Managed IT services by contract only: why there is no ad hoc

The advantage is only apparent: you pay only when you need it. The real cost lies in what nobody does between two calls.

• Starting blind The engineer does not know the server already failed in March, that the second-floor printer is on another network or where the router password is. The first half hour to an hour goes on discovering the environment, and you are billed for it.
• Problems found late Unapplied patches, a degrading disk, a backup that stopped three weeks ago. Nobody watches because nobody is paid to. The failure arrives at the worst moment, often with data at risk.
• A patched-up network Every visit brings another person with other habits. Two years later, nobody knows the whole infrastructure and growing becomes expensive and risky.
• Misaligned interests In the one-off model, the provider bills more when there are more faults. With a fixed fee it is the reverse: every failure avoided is work saved.

Think of a family doctor: they know your history, carry out check-ups and treat things before they get worse. One-off support is A&E: it resolves the crisis and nobody follows the patient afterwards.

The comparison with a traditional outsourcing retainer is on another page: IT Unlimited versus the traditional retainer.

Above 10 workstations there is real infrastructure: a server or cloud services, a network with several devices, client data and total dependence on email and applications. It stops being "a PC that breaks".

Focusing on this profile keeps processes, tools and team at the level that hotels, clinics, embassies and multinationals demand. For the same reason we do not accept subcontracting or small stand-alone jobs. We work with the end client and answer for the whole.

IT Unlimited is a monthly fee with three tiers. All three include managed firewalls, sensors, endpoint protection, 2FA/MFA and monitoring with alerting.

• Essential From 10 workstations, remote and telephone support only, no on-site visits. It suits teams that live in the cloud or are spread out.
• Premium Essential plus unlimited on-site visits included. For those with an office, a server and a physical network.
• Premium 365 Premium plus nights, weekends and bank holidays. It is the only plan with 24/7 support and monitoring, designed for hotels, clinics and continuous operations.

A one-year contract, automatic renewal, no tie-in. Deadlines and responsibilities are on paper: see DataRoad's SLAs. If you ever want to change, the handover of credentials and documentation follows clear rules, explained in the exit and data clauses to demand in an IT contract.

Ventask, with more than 350 workstations, has been a DataRoad client since 2016. Under IT Unlimited, DataRoad looks after the entire network, the corporate firewalls, device protection, secure remote access and Wi-Fi, with proactive monitoring and alerts.

It is what one-off support never delivers: a team that knows every device, follows the infrastructure year after year and plans its evolution instead of fighting fires. Read the Ventask story.

That phrase usually hides one of two situations:

1. A very small company: with fewer than 10 workstations, we are not the right partner, and we prefer to say so from the outset.
2. A cost never measured: downtime, team hours, rushed recoveries. Once the sums are done, "now and then" often works out more expensive than the fee. The calculation is in the cost of an hour of downtime in a 20-workstation company.

We diagnose your infrastructure and deliver a fixed monthly fee, a recommended plan and a written SLA. No commitment.

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

*Call to a Portuguese landline.