How IT support pricing works in Galway

If you’ve asked around, you’ll have noticed nobody gives you a straight number. That isn’t always evasion — IT support is priced on how much of your business it has to look after, and until someone knows that, any number is a guess. So instead of a guess, here’s how the pricing actually works, so you can judge any quote you get, including mine.

There are two ways to pay, and they suit different businesses

Pay as you go. Help with individual jobs, billed with a 30-minute minimum and then 15-minute increments. There is no ongoing monthly commitment. The rate and scope are agreed before work starts; on-site and remote work have different rates.

Managed support. A fixed monthly fee, and the day-to-day is covered: the printer that stopped, the new starter’s laptop, the mailbox that’s gone quiet, patching, monitoring, licences. You stop thinking about it and I don’t have to bill you for every ten minutes.

If you need occasional help with individual problems, pay as you go may suit you. If you want ongoing monitoring, maintenance and routine support, consider a managed agreement. The right choice depends on your systems, support needs and the minimum commitment, not headcount alone.

What a managed fee is actually priced on

Users. Every managed user contributes to the monthly fee. During the initial term, the managed-user line is billed on the greater of actual users or 90% of the starting count, subject to the service-level minimum. Additions are billed immediately. After the initial term, billing follows actual usage subject to that minimum.

Servers and systems. A server, a phone system, a line-of-business app like Dynamics — each is a separate thing to keep running, and each is priced as a line of its own rather than hidden in the per-user number.

Service level. Whether you want the standard cover, or direct access to the person doing the work with tighter response commitments. That’s one decision per business, not per person — I don’t classify your staff into tiers and argue about who counts as which.

What’s included, and what isn’t. Routine work is in: incidents, requests, changes to users and devices, licence admin, dealing with vendors on your behalf. Projects are out: migrations, new systems, redesigning your security or access. Anyone who tells you “everything is included” has either priced in a lot of projects you won’t need, or will surprise you later.

Why per-user is the fair model

Because you can check it. An invoice that says this many users, this many servers, at these rates is one you can verify against your own staff list. An invoice that says managed IT — monthly is one you take on trust. I bill on counts pulled from your systems, not from memory, and the counts go on the invoice so you can see where the number came from.

Why there’s a minimum

Standard managed support has a five-user billing minimum. A smaller team can take the plan if it accepts that minimum explicitly in the agreement. Advanced support retains its higher ten-user minimum and separate minimum monthly charge. For a sole trader or an office needing only occasional help, ad-hoc work may be more suitable. We explain the options before you commit.

What a term means, and what it doesn’t

A managed agreement has an initial 12-month term, then rolls month to month. The scope, service level, user commitment and notice terms are set out in the written agreement before work starts. Pay-as-you-go work has no ongoing monthly term.

The four questions to ask any IT provider (including me)

1. Is it priced per user, and will you show me the count on the invoice? If they can’t, you can’t check it.
2. What’s a project and what’s included? Get the boundary in writing before you sign, not after the first surprise invoice.
3. What are your actual hours, and what happens outside them? A provider who promises 24/7 with two staff is promising something they can’t deliver. Mine are Monday to Friday, nine to six, and I’ll often pick up outside that — but that’s goodwill, not a commitment, and I won’t pretend otherwise.
4. Who actually does the work? The person who sells you the plan and the person who answers when the email is down are often different people. With me they aren’t.

So what will it cost you?

A short conversation. Tell me how many people you have, what they’re running, and what breaks most — and you’ll get a written number, broken into lines you can check, with no obligation attached to asking. Message me on WhatsApp or ring 089 960 2794.

Frequently asked questions