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Ongoing Microsoft 365 support

Incidents investigated, joiners and leavers handled, changes made and written down. Billed by the hour with no retainer, because a fee sized for the busy months means paying for the quiet ones.

Rate€150 / £120 / $150 per hour
RetainerNone
First response4 hours · 2 if critical
Cover07:00–01:00 UTC
01 — Overview

What this engagement is

Someone to look after the tenant. Security incidents investigated, joiners and leavers processed, mailboxes and SharePoint changed, policy adjusted when the business changes.

It is billed by the hour, with no retainer and no minimum. That is deliberate. Most Microsoft 365 estates of a few hundred people need a handful of hours some months and twenty in others, and a monthly fee sized for the busy months means paying for the quiet ones.

It also means we have no incentive to make the work last. A support model where the supplier earns more by being slower is a bad model, and clients notice eventually.

02 — Outcomes

What you get out of it

01A first response within four business hours, two for critical incidents — from someone who knows your estate rather than a queue
02Joiners and leavers handled properly: accounts created with the right licence, mailboxes converted to shared on departure rather than deleted
03Security incidents investigated with a written account of what happened and what was done
04Changes made and documented, so the next person can see why the tenant is configured the way it is
05Licensing kept honest — we tell you when you are paying for seats nobody uses
06No surprise invoice: you are billed for the hours used, listed by what they were used for

“We are an IT consulting firm, so we are pretty savvy with computers. But if anything is too technical for us, they are always available. I never feel lost. Any time we open a ticket, even for another employee, they are there.”

“They manage our licences, and when a renewal is coming up they remind us in case we want to make changes. It feels like we do not have to keep track that much, because they are always there.”

03 — Deliverables

What you receive

Onboarding review. Read-only assessment of the tenant as it stands, so we start from what exists rather than what the documentation claims.
An agreed contact route and escalation path, including who can authorise changes.
Monthly statement listing hours by task, not a single line labelled "support".
Written incident reports for anything security-related, in language you can forward to a board or an insurer.
Change log, maintained in your tenant documentation rather than in our heads.
Periodic licensing check against actual assignment, with findings you can act on.
04 — Plan

How the work unfolds

Week 1

Handover call

What the estate is, what has been done to it, what hurts. Half an hour with whoever knows most.

Week 1

Read-only review

We look at the tenant as it actually is: licensing, security posture, policy, and anything left at its default that should not be.

Week 2

Access and escalation

Delegated access agreed at the minimum level that works, contact route confirmed, and who may authorise changes written down.

Ongoing

Work as it arises

You raise it, we do it. Four business hours to first response, two for critical.

Monthly

Statement and review

Hours by task. Where a recurring task keeps appearing, we propose automating it out of existence rather than billing it every month — usually a Power Automate flow, occasionally a small piece of development.

Periodically

Licensing check

Assignment against actual use. We would rather tell you to buy fewer licences and keep the relationship.

Half an hour and a look at the tenant

A handover call and a read-only review, then you raise work as you need it. No retainer to sign and nothing to unwind if it does not suit you.

€150 / £120 / $150 per hour · no retainer
05 — Before we start

What we need from you

Delegated administrative access at the level the work requires
A named person on your side who can authorise changes
Agreement on what we may do without asking and what always needs approval
Your existing documentation, if any — and no embarrassment if there is none
06 — Working together

Who does what

IT Partner

  • Review the tenant before touching it
  • Respond within four business hours, two if critical
  • Do the work and document what changed
  • Investigate incidents and report in writing
  • Flag licensing waste when we see it
  • Bill by the hour with the tasks itemised
  • Tell you when something is outside what we do

Your team

  • Provide delegated access at an appropriate level
  • Name who can authorise changes
  • Raise work through the agreed route so nothing is lost in a personal inbox
  • Decide on the licensing findings
  • Tell us when the business changes in a way the tenant should reflect
07 — Scope

What is not included

×A 24/7 service. Cover is 07:00 to 01:00 UTC on business days. We do not claim round-the-clock support because we do not have it.
×A restoration-time SLA. A large share of Microsoft 365 incidents are resolved on Microsoft’s side. We commit to response and to keeping you informed, not to a number we do not control.
×End-user helpdesk. We work with your IT function, not with three hundred individual users. If you need first-line, we will tell you.
×Microsoft Sentinel operation. We have delivered no projects in it and do not sell it.
×On-site work. Everything is remote.
08 — Fine print

Limitations and technical notes

!Billed by the hour, no retainer. €150 / £120 / $150 depending on the contracting entity. Invoiced monthly for hours used.
!Four business hours to first response, two for critical. Business hours means 07:00–01:00 UTC, Monday to Friday.
!Cover is eighteen hours a day, not twenty-four. That is 07:00–23:00 in the UK and 10:00–02:00 in the Gulf. In Australia the overlap is poor and we will say so before you sign.
!Meetings are in English. Tickets and written support can be in German, French, Spanish and others.
!We will propose automating recurring work away. It reduces our billable hours and it is the right thing to do.
!No lock-in. Delegated access can be withdrawn at any time and there is no notice period on an hourly arrangement.
09 — Questions

Asked on almost every first call

Is there a minimum monthly fee?

No. No retainer and no minimum. Some months are two hours, some are twenty. You pay for what you use, itemised by task.

What are the rates?

€150 per hour from our EU entity, £120 in the UK, $150 from the UAE, Australian and Canadian entities. Invoiced in your local currency by the entity authorised for your country.

Do you offer 24/7 support?

No. Cover is 07:00 to 01:00 UTC on business days, which is about eighteen hours across our European team and our engineers in the United States. Claiming round-the-clock support we do not have would last until the first night-time incident.

Why is there no restoration-time SLA?

Because a large share of Microsoft 365 incidents are resolved on Microsoft’s side, and we will not promise a number we do not control. We commit to a four-hour first response, two for critical, and to keeping you informed until it is fixed.

Do we have to buy our licences from you?

No. Plenty of clients keep their existing provider. It is simpler having one party responsible for both, but nothing requires it.

What if we only need you occasionally?

That is the normal case, and it is what the hourly model is for. There is no arrangement to maintain between the times you need us.

10 — Related

Worth reading next

Scoping costs nothing

Tell us the shape of it and we will tell you what it involves

Answer the form or write to us. You get back a written scope, a sequence and a fixed price — usually within one business day, and nobody rings you unless you ask.