How To Set Managed Services Pricing

By Karl W. Palachuk, IT Consultant

Whether you’re moving from on-demand support to managed services or starting a new company focused on managed services, one of the most important decisions you need to make is how to set your pricing. If you look at online forums you see people quoting everything from $5 to $250 per desktop, or $10 to $150 per user.

Pricing is all over the map and so are the services offered.

Let’s start with some basic terms. To me, managed services covers the maintenance of the operating systems and software at your clients’ locations. Every word in that definition is carefully chosen. It is maintenance, so it does not cover adds, moves, or changes. In other words, there is no “all you can eat” pricing. It also covers the operating system and software, so it does not include hardware.

From the client’s perspective, managed services provides fairly flat pricing. There will always be projects and little things, but the core technology expenses are predictable every month. In exchange for this, the client receives regular preventive maintenance and a higher level of reliability.