Most managed IT contracts use one of two billing models: time-and-materials (T&M) or flat-rate. We pick flat-rate every time, and here's why.
The T&M trap
T&M sounds fair: you pay only for what you use. But it creates a perverse incentive — the provider makes more money when things break. Bigger ticket queues mean bigger invoices.
It also makes IT spend impossible to forecast. You'll have a $1,800 month, then a $14,000 month after a server fails. Try explaining that variance to your CFO.
How flat-rate works
We scope a flat monthly fee based on the size and complexity of your environment: number of endpoints, servers, sites, and users. Once contracted, that fee covers everything in scope — monitoring, support, patching, security stack, even the occasional 2am page.
The math works because:
- We're incentivized to prevent issues, not bill for them
- Ticket volume normalizes across our client base
- We invest in automation that drops our cost without changing yours
What's not included
Hardware purchases, third-party licenses, project work outside the operating scope, and after-hours work for things you should have planned for in business hours. Those are quoted separately, with written estimates before we start.
When flat-rate doesn't make sense
If you're a 5-person team with simple needs, T&M might be cheaper. We'll tell you that — we're not interested in pushing you into a contract that doesn't fit. Below 15-20 users with no servers and no compliance overhead, you can probably get by with on-demand support.
Above that threshold, flat-rate wins almost every time.