Support contract cost (1 Viewer)

G

geoB

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• Nov 18, 2009

• #1

For those who have charged for their services, a question regarding support contracts. Let's say you have billed a client $x for 50 hours of application development, installation, training and one year of support. It is now time to advise the client that support for the coming year will be $y. What would you use for the ratio of y to x?

Thanks for your thoughts.

George

 

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shadow9449

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• Nov 18, 2009

• #2

geoB said:

For those who have charged for their services, a question regarding support contracts. Let's say you have billed a client $x for 50 hours of application development, installation, training and one year of support. It is now time to advise the client that support for the coming year will be $y. What would you use for the ratio of y to x?

Thanks for your thoughts.

George

Click to expand...

Actually, now is not the time to advise the client that they have to pay support. That should have been made clear when the project started.

At any rate, make sure that the client knows what the support fee covers and what it doesn't cover.

My rule of thumb is 10% of the original contract cost.

SHADOW

 

G

GaryPanic

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• Nov 18, 2009

• #3

Yep 10% sounds about right -
i went through a major design process for a system (don't worry i wasn't building i was getting a cost for it) and right up front design cost x and the support was 10% there after -

hope this helps

 

HiTechCoach

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• Nov 18, 2009

• #4

Why not just charge the same "one year of support" add to the original amount that you advised your client that they were originally paying for the first year?

 

G

geoB

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• Nov 19, 2009

• #5

Thanks to all who have responded.

The client advice is necessary because ownership changed hands this year. The application was built for a local government agency. With all the budget mess in California, the application was shuffled off to a larger and, I suppose, better funded agency.

I'll probably go with something less than 10%, largely because of the severe budget constraints.

Thanks again.

George

 

gemma-the-husky

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• Dec 11, 2009

• #6

the cost ought to depend on how good the software is

support shouldnt cover training etc, so I would make sure its clear whats "free" (ie within the support contract) and what isnt.