The monthly figure is different for every organisation, but the way we build it never changes. This page sets out our pricing model, what sits inside an agreement, what sits outside one, and what moves the number in either direction. When you want a figure for your organisation, we will put one in front of you after a short conversation.
Most providers describe their pricing as simply per user. That is only ever half the story, and the half left out is where the surprises come from. We count three things, and we show you all three.
Support is priced per person. One fee covers that person, whatever they happen to be working on. If someone rings us from their mobile on a Friday afternoon, that is support, and we do not stop to work out which device it came from.
Every device we look after carries licence costs of its own for monitoring, remote support and endpoint detection and response. Those are real per-device costs, so devices are counted alongside people rather than quietly averaged away.
Switches, firewalls, access points and the rest need firmware updates, monitoring and maintenance the same as anything else. We price against the network you actually run, not a typical one.
Because a single figure per user only works if everyone has the same devices and the same network behind them, and nobody does. Counting the three separately means a lean environment is not quietly subsidising a heavy one.
Part-timers and contractors count as users while they are working with you. A shared login on a front desk or a workshop terminal is handled as a device rather than a person, and we tell you which applies before anything is signed.
People, devices and network equipment are added and removed as you change. The rates behind them stay the same, so growth stays predictable instead of turning into a renegotiation.
If your organisation has been getting by without managed IT, moving to a monthly agreement can feel like a big step. It helps to be clear about what the number actually buys. Unmanaged technology is never really free: the cost arrives as lost hours, interruptions and one-off fixes rather than as an invoice. An agreement moves that spend somewhere visible and predictable, and turns it into time your people get back.
Fewer interruptions and faster fixes add up. Even half an hour saved per person each week is real capacity returned to the work you actually hired them for.
One known monthly figure replaces surprise invoices, so technology becomes a line you can plan around rather than a number that moves every month.
New people are set up and productive from day one, and everyone works on equipment that is maintained before it slows them down.
Protection, patching and monitoring run quietly in the background, so your team works with confidence and your leaders are not the ones carrying that worry.
A well-managed environment is what makes the next step possible, whether that is new systems, better reporting or putting AI to work properly.
You gain a partner who plans technology with you: budgeting, forecasting and improving over time rather than reacting to whatever breaks.
The point of an agreement is that the everyday running of your technology stops being something you think about. Everything below sits inside the monthly fee rather than being billed as it happens.
Support for your people during business hours by phone, email or portal. No charge per ticket and no clock running while we help.
Continuous monitoring of your devices, servers and cloud services, with patching and updates handled in the background before they become your problem.
Endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication, email security and the configuration work that keeps them doing their job. Every agreement carries a proper security baseline.
User setup and offboarding, mailbox and permission changes, licence management, and keeping the tenant configured the way it should be.
Protection for your Microsoft 365 data and your servers, with restores tested rather than assumed.
A regular review with someone accountable for where your technology is heading, and a roadmap you can actually budget against.
We would rather be plain about this at the start than discover it together later. These sit outside the monthly fee, are scoped and quoted on their own, and none of them should ever arrive as a surprise on an invoice.
Cloud migrations, server replacements, office moves, network rebuilds and infrastructure modernisation. Planned work, priced before it starts.
Devices, licences and subscriptions are passed through and shown separately from your support fee, so you can see exactly what you are paying for.
AI agents, integrations, workflow automation and bespoke development are scoped individually rather than absorbed into a monthly fee.
We will manage and coordinate your other suppliers as part of the agreement. What those suppliers charge you remains theirs.
Taking over your environment, documenting it and deploying our tooling is one-off work. Depending on the length of the agreement we often reduce it or absorb it entirely, because the cost of moving should not be the thing that stops you.
Bringing an environment up to a managed standard is a project in its own right. It is never bundled quietly into a monthly fee, and there is more on how we handle it in the next section.
Very few environments are in a fully managed state the first time we look at them. That is normal, and it is not a reason to be handed an alarming number in week one.
We do not remediate an environment as part of taking it on, and we do not hide that work inside a monthly fee. Where there is remediation to do, we build a plan with you: what needs to change, what order it should happen in, what each piece involves and roughly when it should land. You can budget for it and forecast it across a year or more rather than absorbing it in one hit.
Some of it will be genuinely urgent. Most of it will not be, and you set the pace. What matters is that you can see the whole picture before you commit to any of it.
Below about ten users, the fixed cost of monitoring, security tooling and documentation does not spread far enough to be good value for either of us. We would rather say that plainly than sell you an agreement that never earns its keep.
If you are smaller than that, ad hoc support at our standard hourly rate usually serves you better, and we are happy to have that conversation. Most of the organisations we work with sit between twenty and two hundred people, across professional services, non-profits and iwi organisations.
