IT Support Contracts in Cambridge

Choosing the Right IT Support Contract: What Your Options Actually Mean

There is no shortage of IT support providers near Cambridge, and most will offer you a contract of some kind. The difference between them often comes down to what is actually included, how pricing is structured and what you're left paying for when something goes wrong on-site. This page sets out the real options so you can make an honest comparison.

What These Contracts Cover (and What They Don't)

Our contracts cover Windows PCs, Windows laptops and Microsoft 365. We do not offer support for Apple Macs. If your office runs a mix of Windows and Mac machines, be upfront with any provider about that - a contract that doesn't cover all your devices has obvious gaps.

Support runs during office hours. That includes emergency support within those hours. If your business genuinely needs support outside office hours, you'll need to ask any provider whether they offer it and what it costs. We don't offer it, so we won't charge you for it either.

Business Essentials: What It Is and When It Makes Sense

Business Essentials gives you unlimited remote and phone support during office hours. Updates, backups and security are kept in check on an ongoing basis. If something needs a physical visit, on-site call-outs are charged separately at £60 plus labour.

This plan suits businesses where on-site faults are rare, where most issues can be sorted remotely, and where the office manager is happy to plug in a cable or restart a device while a technician talks them through it. For a small team that runs mostly on laptops and Microsoft 365, it's often the practical choice.

Pricing per computer per month (excluding VAT):

• 1 computer: £36
• 2 to 3 computers: £31.20 each
• 4 to 9 computers: £25.20 each
• 10 to 17 computers: £22.20 each
• 18 or more computers: £21.60 each

Business Premium: What the Extra Cost Gets You

Business Premium includes everything in Business Essentials, but on-site labour and call-outs are included in the monthly price rather than charged on top.

The honest case for Business Premium is predictability. If your machines are older, if your office layout involves hardware that needs physical attention, or if you'd rather know your exact IT spend each month without surprises, the all-in monthly price makes budgeting simpler. For growing offices that are adding machines, the per-computer pricing scales in a way that's easy to forecast.

Pricing per computer per month (excluding VAT):

• 1 computer: £54
• 2 to 3 computers: £42 each
• 4 to 6 computers: £38.60 each
• 7 to 9 computers: £33.80 each
• 10 to 12 computers: £31.20 each
• 13 to 15 computers: £28.40 each
• 16 to 19 computers: £25.40 each
• 20 or more computers: £24.40 each

Honest Pros and Cons of Each Plan

Business Essentials

• Pro: lower monthly outlay, especially for small teams
• Pro: unlimited remote and phone support still gives you a lot of cover
• Con: an unexpected on-site visit costs extra (£60 call-out plus labour)
• Con: if on-site problems are frequent, the additional charges can mount up

Business Premium

• Pro: all on-site visits included - no surprise invoices
• Pro: easier to budget month to month
• Con: higher monthly cost per machine, which matters more if you have very few computers
• Con: if your office rarely needs on-site visits, you may be paying for cover you don't use

A rough guide: if your office has called out an engineer on-site more than twice in the past year and paid for it each time, Business Premium is likely to cost you less overall. If on-site visits are genuinely rare, Business Essentials keeps the monthly bill lower.

What About Per-User Pricing?

Some IT providers price by user rather than by computer. Our contracts are priced per computer per month. For offices where staff share machines or where some computers are used by multiple people, per-computer pricing can work out notably cheaper. It also makes it simple to add or remove machines as your team changes.

The Pay-As-You-Go Option

If you're not ready to commit to a monthly contract, pre-paid blocks of time are available. Each block includes monthly monitoring and priority service, and is valid for up to six months:

• 4 hours: £312
• 8 hours: £592
• 16 hours: £1,123

This suits businesses that have IT support handled internally most of the time but want a fallback when something goes beyond their own team's ability to fix.

Managed Email Service

A managed email service is also available. Pricing for this is quoted on request, as the right solution depends on what you're currently running and how many users you have.

What to Check Before You Commit to Any Contract

Regardless of provider, these are the questions worth asking:

• Is the contract priced per computer or per user?
• What exactly is included in remote support - does it cover Microsoft 365 administration or just hardware faults?
• What are the contract terms and how much notice is needed to end it?
• If an on-site engineer is needed, who covers that cost?
• Does monitoring continue if you pause or end the contract?

Talk to Us About Cover for Your Cambridge Business

Call us to talk through which plan fits your office size and the way your team actually works.