Why will you not publish a price?

Because the bill is not built from one. It is charged per device, per user, per service and per site, so a single per-user figure would be a guess dressed up as a price — and a headline number invites a comparison made on one line rather than on what is included. Build a package and we will quote against exactly what you configured.

Do you charge per user or per device?

Both, and more besides. The lines are added together rather than chosen between: one for each machine we look after, one for each person we protect, one for your network equipment, and a site charge for what belongs to the building rather than to any single machine. So twenty people using twelve machines in one office is twelve device charges and twenty user charges, plus the network kit and the site. Counting machines rather than heads on the support line is what keeps shared desks, shift patterns and part-time staff from being billed like full seats.

What happens at renewal?

We review our own costs and the wholesale pricing behind them regularly, and pass on an increase where one is warranted. If your price is going up, you hear it from us first — the reason and the amount, before it reaches an invoice. Where the increase falls at your renewal, your notice deadline is 90 days before the renewal date and that notice comes 30 days before the deadline, so you can decide whether to renew rather than find out too late to act. Increases are considered carefully and kept as small as we can before they reach you.

Do you mark up Microsoft licences?

No. Microsoft licences are sold on at Microsoft's published list price, and you can check that price yourself. Hardware and other third-party products are quoted on request and our sale price includes our margin.

Could the invoice come in higher than the quote?

No. Everything is quoted before you buy it and the quoted price is what you pay. Your monthly fee moves when your estate changes, at the annual review, or where a supplier we buy from puts their own prices up — and that last one comes with 30 days' written notice and, where the increase is more than a quarter of the price of that service, the right to drop that service alone without an early termination charge.

How we charge — what is included and what moves the number

There is no per-user figure to publish, because that is not how the bill is built. It is several lines added together — the machines we look after, the people we protect, your network equipment, the site, the services on top — and a single headline number would hide every one of them. What we will do instead is set out exactly how it is constructed, so nothing on your first invoice is a surprise.

What is charged, and on what basis

Your bill is several lines added together, not one line with the rest sold as extras. Most businesses pay all of the ones below, and your quote shows each separately so you can see what is driving the total.

Per managed device: Every machine we look after: desktops, laptops and servers. This is the base of the bill, and it is charged for the machine rather than for a head on your payroll, so shared desks, shift patterns and part-time staff are not billed like full seats.
Per user: Protection is charged per person, in one of three tiers, because it follows the person rather than the hardware. It is in addition to the device charge rather than instead of it: twenty people across twelve machines is twelve devices and twenty users.
Per network device: Firewalls, switches, access points and the rest of the network equipment, charged per device on the same basis as everything else we look after.
Per site: What belongs to the site rather than to any one machine — the monitoring probe that watches the network itself, and the jump box we reach it through.

Every managed computer and server includes

All of it, before any protection tier is chosen. Most providers charge separately for half of this, or do not offer it at all. Other kinds of device are looked after too, and we do not charge for managing your printer.

Unlimited remote support: No per-ticket charge. There is a fair-use clause, we have never had to reach for it, and it is not a number you can trip over in a bad month — it exists in case someone genuinely takes advantage.
Unlimited on-site support: During business hours, where the problem genuinely needs someone in the room. Included rather than charged per visit, where your agreement includes it.
Endpoint detection and response: Behavioural detection on the machine itself, not just signature-matching antivirus.
24/7 threat containment: A machine showing signs of compromise is isolated from the network before it spreads, at any hour. That happens automatically where the detection is clear-cut, and by a person where it is not, because not everything announces itself.
Privileged access management: Staff work without local administrator rights, and elevate for a specific task when it is needed. This closes off most of what ransomware relies on.
Patching and update management: Operating system updates, and updates for the third-party applications our patching platform supports, tested and scheduled rather than left to each machine.
Monitoring and automated remediation: Disk, memory, service state and hardware health, with routine faults corrected without a human being involved.
Asset and documentation record: The device is in your asset register with its specification, age and software, kept current rather than written once and left.

See how the tiers differ

What the monthly fee includes

Unlimited remote support, and unlimited on-site support (subject to location) during business hours, for every managed device.
Monitoring, patching and automated remediation.
A current record of your estate: asset register, licence and subscription list, users, domains and DNS. Kept up to date as the thing we work from, and handed to you if you ever leave.
Supplier liaison with your connectivity, telephony, managed print and software vendors, up to the point where the work becomes a project. There is less of it when the line, the handsets or the printer came from us, because then the supplier we have to chase is ourselves.
Advice when you ask for it, and when we think you need it.

What it does not include

Hardware.
Software licences.
Project work: migrations, office moves, new sites, infrastructure replacement. Scoped and quoted separately. So are the security questionnaires your own customers and suppliers send you — we will complete them properly, which takes time we have to charge for.
Extended or 24/7 cover, which are separate lines.
Remedial work identified during onboarding, which is quoted as a backlog rather than absorbed.
Third-party supplier liaison beyond routine fault reporting, where a supplier's own failure creates substantial work.

