Preventive vs corrective maintenance: which is cheaper for a SME

7 min read · DataRoad

Preventive vs corrective maintenance For a SME, the choice is between paying predictably or paying as needed — usually at the worst time. The direct answer: in everything that stops the company when it fails (servers, network, internet, email, backups), preventive maintenance is cheaper at the end of the year. The corrective action is reserved for what is cheap, replaceable, and not critical.

This article shows the difference with accounts in euros, so that you can apply the reasoning to your company.

The two approaches, in management language

Which, in practice, includes preventive maintenance

• Security updates applied in a controlled manner, outside of working hours when possible.
• Daily backups with replacement tests. A backup that has never been tested is a hope, not a guarantee — see our backup solutions.
• Alarm monitoring of disks, servers, firewalls, network and internet connections, with alerts reaching the technical team and not the user.
• Periodic review of accounts and permissions: who left, who has more outbursts.
• Inventory with guarantees and end of support, In order for the renewal to be planned and not forced by breakdowns. We explain the deadlines in when you replace a computer.
• Periodic report to management: what has been done, what is at risk and what is coming next.

The difference between watching and reacting is detailed in the article about Proactive monitoring vs reactive support.

Example: how much does the corrective model cost in a company with 20 employees?

The following numbers are one example, Not just statistics; they serve to show the reasoning. Replace the assumptions with those of your company.

Example assumptions

• Company with 20 jobs.
• Total cost of each employee for the company: 25 € per hour.
• Each station has, on average, one small incident per month (printer, password, slow connection, email) that takes 1 hour to resolve, counting the waiting time for help.
• A serious outage per year (server, internet or network) that leaves 20 people without work for an 8-hour day.
• 30 hours per year of technical assistance called on a freelance basis, at 60 € per hour, not counting travel expenses.

Costs that are difficult to quantify but very real are excluded: data lost without valid backup, invoices that don’t arrive on time, customers waiting, extra hours spent recovering work.

And with preventive maintenance? Continuing with the example, admit that monitoring, updates, and support with defined response times reduce minor incidents by half and shorten serious downtime to 2 hours. The lost time drops to €3,000 + €1,000 = €4,000 per year. That’s 6,000 € of time recovered, to which are added the €1,800 in extra technician time that no longer exists: about €7,800 per year. That’s the amount you pay, in full or in part, for the settlement — before you factor in the risk of data loss that no longer runs.

The value of the time off varies greatly from company to company. We show how to calculate it. How much does an hour of downtime cost?.

When corrective maintenance still makes sense

It's not all black and white. The corrective approach is reasonable for:

• Cheap equipment, with a replacement available (a mouse, a keyboard, a secondary monitor).
• Equipment without data and without impact on operation, such as a support printer.
• Components that are replaced more quickly than they are diagnosed.

The mistake is to apply the same logic to the server, the firewall, the internet connection or the email. Then, every hour of downtime multiplies by the number of people who stop working.

How to move from corrective to preventive in five steps

1. Inventory: Knowing what exists, who owns it, and in what state it is.
2. Backups: ensure a copy is kept off-site and test the replacement.
3. Monitoring: Alerting critical equipment and fine-tuning them so that they do not create noise.
4. Maintenance windows: define when it updates and restarts, without surprises for the team.
5. Renewal plan: include the replacements in the budget for the next two to three years.

At DataRoad, these five steps are part of the start of any contract. IT Unlimited. The echelon Essential It includes remote and telephone support, and the travel costs to the site are budgeted separately. Premium It includes on-site assistance. In all of them, alarm monitoring and security are included.

A real case: continuous monitoring at Boost Portugal

In 2018, Boost Portugal — a company that offers tourist entertainment and alternative mobility services, which began with the GoCar brand in Lisbon — signed an annual contract with DataRoad for monthly assistance and continuous monitoring of all its information systems. The contract includes permanent support for users, backup solutions, maintenance of the IP telephone system, internet redundancy with fail-over, remote monitoring, alarm notification, and availability reporting.

It is the complete preventive model: the internet connection has an automatic fallback if one fails, the systems are monitored, and the management receives reports. Read the Boost Portugal case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does preventive maintenance eliminate all malfunctions?

No. It reduces the frequency and, above all, the impact. When something goes wrong, there is monitoring to detect it early, tested backups to restore it, and a technician with the history of the park.

What is the difference between preventive maintenance and monitoring?

Monitoring is part of preventive maintenance: it monitors equipment and alerts when something goes wrong. Preventive maintenance also includes updates, backups, access review, and planned renewal.

Does a 15-person company justify a preventive maintenance contract?

In most cases, yes, if you depend on email, shared files and the internet to work. Calculate the costs using the assumptions in the example in this article, adapted to your own situation.

Does DataRoad perform punctual corrective maintenance?

No. DataRoad works only on a contract basis, with companies with more than 10 employees. The contract is annual, with automatic renewal and 60 days' notice, without any commitment.

Preventive maintenance plan in 5 working days

We analyze your park and deliver a preventive plan with priorities, which monitors the status of backups and renewals to be anticipated. For companies with more than 10 workstations · contract of assistance · remote, local and telephone support.