Charging for IT work?!?!

[umc]

Hey all,

I'm just curious if anyone is charging for IT work out there. We want to and I'm looking into getting a program setup for it but am struggling a bit. Does anyone have a IT service agreement that they use in relation to the copiers?

I'm talking about connectivity issues that revolve around the copiers such as the customer was printing just fine until they changed their router. This should be a chargeable call. Or scan to email was working just fine but now it's not and maybe they changed ISP's or someone changed a password for the email account used to setup scan to email. Again, should be chargeable.

I'm wondering if anyone is doing this currently and what kind of verbiage do you have in place for a contract as well as for those who answer the phones so they can let the customer know that it may be chargeable based on XXYY criteria?

Please help.

[mjarbar]

Hello,

We do charge for any work for IT problems that relate to the copier but are not caused by the copier itself (this is covered by the regular service contract) and at the moment we charge £100 for the call out with the 1st 30mins thrown in then it's £10 for every 10mins thereafter.

We had to start doing this as we had a lot of companies fiddle around with there servers and then their IT saying it was a problem with the copier and so not their problem to deal with.

Our service contract covers the machine upto the network point it is connected to, after that the IT contract allows us to cover things like scanning and print issues but any hardware issues like computers, servers and hubs are down to the customer and their IT dept / support company.

Hope this is a bit of help.

[Stirton.M]

Like mjarbar, we had those same kinds of issues in Calgary.

We have a connected care agreement signed by the customer on day one of the install. They have 30 days full support for the network. Most companies, we will install 5 workstations with drivers. Anything larger, we will do a server side driver install. Command workstation for fiery related installs, along with the associated programs that go with that. There is some legalese on the document to cover that portion.

Anything outside of that 30 days is subject to $90/hr service charge. Some of my peers are a little forgiving, but I am not. I stick to my guns, and usually I ensure the customer is clear on this when the initial install is done. There are many third party IT guys out there who try their hardest not to do their basic jobs out there, its beneath them to install drivers or even properly configure them. Nothing more annoying than having a server side driver installed, and the options had not been configured properly.

[copytechman]

^^^^ What mrwho said!!! Agrees vigorously! Argh!!

A!

[peterepeat]

We generally include 1 hour for network setup at time of machine sale. Anything more than that gets our $175/hr IT charge. That covers us for whatever inevitable variables/adventures we may encounter with their existing network. Like Stirton mentioned, many IT guys think it's beneath them, plus we can ensure the customer will get FULL functionality & capability of the machine.

As for daily calls pertaining to printing, scanning, etc, the customer is notified at placement of call that if it is detirmined that there was no problem with the machine [network-type issues], they will be charged...s/c or not.
....that saves us headaches cuz that's when they usually call their IT guy 1st. ["Well I think we did just change our isp last weekend..."]

[umc]

Awesome.

Just a couple of things. Does anyone have an electronic copy of their IT contracts they could send me? Part of this equation in getting this setup is having the verbiage in place, I don't want to re-invent the wheel if I don't have to.

Also, does anyone have a list of what is chargeable and what isn't? How do you determine that and have it outlined for the customer for when they start asking?

I run into this almost on a daily basis as I handle all of the IT issues with my company and it's my job to turn our IT department in to a profit center vs. an expense as it's been all these years. What I see a lot is that the customer just doesn't want to pay their IT company so they try and get around it by calling us and the bottom line is that we either need to stop being taken advantage of or we get paid for our services, just as any other IT company would.

Once I have a plan in place; list of what is chargeable and a time frame from initial install and once I have a contract I think we will be able to move forward and let the people who answer the phones here know that they're going to have to not just put the call up for IT service but also let the customer know there may be a charge.

The other thing I want to put into place is having an annual support contract so that we can charge a nominal fee up front and then handle any of these type of copier/network related issues down the road for them as part of this connectivity service plan.


Please let me know if you all having something you can email over, I would greatly appreciate it.

[DocuSystems]

One thing we do is set the copier's to DHCP (provided it's available on the customers network) and point the drivers by creating a port using the SMB Hostname on the copier. I usually change that to a more friendly name such as Bizhub250. Then, if there's a change in the IP scheme, rebooting the copier is all the customer has to do to fix it. And you don't have to manually go to each workstation and re-point the drivers to a new IP address. Of course this cut's in on the IT related revenue, but it sure makes our machines appear to be a whole lot more reliable than the competition! Which means more of the big money on new machine sales through referrals, and repeat sales.

[serviceman]

We include 2-4 workstations that we will do drivers/software on upon new installs. That is usually enough to "teach" their most tech savvy person how to do it on their own. We will not touch their servers, but if their IT person is there, will assist if they prefer to install it that way. After install we typically charge $125/hr (for people who have hardware contracts with us) for IT issues. We got tired of being their "free IT support."

[umc]

We include 2-4 workstations that we will do drivers/software on upon new installs. That is usually enough to "teach" their most tech savvy person how to do it on their own. We will not touch their servers, but if their IT person is there, will assist if they prefer to install it that way. After install we typically charge $125/hr (for people who have hardware contracts with us) for IT issues. We got tired of being their "free IT support."

Yes, this is exactly it.

[klurejr]

I have been in the business of charging for IT related work for the past 10 years of so. The most important thing is to set the expectation up front. We have a basic Statement of work that outlines what the customer gets as part of the sale, so many hours, workstations, etc. It clearly outlines that anything beyond that is charged at $120.00 per hour.

We also offer Blocks of time to customers if they are interested in having us take over as the IT provider. By offering this it shows a value add of doing business with our company. Giving away free IT service hurts the company you work for, and teaches customers to abuse the Service contract the clearly only covers the hardware of the machine.