How we work
Four steps, in the same order for every client: a free assessment, emergencies fixed first, a project to establish a stable baseline, then a fixed monthly allocation of hours. No contracts to sign, one predictable invoice.
Most IT problems are not mysterious. They are the result of years of small decisions made under pressure, with nobody looking at the whole picture. So we look at the whole picture first, fix what is dangerous, clean up the rest once, and then keep it that way for a fixed amount each month.
The four steps
- Free assessment We start with a no-cost look at your network, servers, workstations, backups, security, email, phones, and the software your business depends on. You get a plain-language summary of what is at risk, what is fine, and what we would do first. There is no obligation and nothing to buy.
- Emergencies first, a la carte If the assessment turns up something urgent, such as backups that have not run in months, remote desktop open to the internet, a server on its last legs, or an active infection, we fix it right away and bill that work on its own. Nothing dangerous waits for a proposal.
- Baseline project: cleanup, update, revamp Next we propose a fixed-scope project to establish a stable baseline: retire or replace what is failing, update what is behind, standardize the hardware and software stack, get backups and security in order, and document everything. A written scope, a fixed price, and a defined outcome, so you know exactly what "done" looks like.
- Monthly maintenance and support Once the baseline is in place, we propose a fixed monthly allocation of hours that covers monitoring, patching, backup checks, and day-to-day support for your staff. It is billed as one monthly invoice for services, which most clients put on autopay. There is no contract to sign.
What the monthly allocation covers
- Monitoring and alerting for servers, backups, and network equipment
- Scheduled patching of servers, workstations, firewalls, and line-of-business applications
- Backup verification and periodic test restores
- Remote support for your staff, and on-site visits when hands are needed
- User changes: new hires, departures, password resets, new PCs set up to your standard
- Security housekeeping: MFA, permissions, email protection, and log review
- Documentation kept current, and a monthly summary of what was done
What it does not cover
Monthly maintenance keeps a stable environment stable. It does not include work that changes the environment, which is scoped and quoted separately as a project:
- Office moves, new locations, and buildouts
- Server replacements, cloud or datacenter migrations, and major upgrades
- New phone systems, new software rollouts, and integrations
- Hardware and software purchases
- Special projects and anything else outside the agreed scope
If a month runs over. The monthly amount is a proposal based on an allocation of hours. If a month's work falls outside that scope, or uses more than the allocated hours, that month's invoice will be higher than proposed. Recurring overages usually mean the allocation needs to change, and we will say so.
Why we only work this way
As a rule, we do not take on break-fix or hourly-only clients. Billing by the incident rewards downtime; a fixed monthly allocation rewards prevention, which is what you actually want from an IT provider. It also means we know your systems, your people know us, and nobody has to approve a purchase order before a problem gets fixed. If fixed monthly billing is not for you, we are probably not the right fit, and we will tell you that during the free assessment rather than after.
Already have a problem today?
Call. Emergency work is handled a la carte whether or not you are a client yet, and we follow it with the assessment so the same thing does not happen again. See Ransomware Recovery and Disaster Recovery.
Ready to stop worrying about IT?
It starts with a free assessment. You get a plain-language summary of where you stand and a straight answer on what it would take to fix, from the engineer who would do the work.