IT support contracts are usually somewhat customized to each company based on their infrastructure, support requirements, and platforms they use. However, there are some basic elements that these contracts are usually composed of. We will discuss the elements that make up the IT support contract below.
Building Blocks
The number of users, workstations, and servers is usually the building blocks of any IT support contract. This price usually includes all of the monitoring, cybersecurity protections, and management (labor) costs rolled into a price that is sold either per workstation, per server, per user, or a combination of all of the above. Some companies will sell their contracts solely as per user, meaning you pay based on the number of employees you have regardless of the number of computers you have. On a strict per user basis, we see pricing varies from anywhere from $50 to above $200 per user per month. Some companies sell their service strictly on a per endpoint basis (although we see less and less) where you pay strictly based on how many computers you have. The price for these types of contracts is usually in the same range, $50 to north of $200 per device per month. Plus 1 Technology prices their services as a mix of the two, meaning we have a price for each user and a price for each workstation or server your company has. We do this because different companies may have many computers with less users or have many users with less computers and we want our costs to be tied to how each company functions. Our pricing for computers is in the range of $26- $30 coupled with a user price that ranges from $50 – $140 depending on the number of employees.
You may ask why there is such a disparity in the costs listed above. This is because of a variety of factors such as what is included in the price. Some companies offer more robust cyber security solutions than others and some companies may offer different levels of support in their contracts. There is also regional disparity as with everything else you buy. Computer support in San Fransico will be more expensive than IT support in the rural Midwest towns.
Cloud Subscriptions
The next component of your IT support contract will be your cloud subscriptions. Who are you using for email or your productivity apps. Are you using Microsoft or Google Workspace. These costs are much more closely aligned across IT support companies. I would say 90% of IT support companies out there will be within 10% of the list price of a subscription. At Plus 1 Technology we only support companies using the Microsoft subscriptions and we charge Microsoft advertised rates for subscriptions. These subscriptions range from $2/user to $60/user depending on the needs of the user. We do see the standard office worker pricing coming in between $12.50 and $30.
Cloud Infrastructure
Does your company have any servers in the cloud? If not, this section doesn’t apply to you! If your company hosts any cloud servers there will be ongoing consumption charges for these servers. While the pricing for the consumption usage of these resources is uniform (at least on the cost side). Configurations of cloud servers vary widely and how one company does things may not be the same way another does, and this can result in large pricing differences. At Plus 1 Technology we run every cloud server we assume through a variety of assessments to assure that it is configured to maximize productivity, efficiency, and cost. Plus 1 Technology has been around since the “cloud” started so we aren’t just figuring it out or implementing the “easy” thing but implementing the best and most cost-efficient solution for your business.
Backup
Backup is critical to every organization, even if you are in the cloud! 10 years ago many organizations were backing up every workstation and server. With the advent of cloud storage more and more companies are backing up less physical equipment and switching to backing up cloud resources instead. The great news is that backing up cloud infrastructure is usually much less expensive than backing up physical computers. To backup your 365 users (Files, Emails, and Teams) it is usually less than $5/month. For the workstations and servers that you still need to backup that may contain accounting or other on-premise software (I’m looking at you QuickBooks Desktop) the pricing can vary a little. The variability in backup pricing usually comes down to your risk tolerance. How long can you be without that data? If you didn’t have access to that resource for an hour, 5 hours, a day, 2 days, or even a week what would it cost your company? For just an offsite data backup for 1TB of data on workstation you would probably see pricing around $15-$30/month. For servers with 1TB that pricing is usually anywhere $50-$125/month. If you need to have essentially a standby device that could be turned on in a matter of minutes/hours with a copy of your data those prices would increase 3-5x any may require the purchase or hardware.
Labor
Another variable when it comes to pricing is what is included in your IT support contract. Most IT vendors, including Plus 1 Technology, typically incorporate most support or labor costs into the contract. This means you aren’t getting an invoice for every time Mary Sue clicks on a cat video with a malicious link. Things that may or may not fall outside of your contract are setting up new equipment, onsite service, after-hours or working with your third-party software vendors. Plus 1 Technology includes all help desk support except those conditions listed above. We do this because those labor items above are much harder to predict and we don’t want to include their costs for everyone if it isn’t something they would use. Some companies may not replace a computer each year or require any onsite assistance so we don’t want to have to assume you will need those things when you may not.
Other Considerations
Other items that may be included in your IT support contract are compliance services, VCISO, VCIO, or support for a specialized software package you may use. There isn’t an easy way to make an average of these costs. They will vary greatly between different industries and company sizes. These also usually require a conversation to understand the true scope of the services and what is and what is not included and how it is sold.
The above gives you some basic parameters about how IT support contracts are priced. If you want to get a no obligation IT estimate complete the below form and receive your estimate via email within 24 hours.