Cost for different levels of IT support

[TheAnimus]

Also its a market for lemons in a way. The market doesn't function well because the buyer often has little knowledge, this is two fold because it means they don't know how to tell a good company and a good contract, but also that their local infrastructure might not be good. Unless your buyer is responsible to the people who develop and maintain the system your going to get exploited.

tldr; if you have to ask, its not for you.

[axma55]

I think its worth considering that a good outsourcer might cost as much as the full time member of staff , but will potentially offer you a wider and more stable level of service.

Thank you. I will keep this in mind.

[Smudger]

These are 3 models I know of:
1) Onsite permanent support - Similar to what you had, but if your tech guy goes on holiday, you've got cover. Probably more than you're paying at the mo.
2) Pay-as-you go helpdesk, with onsite visits planned/as necessary. Cost per incident is high, but overall cost is low as it doesn't sound like you need a lot of support.
3) Pool of hours. You pay an up-front charge for a set amount of hours. I think this is usually £100-150 and hour, and only use the hours when you're getting support of someone is on site. This may be effective, but more so if your site is close to the provider's offices...

[scaryjim]

... The market doesn't function well because the buyer often has little knowledge, ...

This. I've worked for, and with, a number of companies who've had external support contracts, and my experience is that the vast majority were - IMNSHO - getting fleeced (that said, I know that at least one of my former clients thought I was trying to fleece them!). Most support companies basically make up their charges as they go along and it's very difficult to compare the prices between several companies (plus a lot of these companies work in small geographic localities so there often isn't as much competition as you'd expect).

I'd suggest that you might be better off talking to, or bringing in, a business adviser on a contract basis, or talking to someone like your local Business Link. They might be able to assist you with some specialist advice, and they'd certainly be able to help you run some figures, that could make it easier to identify the right option. I know it sounds counter-intuitive to spend more money, but making the right decision could well save you more money in the long term than you spend in the short term getting this decision right.

[petercook7]

Most small companies give you set hours of help with and 6 12 24 72 hour call back depends on what grade they purchased at the start, once that level of hours per week or months say 50 hours per months being part of membership grade has been reached they'll charge you the hourly rate.

We set up a company like that and sold it onto to Fujitsu, after building up a client base around London.

[axma55]

Thank you everyone for all the advice. It sounds like pricing varies a lot depending on the level of service. I guess I'll have to get to know what my IT person does a bit better, and as long as I "think" the service provider can deliver our needs at a better cost compared to the total cost of employing a full-time person (wages, tax, overhead, etc) then it might be worth pursuing.

[Smudger]

With 'only' 3 servers, you might find most of your guy's time was taken with small desktop/user issues, where the users would call him rather than think for themselves. Losing your tech and letting users know that every call costs money, and they should maybe think for themselves before calling for help, might save you a bit of money. But probably not. Users (in general) don't like to think.

[Lucio]

These are 3 models I know of:
1) Onsite permanent support - Similar to what you had, but if your tech guy goes on holiday, you've got cover. Probably more than you're paying at the mo.
2) Pay-as-you go helpdesk, with onsite visits planned/as necessary. Cost per incident is high, but overall cost is low as it doesn't sound like you need a lot of support.
3) Pool of hours. You pay an up-front charge for a set amount of hours. I think this is usually £100-150 and hour, and only use the hours when you're getting support of someone is on site. This may be effective, but more so if your site is close to the provider's offices...

Company I works for offers a level between 1 and 2, you pay them money and you're covered for just about anything, up to and including server replacement.... the catch is the timeframes are a bit wooly