies where work stops without computers | Very few devices and rare problems |
Two offers at the same price can cover very different things. Before you sign, check that the contract clearly answers these questions:
The price depends mainly on the number of devices and users, whether there are servers and how fast a response you need. On-site visits and round-the-clock coverage also count.
For reference, our current plans:
Up to 50 devices, 24/7 monitoring, on-site visits for more complex problems.
€319.20 per month
Current prices and all services are in the IT services calculator.
If you have two or three computers, work mostly in cloud services and problems are rare, paying by the hour or for a one-off service will probably cost less. A subscription makes sense when a stopped computer, server or mailbox stops people from working and that costs money.
A simple test: work out what your last serious problem cost, including lost working time. If it is more than a few monthly fees, the subscription pays for itself.
Measured by the monthly report: when each request was opened and when it was solved
How we do it: every request goes into a ticket system with a deadline
Measured by the number of urgent requests before and after support starts
How we do it: we monitor disks, services and backups and update on a schedule
Measured by an up-to-date list of equipment, access and the network diagram
How we do it: we document every change we make
It depends on the number of devices, servers and the response time. Our plans start at €103.20 per month for an office with up to 10 devices.
With a subscription you pay a fixed amount and also get maintenance: updates, backups and monitoring. Paying by the hour, you pay only when something breaks.
It depends on the plan. Most requests are solved remotely, and the larger plans include on-site visits for more complex problems.
They are yours. This should be written in the contract, together with how the work is handed over to whoever supports the systems next.
Yes, if work stops when a computer or mailbox fails. If problems are rare, paying by the hour or for a one-off service may cost less.
We look at what you have and tell you which plan fits, or whether you need a subscription at all.
Head of IT Infrastructure & Security at Network Technology.
