For the IT Specialists.....

[Dark Prodigy]

Say you build and install a network for a small company of about 5-9 PC's. How would you guys handle the network administrator retainer? Basically after the build and install the owner wants you, in addition, to be on call to handle any problems that arise with the network, not simply the warranty on parts & workmanship (of course). What deal would you make and how much?

 

[jrdonnaruma]

Either do a monthly retainer based on a set number of hours per month, that they pay you monthly, whether work was done that month or not, or, have a retainer for a certain number of hours that they can use whenever.

 

[dbwillis]

yearly fee for the PC's @ xx per PC
another yearly fee for the server @ xx per server for
- in the server maint fee I mention to my customers that this covers the switch, battery backup, backup job status, firewall and ISP connection checkups.
Some customers of mine only go for the server maint...then they pay per incident on PC stuff, although I dont nickel and dime them, I take care of some simple stuff for free. I think I spend ~2 or 2.5 a month each going through the firewall logs and the server event logs, as well as the AV logs for most of my customers.
Ive one client with 14 pc's and another with 8 pc's, a few smaller ones, and a couple bigger ones.
Keep em happy with status and dont bombard them with alot of stuff and I find many will pay attention when you say, hey, this really needs a checkup/fix/repair/upgrade.

 

[prochobo]

Either do a monthly retainer based on a set number of hours per month, that they pay you monthly, whether work was done that month or not, or, have a retainer for a certain number of hours that they can use whenever.

This. I wouldn't do a yearly fee because that's trying to pay for things too far in advance. They could easily use and abuse you if they paid yearly.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

With a brand new client it's hard to come up a fixed rate "until you know this client more". Some offices can be..."needy"..others..you may not hear a peep from for months or a year. Depends on the business.

I have some clients I rarely hear from, I have other clients that are constantly calling me, and then there's another type of client..such as a big accounting firm...I don't hear from them for most of the year, but come October, and come Jan-April..they own my arse for constant updates to their tax software.

Adding complexity to the forumula:

*Do they expect to be able to reach you after hours (after 5pm?) Do they expect to be able to reach you during weekends?

*Do they expect you to take care of supporting their LOB package (line of business application..the big program(s) that their office runs on..doing updates, etc? Or do they handle that?

*Are you supporting remote access? Meaning, they have to remote into their office from home and do work. Caring for clients home PCs..this can certainly add a lot of time.

Overall, it's hard to come up with an answer at first, until you know this client more. To keep things fair for both sides....keep track of the time you spend doing work, and be able to present this to them. After month by month goes by, review it and see if it's fair...for both sides. In your agreement hopefully you mentioned that you'd occasionally review this and adjust accordingly upon agreement, if the monthly charge isn't reflecting the actual time spent.

Don't forget, your first few months may end up being more time spent on your end since it's a fresh setup and you're probably still tinkering and tweaking things to get to the point where you like it.

 

[SJConsultant]

We've got a few clients where we offer unlimited service for a flat monthly rate. So far it works out pretty damn well. We get to do practically anything and everything we want to keep the systems running smoothly while the client knows exactly how much their bill will be.

 

[vischo]

managed services

monthly per server, per client based on the level of services
patch management, user support, etc.

 

[jrdonnaruma]

We've got a few clients where we offer unlimited service for a flat monthly rate. So far it works out pretty damn well. We get to do practically anything and everything we want to keep the systems running smoothly while the client knows exactly how much their bill will be.

This. I do similar monthly plans, at various maintenance levels. I have a standardized maintenance package that I use with every client, for a flat fee, then the additional service they want monthly I give them. If they want to be able to call me whenever, for whatever, it costs a considerable amount, because I have to give them priority. I only allow a few clients this option. The rest of my clients get a certain number of non-scheduled maintenance visits per month, and a set number of emergency calls per month, based on what they want to pay. Any incidents above that, I charge a set rate per hour.

 

[Dark Prodigy]

These are some superb replies. But for some reason you guys are refraining from an actual monetary amount. Actually I can kind of understand why, however a "ballpark" figure would be helpful.

 

[SJConsultant]

These are some superb replies. But for some reason you guys are refraining from an actual monetary amount. Actually I can kind of understand why, however a "ballpark" figure would be helpful.

Based on the information you gave, I wouldn't dare provide a quote until we can perform our own evaluation of the network. There are too many variables that can change the price dramatically depending on the amount of work we have to put into a network to fix existing problems and maintain it.

Some of it has to do with what YOU can provide a client as the client has to perceive some kind of value from whatever you provide them. You can't bill a client $1000/month and wait around for them to call you to fix something. Well, you can, but you won't be in business very long.


Since we don't limit the number of hours worked at a client site, so our pricing has to reflect a balance of what the customer needs and our desire to remain profitable.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Cuz we don't know if your client is needy or what kind of support they want. Answers to stuff like this helps to come up with a number.

I have some clients which are needier, I'm there a couple of times a month...they'll be 1000/month. I have some clients, I can go for 4 5 even 6 months without any onsite or even a call from them...I'll do a monthly remote checkup on servers, reboot servers, check backup...they'll be like 400/month.

 

[vischo]

$60/client
$400/server

 

[Dark Prodigy]

Based on the information you gave, I wouldn't dare provide a quote until we can perform our own evaluation of the network. There are too many variables that can change the price dramatically depending on the amount of work we have to put into a network to fix existing problems and maintain it.

