Shhhh, don’t tell anyone we told you…
WARNING: We are about to let you in on a secret about how most computer companies really make their money!
Pay-by-the-Hour Computer Company
Also known as the ‘break-fix’ practice, these companies charge per hour for support. Their technicians come to your office to solve a specific technical issue. These on-site technicians are expensive, and the company they work for often has expectations for the amount of billable time their employees need to have. In fact, the technicians may even manage their own time to an extent, and are responsible for producing their own billing…and that is reflected in their pay! In a situation like this, the technician wants to complete the task and move on to the next client to rack up enough billable hours to make the boss happy. This leaves the onsite engineer in a position where they simply don’t have the time to resolve other issues or run maintenance on systems to minimize downtime and ensure your entire infrastructure is running smoothly. There is no reason for them to ‘show’ anyone in your organization how to resolve even a simple problem themselves because that means one less billable call in the future. Plus, answering questions and checking into other issues might cut into the other billable visits that tech has that day.
The “Preventative” Maintenance Computer Company
Sometimes, a tech support company might offer to do regular “preventative” maintenance on visits to their clients. These visits are often scheduled out on specific days at certain times and this is so the technician can have their day booked with as many on-site client visits as possible. When the technician visits your office for the scheduled time, they have a block of time to complete a series of proactive maintenance tasks to keep your equipment running well. Sounds good so far, right? It’s likely the technician doesn’t have the flexibility to go over the allotted time, especially without getting approval for more billable time. But the real kicker is that if the on-site technician finishes the “preventative” tasks early, they are often instructed to just find other things to do to fill the time allotted! In some cases, support companies even allow the technician to leave the site even before the allotted time runs up, but still charge the client for the block of time. Support companies love this method as it gives them guaranteed billable hours and they take no risk – if you need more help, they simply bill you by the hour.
Then, there’s OUR way, with ProCare!
Rather than paying outrageously high hourly rates that can sneak their way into your bill, you can be proactive with computer support that provides everyone in your company the support they need when they need it without the huge costs. We call it ProCare, and it’s designed to give you and your entire organization peace of mind when it comes to your IT. We take the best things about hourly support, the best things about preventative maintenance, add a live help desk that anyone in your company can call anytime without an extra fee, and we bundle it all together into a easy to budget flat rate. And though we offer more than your typical support provider, it doesn’t mean that we stop there. Included with ProCare, we monitor and manage your servers, automatically apply patches to every machine in your company, update your virus protection, and much, much more. Best of all, you can sleep soundly at night as we offer all this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We can even include unlimited on-site support visits! Get proactive and save time, save money, and reduce stress with ProCare.