Managed IT or break-fix? The numbers for 20 seats

In people standing idle. The reactive model looks cheap because the biggest expense has no invoice: it is the team's time waiting for someone to fix things. In the 20-workstation scenario we use below, between lost hours and an engineer called out by the hour, the annual bill reaches €11,800.

Think of a company car. Some only take it to the garage when it breaks down on the motorway. Others have it serviced, change the tyres before the limit and have warning lights on the dashboard. Both end up with the car fixed. Only the second does not miss the meeting.

This is an illustrative example, not a statistic. Replace each assumption with your company's real figure.

• Size 20 people with a workstation.
• Hourly cost €25 per employee, fully loaded.
• Minor incidents One per workstation every month (printer, password, slowness, email), each costing 1 hour including the wait.
• One serious outage a year Server, network or internet down, 8 hours with all 20 people unable to work.
• Engineer called out by the hour €60/hour, 30 hours a year, not counting travel.

And there is what does not go into the table: data lost for lack of a valid backup, delayed invoicing, clients kept waiting, overtime to catch up.

• Security patches Installed in a controlled way and, wherever possible, outside working hours.
• Daily backups with tested restores Without a test, a backup is just a hope; see our managed backup.
• Automatic alerts On disks, servers, firewalls, network and internet connections, delivered to engineers rather than users.
• Access control Leavers' accounts disabled, excess permissions removed.
• Lifecycle Warranties and end of support inventoried, so replacements happen by plan rather than emergency; reference timelines in when to replace company computers.
• Reporting to management What was done, what is at risk, what comes next.

We explore this difference in proactive monitoring and reactive support compared.

• Low-cost peripherals A mouse, keyboard or second monitor, with a spare in the cupboard.
• Equipment with no data and no business impact Such as a secondary printer.
• Components Those that can be swapped faster than they could be diagnosed.

The mistake is applying the same reasoning to the server, firewall, internet or email. There, every hour of downtime is multiplied by the number of people unable to work.

1. Assessment: every device, who uses it and what condition it is in.
2. Data protection: an off-site copy created and a restore proven.
3. Monitoring: alerts active on critical systems, calibrated not to create noise.
4. Scheduled maintenance: updates and restarts in known windows.
5. Planned renewal: replacements for the next two to three years already in the budget.

At DataRoad - IT Services and Consulting, these five steps open every IT Unlimited contract. Essential costs from €395/month + VAT and provides remote and phone support, with no site visits. Premium costs from €750/month + VAT and adds unlimited on-site support. Monitoring with alerts and security are included in every plan.

Boost Portugal, a tourism activities and alternative mobility operator born in Lisbon with the GoCar brand, contracted DataRoad in 2018: monthly support under an annual contract and continuous monitoring of all its information systems.

The scope includes ongoing user support, backups, maintenance of the IP phone system, redundant internet with failover, remote monitoring, alerting and availability reports. When one connection fails, the other takes over immediately; management receives reports. Read the full Boost Portugal case study.

We assess your estate and deliver a prioritised plan: what to monitor, the state of your backups and which renewals to bring forward. Request a no-commitment proposal.

More than 10 workstations · support contract · remote, on-site and phone support. Call +351 211 459 950 * or write to sales@dataroad.pt.

*Call to a Portuguese landline.