Some of it has to do with what YOU can provide a client as the client has to perceive some kind of value from whatever you provide them. You can't bill a client $1000/month and wait around for them to call you to fix something. Well, you can, but you won't be in business very long.


Since we don't limit the number of hours worked at a client site, so our pricing has to reflect a balance of what the customer needs and our desire to remain profitable.

Cuz we don't know if your client is needy or what kind of support they want. Answers to stuff like this helps to come up with a number.

I have some clients which are needier, I'm there a couple of times a month...they'll be 1000/month. I have some clients, I can go for 4 5 even 6 months without any onsite or even a call from them...I'll do a monthly remote checkup on servers, reboot servers, check backup...they'll be like 400/month.

You too vischo.

Very valuable advice guys. Thanks

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The bottom line is..try to imagine how much time you'll be spending each month for this client. Over a years average. Leave some buffer room. But don't go too crazy. Onsite, and after hours remotely, and over the phone.

Dunno what you're hourly rates are, most seem to be $100/hour minimum, we're $125/hour.

When walking into new potential clients...look at the hardware and the condition of things. If their existing network is in good shape, nice new computers...fast, good antivirus, you can figure you'll be spending less time. If it's a rag tag office of home built motherboard of the month cloner computers, or really old Pentium III Dells or something with 256 megs, outdated or hardly any antivirus, browsers with 11 toolbars clogging them up, a bunch of 10 year old HP Deskjet 890 printers...you can figure you'll be spending insane amounts of time there just to fix many tiny little things.

Takes time to come up with figures...pretty hard to figure out over a forum without seeing things and knowing details.

You know what can also work? Tell the client you'd like to stick to at least 6 months of just billing by the hour...that way you'll get a better feel for them and their needs and their system, and you'll be able to come up with a more fair "monthly" after at least 6 months of working with them at a hourly.

 

[swatbat]

We've got a few clients where we offer unlimited service for a flat monthly rate. So far it works out pretty damn well. We get to do practically anything and everything we want to keep the systems running smoothly while the client knows exactly how much their bill will be.

We do pretty much the same thing. Works well for both parties. We have a steady stream of income from them and they get a steady bill. Generally we will give a client a flat fee for standard issues that come up. Things like setting up a new user, installing an extra machine, etc get billed seperatly.

Cuz we don't know if your client is needy or what kind of support they want. Answers to stuff like this helps to come up with a number.

I have some clients which are needier, I'm there a couple of times a month...they'll be 1000/month. I have some clients, I can go for 4 5 even 6 months without any onsite or even a call from them...I'll do a monthly remote checkup on servers, reboot servers, check backup...they'll be like 400/month.

Depends on the clients for us but yea we are around the same on pricing. We also have clients we might see once a year. Doesn't really bother us. Some clients we might hit 5 or 6 times a month easy.

The bottom line is..try to imagine how much time you'll be spending each month for this client. Over a years average. Leave some buffer room. But don't go too crazy. Onsite, and after hours remotely, and over the phone.

Dunno what you're hourly rates are, most seem to be $100/hour minimum, we're $125/hour.

When walking into new potential clients...look at the hardware and the condition of things. If their existing network is in good shape, nice new computers...fast, good antivirus, you can figure you'll be spending less time. If it's a rag tag office of home built motherboard of the month cloner computers, or really old Pentium III Dells or something with 256 megs, outdated or hardly any antivirus, browsers with 11 toolbars clogging them up, a bunch of 10 year old HP Deskjet 890 printers...you can figure you'll be spending insane amounts of time there just to fix many tiny little things.

Takes time to come up with figures...pretty hard to figure out over a forum without seeing things and knowing details.

You know what can also work? Tell the client you'd like to stick to at least 6 months of just billing by the hour...that way you'll get a better feel for them and their needs and their system, and you'll be able to come up with a more fair "monthly" after at least 6 months of working with them at a hourly.

Generally speaking we don't even begin talking about a monthly matence package untill we have at least a good 2 or 3 months of working with the client to get an idea of what we are looking at. It depends on their setup though. I know one client that we put on matence in the first month of really supporting them. Shit was so bad we pretty much had to get them to start over. New server, switch, terminal setup for their old system 36 box that someone else supports(so the computers could hit it instead of a dumb terminal), and like either 7 or 9 new workstations. We ended up keeping like 4 "old" workstations that were pretty new. We got to set them up right so we really haven't had many issues.

 

[Adam]

We offer various packages

1) Hourly - You pay hourly as you need support
2) 1 Hour/Month - You agree (for 1 year) to pay for 1 hour a month at a reduced fee, overages are given at the reduced cost
3) 4 Hour/Month - Same concept
4) Hourly Packages w/Rollover (don't use all your hours? save them all up, costs more then the standard monthly retainers, but less then having us out there for 1 hour, but you have to pay sign a 1 year contract like the others)

Thats kinda how we do it... works pretty well.. general over the phone support is free from us up to 30 minutes (for contract inviduals) or about 15 minutes for non-contract individuals... it all varies really.

We also do set "$XX.XX per wire run" amounts, but some clients have us there so much and do a lot of business, they just pay for the wire and then hourly (2 men = billed 2 hours each hour)...

hopefully that gives you some ideas