Not everything happens between nine and five, and not every organisation wants an agreement. Both are fine. Here is how each is handled, so there is nothing to discover later.
Charged by the hour at the rate for the level of engineer the work actually needs, so straightforward jobs are not priced as though they were complex ones.
Ad hoc work carries a one hour minimum. Travel time sits inside that first hour rather than being added on top of it.
Parking and anything else we have to pay for to complete the job is passed through at cost and itemised on the invoice.
Any client can reach us outside business hours. Out of hours work is charged at a higher rate than the standard one, with a further rate on public holidays.
We monitor client environments continuously. For clients on an agreement, an urgent alert is picked up and actioned when it fires. Without an agreement, a monitored alert is reviewed the next business day. Inside business hours, anything urgent is treated as urgent for everyone.
For organisations that genuinely run around the clock, cover with contracted response times is available as an addition to an agreement. It is a real cost to deliver, so we will tell you honestly whether your operation needs it. It is not offered on an ad hoc basis.
Two organisations of the same size can land a long way apart. These are the factors that account for most of the difference, in roughly the order they matter.
The largest upward driver we see. An ageing on-premise server needs more monitoring, more patching and more hands-on attention than a cloud-first environment. Modernising often pays for itself in support cost alone.
Cyber insurance now asks about multi-factor authentication, endpoint detection, tested backups and incident response. Meeting those conditions moves you up, and better insurance terms offset part of the difference.
Health, legal, financial and government-adjacent work brings reporting, auditing and documentation that takes real time to do properly.
The figure per person generally eases as headcount rises, because tooling and account management spread across more seats. Device count moves on its own: a team where everyone carries a laptop, a phone and a desktop takes more looking after than one where they do not.
Most work is done remotely and resolved quickly. Multiple locations, more network equipment to keep patched, or a guaranteed on-site presence all add coordination, travel and maintenance to the picture.
Business hours support is the standard. Genuine round-the-clock cover with contracted response times costs more to deliver and is priced accordingly.
Buying Copilot licences is straightforward. Getting value from them is where most organisations stall, and that is not a licensing problem.
We run AI enablement as an ongoing managed service rather than a one-off consulting project, because adoption is not something that finishes. At the organisation level it covers AI governance, security review, readiness assessment, adoption strategy, cost monitoring and ongoing advisory work. At the person level it covers prompting help, Copilot support, coaching, productivity guidance and training for the people actually using it.
Microsoft licences are charged separately, and custom AI development, agents, integrations and workflow automation are scoped on their own. You can read more on our AI and Copilot enablement page.
The headline rate is the least useful number in a proposal. A lower monthly fee that excludes security tooling, onboarding and after-hours work can cost more across a year than a higher one that includes them. These six questions expose the difference.
Ask for the inclusions in writing: devices, servers, cloud services, applications and which security tools sit inside the fee. Anything not listed is billable.
Marketing pages promise fast responses. Contracts commit to them. Ask for response targets by priority in the agreement itself, not the brochure.
Endpoint detection, multi-factor authentication, email filtering, backup testing and awareness training should each be itemised. A fee that excludes security is not comparable with one that includes it.
Onboarding, offboarding and project work all belong in a first-year comparison, not just the monthly figure.
Ask how work outside the agreement gets quoted and approved, and whether you will be told before it starts rather than after.
Check the term, the notice period, and who owns your documentation and passwords at the end. A provider who is confident in the relationship makes leaving straightforward.
Short answers. We will happily give you the longer ones. This page was last reviewed in August 2026.
Because a figure per user without the environment behind it is close to meaningless, and we would rather not quote a number we then have to walk back. What we will do is explain exactly how the fee is built, and give you a firm figure quickly once we understand what we are looking after.
Both, and we would rather say so plainly. Support is priced per person, so nobody is penalised for carrying a laptop and a phone. Devices are counted separately because each one needs monitoring, remote support and endpoint protection licensing. Your network is priced on what you actually run. Three components, all of them visible to you.
No. We manage them, but the subscription cost is shown separately. That keeps it visible, and it means you are never paying us for a licence nobody is using.
Usually, and it covers taking over your environment, documenting it and deploying our tooling. Depending on the length of the agreement we often reduce it or absorb it entirely. Bringing an environment up to a managed standard is separate work again, planned and budgeted with you rather than folded into the fee.
No, and we will not claim it is. Every agreement includes a strong security foundation and business hours support. Continuous cover with contracted response times is available as an addition for organisations that genuinely run around the clock.
Yes. Co-managed arrangements are common at the larger end of our client base. Your internal person keeps the local knowledge and the day to day priorities, and we supply the service desk, the security tooling and the depth behind them.
Tell us your headcount, what you are running and anything you have to comply with. We will come back with a fixed monthly figure and the inclusions itemised, usually within a week of a first conversation. No pitch, no pressure.
