If you look through a dozen proposals from IT services firms, here’s what you’ll quickly discover: no two are alike. This makes it nearly impossible to compare one against the other and sort through all the legalese, “geek speak” and terms to determine if you’re getting a fair price or if you’re falling victim to a misleading proposal that will end up costing you far more than you were initially led to believe.

If you’re not careful, the “cheapest” or less expensive IT provider can end up costing you a lot more due to carve-outs and hidden fees in their contracts that they will later nickel-and-dime you over, or by quoting inadequate solutions that you’ll later need to pay to upgrade.

Here are 5 common things “cheaper” IT companies leave out of their initial proposal to fool you:

1 | Adequate cyber security protections are NOT included.

More specifically, you need to make sure the IT company you’re talking to isn’t just putting a basic (cheap) antivirus software on your network and calling it done. Antivirus is good but woefully insufficient to protect you.

Insurance companies now require protection such as employee cyber-awareness training, 2FA (2-factor authentication), and “advanced endpoint protection” to get insurance coverage for cyber liability and crime insurance.We provide those standards in our offering, so you reduce your chances of a cyber-attack and avoid being denied an important insurance claim (or denied coverage, period).

2 | All disaster recovery services and setup are NOT included

Make sure your IT company includes nightly off-site backups of your servers, workstations and Office 365 (if you use that technology). Another question to ask is, if your server, workstations and data were destroyed, would they charge you extra to restore them?

3 | Support outside of normal business hours and on-site visits is NOT included

This is another area that surprises many business owners: all after-hours and on-site visits involve an extra fee. They might also charge you extra to set up a workstation for a new employee in addition to the support fees and extra for any type of customary support about Office 365, such as setting up shared mailboxes, distribution lists, spam and security settings and more. We include ALL of this in our agreements so you aren’t nickel-and-dimed for every request.

4 | Vendor liaison and management is NOT included

Some IT firms will charge you hourly to resolve issues with your phone system, ISP, security cameras, printers and other devices they didn’t sell you but that still reside on the network (and give you technical problems). As a client of ours, you get all of that INCLUDED, not charged extra.

5 | Support for computers outside of warranty involve an EXTRA fee

Another little “gotcha” you might not notice is that many IT companies will charge you extra for any support or troubleshooting if the computer they are working on is outside the warranty period. While we certainly advise replacing any computer that is 5+ years old or no longer safe to use, we won’t charge you extra for supporting a PC because it is past the warranty expiration.

Call (253) 878-7737

Cyber Security Protection

NextGen Antivirus

• Cheaper IT Provider: No NextGen Antivirus

• Preactive IT Solutions: NextGen Antivirus included (can reverse ransomware damage)

Email Security

• Cheaper IT Provider: No email security

• Preactive IT Solutions: Virus, phishing, and spam protection included for email accounts

Dark Web Monitoring

• Cheaper IT Provider: No dark web monitoring

• Preactive IT Solutions: Dark web monitoring included + alerts when passwords are exposed

Phish Testing & Training

• Cheaper IT Provider: No phishing testing

• Preactive IT Solutions: Ongoing phishing tests + employee training included

Disaster Recovery Services

Server Backups

• Cheaper IT Provider: No server backups

• Preactive IT Solutions: Nightly local + off-site server backups included

Office 365 Email Backup

• Cheaper IT Provider: No email backup

• Preactive IT Solutions: Daily Office 365 email backups included
  (Critical if emails are deleted due to errors or after employee termination)

OneDrive + SharePoint Backup

• Cheaper IT Provider: No long-term backup protection

• Preactive IT Solutions: Daily OneDrive + SharePoint backups included
  (Deleted files are permanently removed within weeks — long-term backups protect your data)

Billable Services

Support Outside Business Hours

• Cheaper IT Provider: Support outside 8–5 M–F is billable

• Preactive IT Solutions: 24/7 support included (no extra billing)

Workstation Setup

• Cheaper IT Provider: Workstation setup is billable

• Preactive IT Solutions: A few workstation setups each month included

Office 365 Administration

• Cheaper IT Provider: Advanced Office 365 admin is billable

• Preactive IT Solutions: Full Office 365 administration included
  (MFA, security settings, block/allow lists, banners, mailboxes, distribution lists, AD sync)

On-Site Support

• Cheaper IT Provider: On-site support is billable

• Preactive IT Solutions: All on-site support included

Devices Outside Warranty

• Cheaper IT Provider: Devices outside warranty are billable

• Preactive IT Solutions: Repair support included even after warranty
  (We recommend replacement at 5 years; laptop screens excluded)

Older Laptop Support

• Cheaper IT Provider: Support for 4-year-old laptops is billable

• Preactive IT Solutions: Support for ALL laptops included

Vendor Management

Phones

• Cheaper IT Provider: Phones excluded

• Preactive IT Solutions: We coordinate with the vendor and keep you out of the middle

HVAC

• Cheaper IT Provider: HVAC excluded

• Preactive IT Solutions: We coordinate with the vendor and keep you out of the middle

Access Controls

• Cheaper IT Provider: Access controls excluded

• Preactive IT Solutions: We coordinate with the vendor and keep you out of the middle

Cameras

• Cheaper IT Provider: Cameras excluded

• Preactive IT Solutions: We coordinate with the vendor and keep you out of the middle

Printers & Copiers

• Cheaper IT Provider: Not mentioned / not supported clearly

• Preactive IT Solutions: We coordinate with the vendor and keep you out of the middle

Contract Terms

Pricing Based on Support Activity

• Cheaper IT Provider: Price can be raised based on support activity (not defined upfront)

• Preactive IT Solutions: Fixed price for the full agreement term

Inflation Price Increase

• Cheaper IT Provider: Price can increase for inflation (not defined upfront)

• Preactive IT Solutions: Fixed price for the full agreement term (even during inflation)

Call (253) 875-3777