Computer maintenance contracts are one area of your business where you may want to consider using a price-fixed model. Time and materials pricing is almost always going to be better for you, but many clients respond well to fixed price computer maintenance contracts.
So, if you insist on doing a price-fixed computer maintenance agreement, there are some items you must make sure you cover off. You want to protect yourself as much as possible and the only way to do that is to write up a good and tight computer maintenance agreement.
If you don't have tight provisions, the well-intentioned and even well-trained internal computer guru (the guy you set up as the go-to guy in your absence) will make mistakes. This guy will cause you to come out to do some computer maintenance on things you didn't bargain for. You don't want to be spending too much time fixing things that shouldn't have been broken in the first place.
You can't afford to take that risk, and this is why your computer maintenance agreement must be solid. Here are some issues to consider when drafting a fixed price agreement for computer maintenance:
Will training be included?
Are you responsible if an ASP goes down?
Are you responsible for expansion as the company grows?
Are you responsible if they get hit by a fire or flood?
Are you responsible for computer maintenance if someone hacks into their system?
Are you responsible for ISP or phone company outages or issues with the web and/or email hosting companies?
Does your computer maintenance agreement cover issues arising from office politics or crossfire? Trust us, this happens!
Does your computer maintenance cover patches, updates and upgrades?
What happens if there’s pirated software?
Have you built in computer maintenance time to cover user error or even negligence on the part of users or the guru?
What happens if there’s internal sabotage, theft, or unauthorized software downloads?
Are you taking into account viruses and worms in the computer maintenance agreement?
Bottom Line on Computer Maintenance
Before considering offering price-fixed computer maintenance, you have to think about all these issues. If you don't cover off the contingencies, clients that have fixed price computer maintenance agreements will shift every burden under the sun to you. You can't afford to absorb those costs so think long and hard about offering price fixed computer maintenance.
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