Why you pay unplanned IT costs, and how to put a stop to them
In two out of every ten companies we visit, the picture is the same: a rough IT budget, unpredictable emergency invoices, and no clear view of what the IT infrastructure actually costs over a year. This isn’t a question of negligence. It’s a question of structure. Let’s work through it, on the numbers.
Where the surprise invoices come from
The traditional model most companies inherit is simple: a component fails, you call a specialist, they come in and fix it, and they send an invoice. The final figure is always a surprise, because it’s never the same twice, it offers no predictability, and it tends to land at the worst possible moment. A server intervention, a workstation that has to be replaced on short notice, an expired license that locks up the whole office: these are real scenarios, and they all generate costs that add up fast.
The problem isn’t that IT costs money. The problem is that the reactive model, built on calling someone out only when something breaks, has no budget ceiling and no guaranteed timelines. You can’t budget accurately for something unpredictable, and you can’t make strategic business decisions without clear numbers.
What the predictable model looks like
The alternative is a subscription priced per user. You pay a fixed monthly amount, set by the actual number of employees who use the IT infrastructure, and it covers technical support, maintenance, monitoring, and unlimited interventions. With us, subscriptions start at €25 per user. The difference from the reactive model shows up not only in the budget, but in how you think about the business.
With a fixed, guaranteed cost, you remove the surprises from the invoice, you no longer depend on whether an outside specialist happens to be available, and you stop losing valuable time reviewing quotes for every technical incident. You budget for IT the way you budget for rent or phone plans: you know the cost up front, instead of finding out at the end of the month.
What’s included and what you pay for separately
A fair subscription covers all the day-to-day work: user support, equipment monitoring, security updates, and interventions either remotely or at your office. What it doesn’t cover is the purchase of new equipment. If you buy ten laptops, for example, the hardware cost is paid separately, and the subscription covers only the setup and ongoing administration.
One more point worth making: the first few weeks of moving to a new provider take a little time and involvement. In that stage we inventory the equipment, secure the passwords, and document the configurations. Managers who have been through it confirm that it’s a small effort at the start, followed by full stability over the long term. Full prices, along with the services included in each subscription, are laid out transparently on our pricing page.