When you are looking for business IT support, you can find various types of contracts and agreements. You could just decide to Pay As You Go (break/fix) basis, pay in advance for blocks of hours, or choose a fixed price IT support contract which includes the majority, if not all, the things your business will need on a monthly basis.
The biggest benefit of a fixed price model, is that you know exactly how much your IT support costs will be each month. This is great for cash flow and essentially your IT costs just become another commodity – just like paying your rent, electricity and insurance. But there are some other major benefits that you may not have realised.
1 A fixed price IT support contract can cost you less
Paying for IT support on a break/fix model is a total unknown cost to your business. You cannot plan for the costs, because you don’t know what your usage will be in the future. Ad-hoc support often results in unexpected invoices that are way above the all-inclusive options. Ensuring you have the right contract in place can save you a lot of money. Who likes to receive unexpected bills?
2 Your IT company has to work harder
When an IT support company charges a fixed fee, it is in their interest to ensure your systems are running at their very best. There is nothing to be gained from a customer having IT issues – in fact the opposite is true; they can lose money if a customer has lots of IT problems. Because of this, most IT companies will perform pro-active monitoring and maintenance to keep your systems healthy.
3 You should have less downtime
As mentioned above, monitoring and maintenance is a feature of most fixed price IT support contracts. Things like hard drive space, server errors, and performance issues are typically monitored. This allows the IT company to react to small issues before they become a big problem – saving you time and money because your systems stay online.
4 You only have a single invoice to deal with
OK, it’s a minor benefit. But rather than multiple invoices for everything they do, a fixed price agreement only sends a single monthly invoice. That means less things for your accounts department to deal with. Many providers will also collect fees via Direct Debit, so you don’t even need to worry about paying the bill.
5 95% of issues are dealt with remotely
Rather than having to make an appointment to visit your premises, IT technicians can remotely access your systems. This can include carrying out maintenance tasks or working on faults. How does this benefit you? You don’t need to schedule an appointment, which takes time out of your day. You also don’t need to find something else to do while there is an IT technician sitting in your office stopping you from working. A good IT support company utilises support tools that can perform many tasks in the background – even while you are still using your computer. It’s like stealth IT!
m3 Networks is an IT support provider based in Perth, Scotland.
We provide fixed cost IT support, enabling your business to focus on what it does best.
Call 01738 237001.