Third-party costs

Licensing, hardware and telephony are third-party costs. Everything is quoted before you buy it, and the price we quote is the price you pay. There are no adjustments afterwards.

Microsoft licences are sold on at Microsoft's published list price. We do not mark them up, and you can check the price yourself. Hardware and other third-party products are quoted on request, and our sale price includes our margin.

Most providers will not tell you either of those things. We would rather you knew where the money goes than found out later and wondered what else was not being said.

How Microsoft licences are committed

Two ways, and which one you take is your decision rather than ours. The difference in price between them is Microsoft's discount, not ours: we sell at their list price either way and pass on whichever one applies.

Annual, paid up front: A twelve-month commitment paid in one go. Microsoft prices this below the monthly rate, so it is the cheaper of the two if the cash flow suits you.
Monthly, paid monthly: A month's commitment at a time, at Microsoft's higher monthly rate. You pay more for it, and in exchange your numbers can move as your headcount does.

There is a third arrangement, and we do not offer it: an annual commitment paid monthly. Microsoft prices that one below the monthly rate too, but the twelve months are owed whatever happens to the business paying for them, and it would be us who owed them. Carrying a year of someone else's licensing is lending rather than IT support, and we are not a finance company. That applies the same way at one user as at two hundred, so nobody should read it as a judgement about them.

What moves the number

Two businesses with the same headcount can pay very different amounts. This is why.

Servers on your premises, which cost more to look after than cloud services.
More than one site.
A compliance regime: ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, or a customer's own security requirements.
Legacy line-of-business applications, particularly ones the vendor no longer supports.
Out-of-hours cover.
A high rate of staff turnover, because starters and leavers are the most frequent request there is.

Project work

Project work is scoped before it is quoted. Small, well-understood pieces of work are fixed price. Anything where the shape of the work depends on what we find — an undocumented environment, a migration from a system nobody has the credentials for — is quoted as a day rate with an estimated range and an agreed point at which we stop and talk to you. We would rather give you a range we can stand behind than a fixed price padded to cover what we cannot see.

Contract terms

Minimum term: One-year term that auto-renews yearly.
Notice period: 90 days' notice before the end of the one-year anniversary renewal date.
Annual review: Our own costs and the wholesale pricing behind them are reviewed regularly, and where an increase is warranted we pass it on. Your agreement sets out the mechanism and the ceiling. What matters in practice is that if we are putting your price up, we tell you — with the reason and the amount, before it reaches an invoice. Where the increase falls at your renewal, that notice comes 30 days before your notice deadline, which is 120 days before the renewal itself, so you have time to decide whether to renew. Increases are considered carefully and kept as small as we can before they reach you.
VAT: All figures are quoted excluding VAT, and say so.

What happens at the end of that notice period is written down too, on how to leave us.

Send us your current bill and we will map it to this list, line by line.

No access to your systems, no meeting required. Send the invoice and we will tell you what each line buys, what it would sit under here, and where you are paying twice for the same thing. You will get that back whether or not you go any further with us.

Send us a bill

Questions people ask

Why will you not publish a price?: Because the bill is not built from one. It is charged per device, per user, per service and per site, so a single per-user figure would be a guess dressed up as a price — and a headline number invites a comparison made on one line rather than on what is included. Build a package and we will quote against exactly what you configured.
Do you charge per user or per device?: Both, and more besides. The lines are added together rather than chosen between: one for each machine we look after, one for each person we protect, one for your network equipment, and a site charge for what belongs to the building rather than to any single machine. So twenty people using twelve machines in one office is twelve device charges and twenty user charges, plus the network kit and the site. Counting machines rather than heads on the support line is what keeps shared desks, shift patterns and part-time staff from being billed like full seats.
What happens at renewal?: We review our own costs and the wholesale pricing behind them regularly, and pass on an increase where one is warranted. If your price is going up, you hear it from us first — the reason and the amount, before it reaches an invoice. Where the increase falls at your renewal, your notice deadline is 90 days before the renewal date and that notice comes 30 days before the deadline, so you can decide whether to renew rather than find out too late to act. Increases are considered carefully and kept as small as we can before they reach you.
Do you mark up Microsoft licences?: No. Microsoft licences are sold on at Microsoft's published list price, and you can check that price yourself. Hardware and other third-party products are quoted on request and our sale price includes our margin.
Could the invoice come in higher than the quote?: No. Everything is quoted before you buy it and the quoted price is what you pay. Your monthly fee moves when your estate changes, at the annual review, or where a supplier we buy from puts their own prices up — and that last one comes with 30 days' written notice and, where the increase is more than a quarter of the price of that service, the right to drop that service alone without an early termination charge.

How we charge.