Blocks of hours, capped retainers and resident engineers cost more than they seem. Compare them with DataRoad's IT Unlimited. Request a no-commitment proposal.
More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and phone support
For decision-makers short on time.
IT invoices that change every month, hours that run out mid-quarter and faults that drag on because the balance is used up: that is the hidden cost of a block of hours, a capped retainer or a resident engineer. In all three models, the provider earns more when your company has more problems. DataRoad's IT Unlimited reverses the incentive: a fixed monthly fee, requests that are never counted and prevention as our obligation, so the IT budget is predictable and your team keeps working.
The price on the proposal is rarely the price of the year. Count what is left out and the downtime too.
With billed hours, a failure is paid for twice: the engineer's hour and the unproductive hour of whoever is waiting. The provider is paid for the repair, not for what it prevents. Monitoring, updating out of hours or replacing a disk before it fails earns it nothing.
Nobody is acting in bad faith. The incentive is simply skewed. The result: the provider only turns up after the problem.
You gain presence and lose redundancy. Everything known about your infrastructure lives in one person's memory. If they go on holiday, fall ill or change jobs, a replacement arrives blind. On days when nobody is on site, requests pile up.
| Criterion | Hour bank | Capped retainer | Resident engineer | IT Unlimited |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Predictable monthly invoice | No | Only up to the cap | Yes, plus extras | Yes, fixed fee |
| The provider earns from | More hours | The excess | Time occupied | Zero incidents |
| Monitoring | None | Rare | On site only | Included (24/7 only in Premium 365) |
| Patching | Uses balance | Uses the cap | If there is time | Included, out of hours |
| Backups | Extra | Extra | Depends on who is there | Included, with tested restores |
| Firewall and antivirus | Extra | Extra | Extra | Managed in the Premium plans |
| Site visits | Billed | Counted or billed | Only on the scheduled day | Unlimited in Premium and Premium 365; Essential is remote and telephone |
| Absences | Not applicable | Not applicable | Nobody | The full team responds |
| Documentation | Scattered | Scattered | In one person's head | Recorded and shared |
| Accountability | Hours on the invoice | Hours on the invoice | Variable | Ticket portal and monthly report |
| Lock-in | None | 12 to 36 months | 12 months | None (annual contract, has no lock-in) |
| Suits | Micro-businesses with rare failures | Rare, predictable failures | Lots of physical on-site work | Companies that stop when IT stops |
Every plan includes uncounted requests by ticket, phone and remote access, monitoring, update management, managed and tested backups, a monthly report and the client portal. Immediate response times.
The final amount follows from the scope and is set in writing. See how we set the price or read the IT Unlimited overview.
Hardware and licences: quoted separately, or bought directly by the client. Projects such as cabling, new Wi-Fi or large migrations: quoted separately, with priority for those already under contract. Software development is not included either. And no ad hoc call-outs: the model only holds because every client is inside it.
Ask each provider for written answers. Vague ones say more than good ones.
Add our guide to choosing an MSP in Portugal and the external IT department page, for those weighing an in-house hire.
Chosen by respected and international companies
![MUN[it]](/assets/img/logos-c/munit.webp "MUN[it]"){kind=small}
★★★★★ 5,0 · 52 Google reviewsAt DataRoad, these five points are published for each plan and stated again in the proposal.
A model is judged at the end of the contract. Velv by OnRising grew with us from 90 to around 200 workstations, with firewall, wireless network, servers and connectivity included. Uriach signed IT Unlimited again in Portugal. Neither is held by a lock-in. They stay because they do the maths, including the outages they no longer have.
This is the model through which we deliver all our managed IT services.
No, for companies with more than 10 workstations where IT is critical, a fixed monthly fee usually works out cheaper. Paying by the hour only makes sense for micro-businesses with rare faults, which is why we only work from 10 workstations upwards. Once you add up hours, site visits, extra backups and your team's downtime, the fixed IT Unlimited fee normally comes in below the total.
Unlimited means requests are not counted: tickets, calls and remote sessions do not use up a balance, and neither do site visits on Premium and Premium 365. Essential is remote and phone only. Hardware, licences, projects such as cabling or new Wi-Fi, and software development sit outside the monthly fee, as explained above.
The IT Unlimited contract runs for one year, renews automatically, with no tie-in and no joining fee. You can move up or down a plan in either direction. Hotels, healthcare providers and multi-site companies receive a proposal sized to their scope, with the final price fixed in writing before signing.
Yes, and it is a common combination in companies with an internal team. Your engineer handles users day to day; DataRoad takes care of monitoring, backups, security, servers and cover during holidays and absences. The company stops depending on a single person. See how the hybrid model works.
No, DataRoad does not do one-off jobs or ad hoc call-outs. Networks, Wi-Fi, cabling and migrations are for IT Unlimited clients, or they open the door to a contract, because whoever installs is responsible for maintaining and managing what was installed. We explain in detail why we turn down one-off support.
The handover happens without a single uncovered day: the audit, credentials and documentation are collected before the old contract ends. We switch on monitoring and backups in parallel and, at the end of the first month, hand over portal access and the first report. See the full process in how to switch provider without downtime.
Yes, each employee asks for help directly by email, phone or portal, with no middlemen and no limit on requests. There is no need to go through management or an internal contact. Management sees every request, who opened it and its status, and receives a monthly report summarising the service delivered.
We read your current provider's proposal and send back the cost of IT Unlimited for your number of workstations. Request a no-commitment proposal. We work only under contract and directly with the end client.
More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and telephone support. +351 211 459 950 * (weekdays, 9:00–13:00 and 14:00–18:30) · sales@dataroad.pt
*Call to a Portuguese landline.
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Partners and certifications
DataRoad · IT Unlimited
Predictability is a service: the same fee every month, requests without counting hours and an SLA written into the contract.
We do IT right.
Redundant access, automatic failover and continuous monitoring.
More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and phone support
DataRoad works only for companies under an IT Unlimited contract. We do not take subcontracted work or one-off call-outs.
