IT Retainer Services

for small organizations

What is it?

Our IT Retainer service exists to give small organizations access to an experienced computer technician when and where they need one.  We've owned and operated small businesses, and we know that technical issues can bring productivity to a grinding halt--so we've created a service that solves that problem.  When your organization signs up for our IT Retainer services, you can expect a thorough on-boarding process that resolves any existing tech issues, identifies and prevents upcoming problems, advice and instructions for smoother computing, and world-class customer service every step of the way.

From there on out, we check in with you on monthly schedule--in person--to make sure everything is still going smoothly and to answer any minor tech questions anyone in your office might have.  We check on things like printer maintenance, ink and toner levels, malware infections, and general computer health.  We'll let you know if we find anything of concern, fix it, and then everyone in your office can get to a month's worth of problem-free productivity.

We know that while an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, tech problems can pop up out of nowhere--that's why our IT Retainer services include a customized amount of tech emergency “buffer hours”.  If something unexpected happens, big or small, call us!  If it's something minor, we can help you out over the phone or take remote control of your computer to find a solution.  If it's something bigger, we'll just drive over to your office as soon as we can.  Hopefully, we've accurately estimated the hours you need and your prepaid retainer covers all of it.  If not, we can dip into the pool of unused hours from last month.  Or, if necessary, we can work as long as it takes to solve the problem at a discounted hourly rate.

Who is it for?

Our perfect client is a small business or non-profit organization with roughly 15 network-connected devices, say:  8 office computers, 2 laptops that go home with managers, a big copier or a couple of smaller printers, maybe a point of sale system, and a WiFi router.  Recently one of the laptops has become unbearably slow, last week no one could print anything for three days, and one of the office PCs has started making some strange clicking noises.  Cheryl has kept the office running so far, but this is definitely not in her job description, and every time she has to go help someone work the copier, neither of them is getting any real work done.

If this sounds familiar, we really want to talk to you.

How does it work?

First, we set up a sales and on-boarding meeting in your office.  While we're there, we get the lay of the land and estimate a monthly fee we can both agree on.  Once we've figured out a billing date and payment method that work best for you, we get to work.  During our on-boarding process, we'll rectify any outstanding tech issues and ask you questions about your current systems and operating procedures.  If it works with everyone's schedule, we'll talk to your employees or members to find out what kind of problems they run into on a regular basis.  Whether it's a matter of technique or a problem with the hardware, we'll address the issue right then and there.  We'll also get started on an internal profile of your office:  the makes and models of your equipment, the software your office uses most, and anything else we think might help us do our job better.  The time we spend during the on-boarding process does use pre-paid retainer hours, but it helps us be more efficient with all of our future problem solving.

From then on out, we'll stop by your office on a monthly schedule.  During these visits, we'll perform preventative maintenance on printers, make sure the anti-malware software on the computers is doing it's job, and make sure all the software is up to date.  We'll check in with everyone in the office and answer any questions they might have.  If needed, we'll remind you to buy any consumables the tech in your office uses.  These visits also use pre-paid retainer hours, but we'll be sure to save a reserve for emergencies.

Tech emergencies, big and small, do happen.  Our monthly check-ins should prevent most of them, but for everything else, we'll be there for you.  Give us call whenever you think you could use our help and we'll quickly reach a solution.  If it's something that can be solved easily over the phone, we'll do it that way.  If not, we'll show up in your office as soon as we can.

The rate and severity of tech emergencies is difficult to predict, so unused pre-paid hours can roll over into the next month (but only the next month).  Say everything goes extremely smoothly in February and we only use 2 of your 6 pre-paid hours.  In March, Murphy's Law catches up with us and we burn through all 6 prepaid hours and then some.  We can't use any of January's left-overs, but we can use those extra 4 hours from February.  If March turns out to be a real bear, and we use all 10 of those combined hours, we can keep working at a discounted hourly rate.  If after a few months we find we're consistently going over the pre-paid hours (or if we always seem to have unused hours left over), we should probably adjust the monthly rate.

How much does it cost?

At Technologic, we wanted to make sure we could customize our rates to different sizes and kinds of organizations.  Unfortunately, this makes our fee structure a bit complicated, so let's break it down.  First, let's go over our non-discounted, out-of-contract rates.  These are the rates a client would pay if they weren't interested in retaining our services, but did end up needing occasional help:

Small Business:  $90/hr

Start-Up (founded in the last 365 days):  $75/hr

Non-Profit:  $70/hr

Retaining our services qualifies each kind of organization for a 25% discount on the above hourly rates, which translates to:

Small Business:  $67.50/hr

Start-Up:  $56.25/hr

Non-Profit:  $52.50/hr

When we calculate the retainer fee, we estimate how many hours of our help your organization is likely to need per month and multiply that number by the hourly rate for your type of organization.  It's extremely important to us to get that estimation as close to reality as possible.  If a client were to retain only a few hours of our time to acquire our discounted rate, but knew they would require dozens of hours of our attention, it would be impossible for us to manage our time, to sell an appropriate number of accounts, or to service our other clients in a timely manner.  Conversely, if we drastically overestimate the number of hours your organization will need, you'll end up paying us to do nothing.  In the short term, that sounds pretty great for us, but that's not how long-term, mutually-profitable relationships--or good reputations--are made.  We're committed to our community and to our local economy; we're in this for the long haul.

A note about tech emergency "buffer hours" and why they roll over for one month:  Every retainer fee has an adjusted number of emergency hours built-in.  Because we can't know when a tech emergency will strike, or how long it will take to resolve, these buffer hours can roll over for one month.  Because we service multiple clients, we can't allow buffer hours to roll over indefinitely.  If a single client were to accumulate a large number of buffer hours over several months, then request that those hours be used to accomplish some large project, such a situation could force us to neglect our other clients.  Lastly, we encourage our clients to make good use of their buffer hours.  In general, they need not be reserved for looming catastrophes--our services should prevent most of those.  Instead, use them to consult with us before making tech-related purchases, or have us come in for an hour or two to train employees.  Buffer hours can be used for anything!

Sound good?

We deeply appreciate your patience in reading all that.  If our IT retainer program sounds like a good match for your smaller organization, please give us a call at 307-314-2525 or e-mail us at info@technologic.help to schedule our first meeting!