IT Contracting: support contracts

Siliconslave · 27 Nov 2006 at 13:18

I'm currently doing a series of contracing engagements for a small IT solutions company delivering Directory enablement projects.

The end customer is asking for a yearly support contract which i'm sure is going to cost them a pretty sum of money and the comany i'm contracted to want to arange for me to be available for responce in 4 hours and possibly be on site within two days if needed.

They want to negotiate some kind of contract and payment system but i really have no idea where to start, i don't know what would be reasonable amount to charge them for it as i'm worried about its potential impact on other work i do etc etc

Has anyone done something similar to this? or know of industry norms on pricing it?

Cheers
Sam

ihatelag · 27 Nov 2006 at 13:54

By Directory enablement are you talking Active Directory or something else... :O

Per day call out for IT consultant/contractors come out around £200 - £300.

Fixed rate for yearly support equates to what ever you want - say a few grand or so - you can't charge more than that if your alone on the project. You need to specify what areas require time on your part - server maintenance/checks/security/ whatever so that your costs are justified.

Anyway - as im not sure of what exactly you are doing, so you can adjust the rates to suit your field of expertise.

Good luck in getting the contract and let us know how it goes!

Siliconslave · 27 Nov 2006 at 13:59

ihatelag said:
By Directory enablement are you talking Active Directory or something else... :O

Fixed rate for yearly support equates to what ever you want - say a few grand or so - you can't charge more than that if your alone on the project.

Its linking directorys such as AD with other directory/databases such as eDirectory or legacy mainframes and the like

what ever i want is a hard place to start from - cause while they aren't exactly paying for my time, i am having to be availble, thus i have no idea what to charge

ihatelag · 27 Nov 2006 at 14:27

Siliconslave said:
Its linking directorys such as AD with other directory/databases such as eDirectory or legacy mainframes and the like

what ever i want is a hard place to start from - cause while they aren't exactly paying for my time, i am having to be availble, thus i have no idea what to charge

Okay so due to the extensive number of things your looking at, I suggest a flat rate charge of around £200 per day. That's the average call out nowadays.

Check out theitjobboard.com for latest pricing estimates for people doing work in a similar domain - you can make an assesment against that. At least then if they try and negotiate down your rate - you can point or advise them of how much people are getting paid in a similar field.

Just make sure you sound confident when you tell them that charge

As for yearly maintenance for AD and legacy systems - that's the hardest one to cost up as it's soley dependant on how many times you will be asked to fix the system. (remote management + support costs around 15k per year where I work) The less confident you are in implementing a robust system the higher you should charge

Because the net-time spent bug-fixing can be a pain...

Siliconslave · 27 Nov 2006 at 14:37

i've just finished a long time and materials contract with them as a developer for pretty much industry identity management contracting ratesm however they now want me to be availbe for support as and when its needed and this is where i'm falling down, how do i work out a yearly rate for availibity and some work...

ihatelag said:
As for yearly maintenance for AD and legacy systems - that's the hardest one to cost up as it's soley dependant on how many times you will be asked to fix the system. (remote management + support costs around 15k per year where I work) The less confident you are in implementing a robust system the higher you should charge Because the net-time spent bug-fixing can be a pain...

ay - thats the issue... but its not the directorys that i'm supporting, more the linking solution