pricing guidelines

I would consider this to be applied under the guidelines of a consulting fee to be provided on a hourly basis including the cost of mileage to be included.
hourly fee of $15-30 plus mileage of .08 -.12 a mile
You would estimate the total number ofhours plus the mileage,times the number of visits rounded off to a sum that would equal to 2/3 of your monthly salary.
The other thing you could do would be to call some computer shops and ask for their prices to make on site calls,install hardwareand software,diagnostic cost to check computer.
Figure in your mileage and number of visits and make a presentable package for a monthly total.

A lot depends on what you are maintaining. A maintenance contract is basically an insurance policy, with you being the insurance company. If a machine dies horribly, it will probably cost you more to fix than you collected for that machine. If nothing happens all year, you smile all the way to the bank.

Here are a few other things to consider:
Quality and age of the hardware.
If older hardware, age of the hard disks, since they typically only have a 3 year to 5 year life. (Yes they pay forthe drive, but it can take quite a while to pull a drive from an old machine.)
What is their maintenance experience over the past year?
Are there special circumstances in your area that are hard on hardware (very dry, prone to lightning, etc.)?
Number of customers/machines in a small geographic area.
Availability of technicians in your store, or, how often can you be gone.

Good luck.

There are really two ways to look at this scenario. One is from the customer point of view and one is your point of view.

The customer will want the best value for as little money as possible. And he'll check this with others.

You are probablyinterested in the money with as little effort as possible. And you can check this with others as you are right now.

These two can meet very nicely and should if you are drawing up a contract for hardware maintenance.

Ask yourself the followingquestions :
1. How much effort do I expect to need for this particular customer (only use industry averages for indiciations, every customer is specific in his needs and wants to be treated as such)
2. Who can handle this job and what is their annual cost in salaries and fringe benefits
3. What profit margin do I want to maintain
4. What riscs am I running (liabilities, contract issues)

Question 1 has to do with your understanding of the customer environment.
Are all machines the same brand and type, how many spare components are needed. How does the customer handle the equipment (coffee stains are a good indiciation of how PCs are treated)
Get an insight by checking how many problems have occurred in the past (most customers will have some record or can give a good indication)

The 2nd question is your costs. The effort estimate in question 1 will tell you how much time, this one tells you how much cost is allocated. Do this proportional as you should look for more customers once you embark down this route. See how you can make the most of your (employee) skills.

The 3rd is again a costs issue but differes as these are indirect costs. See how much it would take to take out an insurance for these issues and add it to the costs

The 4th is up to you, but a healthy margin is required (industry standard is around 20%)

This is the total cost of the maintenance contract for your expertise cos

There are really two ways to look at this scenario. One is from the customer point of view and one is your point of view.

The customer will want the best value for as little money as possible. And he'll check this with others.

You are probablyinterested in the money with as little effort as possible. And you can check this with others as you are right now.

These two can meet very nicely and should if you are drawing up a contract for hardware maintenance.

Ask yourself the followingquestions :
1. How much effort do I expect to need for this particular customer (only use industry averages for indiciations, every customer is specific in his needs and wants to be treated as such)
2. Who can handle this job and what is their annual cost in salaries and fringe benefits
3. What profit margin do I want to maintain
4. What riscs am I running (liabilities, contract issues)

Question 1 has to do with your understanding of the customer environment.
Are all machines the same brand and type, how many spare components are needed. How does the customer handle the equipment (coffee stains are a good indiciation of how PCs are treated)
Get an insight by checking how many problems have occurred in the past (most customers will have some record or can give a good indication)

The 2nd question is your costs. The effort estimate in question 1 will tell you how much time, this one tells you how much cost is allocated. Do this proportional as you should look for more customers once you embark down this route. See how you can make the most of your (employee) skills.

The 3rd is again a costs issue but differes as these are indirect costs. See how much it would take to take out an insurance for these issues and add it to the costs

The 4th is up to you, but a healthy margin is required (industry standard is around 20%)

This is the total cost of the maintenance contract for your expertise cos