Pre-Paid I.T. Support

Pre-paid I.T. support is a type of managed I.T. service that allows businesses to pay for I.T. support upfront for a set number of hours or services, rather than paying for support on an ad hoc basis. This approach provides businesses with cost-effective I.T. support, as they can take advantage of discounted rates and avoid unexpected costs that can arise from ad hoc support.

Pre-paid I.T. support typically includes a range of services such as remote support, on-site support, help desk support, network support, computer maintenance, data backup and recovery, and cybersecurity support. These services are often tailored to the specific needs of the business, based on the size and complexity of their I.T. infrastructure.

Pre-paid I.T. support is ideal for small and medium-sized businesses that do not have the resources to employ a full-time I.T. staff. It enables these businesses to receive professional I.T. support from experienced technicians, without having to worry about the cost of hiring and training their own I.T. staff.

Pre-paid I.T. support providers typically offer flexible service level agreements, which enable businesses to choose the level of support they require, as well as the number of hours they want to pre-pay for. This approach provides businesses with greater control over their I.T. costs, while also ensuring that they have access to reliable and timely I.T. support.

This structure will aim to solve these criteria for you, without the requirement of a support contract that would otherwise tie you in at fixed costs for long periods.

In essence, you will purchase up-front from us a block of time at a specific cost (for example, 10 hours).

With this time block, will also be a mini-SLA (Service Level Agreement) where you’ll receive a guaranteed response time for issue resolution – very similar to an actual support contract.

Once paid, this time will be active and tracked on an online cloud-based spreadsheet that you can view at any time to track your usage.

Whenever you or any staff from your company require remote support, we will be on hand to assist depending on your stated priority (high, medium, or low).

Once the support issue is resolved, the time will be marked off the total and the session will be logged on the spreadsheet.

There will be no expiration time for this pre-paid time block. You are not required to use it up within a predefined amount of time.

This time block also includes on-site time. For an on-site visit, there will be a callout fee applicable depending on traveling distance. This will be pre-defined with you prior to the arrangement.

When there is approximately 1 hour of the time block left, we will contact you to purchase another time block up-front as soon as possible to ensure continuity.

You can choose to purchase any size of time block as a follow-on block. If you’ve purchased a 10-hour block, you’re free to purchase a 5-hour block as your next block, or a larger block. Larger blocks are more favourable for the hourly cost – just something to bear in mind.

So generally, the disadvantage for pre-paid support is that you won’t receive any monitoring of hardware, no regular maintenance and no consultation to ensure strategic I.T. alignment with your business. These perks are reserved for a fixed contract.

However …

… we will provide these services to you whilst you’re in an active pre-pay time block!

For the time duration that it takes to complete your time block (whether a month or three, or longer), you will receive these services from us.

Because of your smaller business profile, you won’t require a large amount of attention that would otherwise command an unattractive monthly fixed-fee cost.

Whilst this time block is in an active state, I will provide the proactive maintenance that your few pieces of on-site hardware require, whether a server, NAS, VOIP system, WiFi Controller, remote desktop PCs, etc.

These items will also be listed on the spreadsheet, and we will keep a log of the tasks carried out so you’re aware of the ongoing maintenance.

These maintenance tasks will not be deducted from your time block. They will remain complimentary whilst you are within an active time block. If some tasks require more time than expected, then we will deduct a small amount of time from the block – but we will let you know in advance.

This will not include reactive repair in event of an unexpected failure or emergency operation – this will still be invoiceable as a project or call-out, however, the purpose of our proactive maintenance is to pre-empt disaster and keep an eye on the hardware’s status.

You will also receive advice/help/consultancy akin to a support contract – if you have questions on your I.T. workflow and want to change/improve something, we’re here to advise!

This arrangement will provide you with the security of an ongoing I.T. support contract, but in a more flexible manner where you are paying for I.T. as and when you require it. The only requirement is that the time block is paid for up-front.

And for that, you will receive perks otherwise locked off behind a fixed fee arrangement, for no extra cost or time deduction from the time block. You will receive these as a goodwill service from us for committing to the up-front purchase of the pre-paid time.

There are time blocks to suit all ranges of cashflow, and if you require a bespoke time block, please ask us and we’ll try to accommodate.