Managed Service Contract Charges

[mcjack]

I am having very hard time deciding how much to charge or quote for managed service. Could some one please guide me or suggest me what to do or what you would charge on the following environment on weekly/monthly basis:
1 SBS 08 Server + 1 Terminal Server + 7 client computers + 2 Network Printers
a) if unlimited remote support agreement how much to charge?
b) if unlimited remote + 2 hours onsite if required?
c) If unlimited full support (remote and onsite)?
Based on your experience what response time would be ideal?

Thank you.

[bkendall]

This book (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0978894308?ie=UTF8&tag=bradkendallca-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0978894308) has excellent information on pricing managed services and just about everything else you would like to know about running a managed services practice.

In my experience, you need to offer unlimited onsite support to entice the client and demonstrate your confidence in your services. It is very rare that you will actually need to go onsite if you have some good network monitoring software and remote support software. Another handy trick to reduce onsite visits is to require the client to have a spare computer onsite that is ready to go incase of a hardware failure.

As for pricing, I usually like to charge $350 / month for servers, $80 / month for workstations and about $15 / month for printers. I then usually add or subtract a bit of money from that depending how annoying or low maintenance a customer is.

Response times for us usually work out to the following:

1 hour - all users affected.
2 hours - >50% users affected.
4 hours - > 25% users affected.
24 hours - one user affected


Brad Kendall
www.bradkendall.ca
bkendall@ccrtech.ca

[mcjack]

Thank you Brad. You are very helpful and loved your GFIMax Vs Labtech blog. Thank you. I like reading everybit of your posts.