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Let’s talk about hourly support.

We know it sounds appealing. But it’s not your only ticket to get a wise and cost-effective reactive support.

The benefits may seem logical at a glance – you only call your IT Provider whenever a need to repair a specific down time arises. Dial the phone, wait for the technicians to do their magic, the system will be up and running, and everything will be back to business.

It sounds so simple and cost-effective… we wish it could really be so, too.

But would you believe us if we said an hourly rate support provides neither of those?

Unlike the reactive actions of an hourly service, proactive services can mitigate all the risk and improve your system conditions long before any attempted attack or accident may cross your business.

This is exactly why proactive services will always offer the best protection and the end of the tunnel value above all services.

Mother always says, “prevention is always better than the cure”.

It’s tempting to lean onto hourly support and we know many Managed Service Provider promises blinding offers, but would you care to hear the other side?

Here are 4 simple but effective reasons to avoid hourly or hour-based services:

1. Hidden Additional Costs

An hourly rate project may seem budget friendly – but this does not include emergency responses along the way when the need arises. This means having to prepare your budget for emergency troubleshooting in the near future.

Hourly IT services can undoubtedly damage your budget. Especially when you experience faulty and problematic IT issues.

2. System With No Protection

Ask yourself: what should you do if any powerful malware or virus attacks your data? Are you confident of your precautions?

Taking chances by working without any form of system protection should never be an option. Not only does decreased downtime = decreased costs, but it also means a healthier risk-free system.

Not sure what kind of defence or antivirus solution you should install? Well, A Managed Service Provider should account for providing the best level of protection suitable for your business.

3. Poor Response Time

Hour-based IT Provider does not automatically equal to prioritizing your company on unexpected downtime. For one, reactive service agreements may dilute your IT Provider’s availability and response time.

Your business is just one of their possibly hundreds of clients without a VIP access in times of emergency.

To simply put, a Managed Service Provider offers ongoing monitoring that prevents urgent and unanticipated service requests.

4. Does not mean faster work

Unfortunately, there is no incentive to complete work faster through hourly rate. More hours means more money– as far as your hourly IT Provider can conclude.

In contrast, longer working hours would mean losing marginal profit for Managed Service Provider. Every transaction would be scaled per project. Meaning your MSP must:
1.) complete the project at their own risk,
2.) work faster to avoid losing profit, and
3.) provide the best quality available to prevent downtime and system failures, in which will come out of their pockets.

Don’t be fixated on hourly rate IT services. As we have said, there’s a better alternative.

Managed IT Service Providers, such as Comlink, are accountable for providing services at a competitive, fixed, and transparent rate.

With a top-notch Managed Service Provider, your business can:

• Save time. A fixed MSP works efficiently and does not waste time (extra time comes from the provider’s profit margin).
• Scale and budget your monthly flat fees.
• Work with technicians under a centralized system who knows your network and IT strategy.
• Decrease the risk of downtime and system failures
• Monitor your network for every potential risk and mitigating them before escalation
• Get the latest technology checklist suitable for your business needs

Don’t compromise your security for less. An hourly rate basis may appeal to you at first, but everything can only be too good to be true. Skip the stop watch and settle for only the best quality provider for your company.

Comlink Solutions is an experienced and established IT Managed Service Provider in Sydney specializing in backup and disaster recovery, project management, relocation, office 365, cloud migration, and an all-around IT specialist passionate about providing proven solutions to clients and businesses.  

Want to know how we can help you? Consult our Comlink experts now!