Call when it breaks, or a monthly contract? When each makes sense, honestly and without numbers.
A small business has two options for IT: a computer guy to call when something breaks, or a monthly maintenance contract. Both are legitimate; the mistake is sticking to one without checking which fits you.
When calling on failure is right
Three or four computers, no server, data in the cloud, and a day of downtime does not sink you: calling when it breaks makes sense. What matters is that the person gives you a written record of what was done and hands over the passwords. If the passwords stay with the technician, you depend on a person, not a system.
When a contract is right
If you have a server, an accounting program, software that stops production, or more than five users, the cost of a failure exceeds the contract fee. The real value of a contract is not reaching the failure fast but seeing it before it happens: if nobody checks that the backup really ran, the disk is almost full or updates were skipped, the failure brings the first news.
What to look for in a contract
- Is a response time written, or just "as soon as possible"?
- Is remote access logged; can you see who connected and when?
- Is there a monthly report: what was done, found, recommended?
- When the contract ends, how are passwords, documents and backups handed over?
The honest conclusion
For some businesses a contract is too much, and a firm that pushes it anyway is not trustworthy. SMB Teknoloji works both ways; in the first meeting we tell you which fits, and we do not sell the one that does not.