"All Inclusive" Managed Services Contracts: Decide Your Position

At a recent Master Mind Meeting with my MSP clients, the topic of legal contracts came up, and their importance in not only protecting a managed IT services provider from liability, but also their role in the sales process.

What really amazed me about the discussion was how many managed services providers DON'T have a MSP contract in place with their clients, or simply use a template they received from one of the various MSP providers such as Kaseya, N-Able, or Zenith Infotech.

With the vast differences in state law AND the incredible differences in business policies, deliverables, and promises made when selling an "all-covered" managed services agreement, not having a good solid legal contract in place is very dangerous.

If for no other reason, a good contract will help you decide your position on various situations and educate the client up front on what is and isn't covered to avoid confusion and anger directed towards YOU for 'nickel and diming' them over a service they THOUGHT was 'all inclusive.'

If you leave this up to the client's imagination, they may make the incorrect assumption that you are responsible for a major network upgrade, a move, or for supporting a line of business application that you didn't install and don't know anything about.

For example, have you clearly defined in your client agreement....

- Who is liable in the event of extended downtime or data loss?
- If the client disables their anti-virus or causes some other damage to the network that requires hours of work to repair, are you responsible to fix it?
- If you didn't install it, do you have to support it?
- Corrupt software and faulty hardware; do you have to suppport it?
- End user training and help desk: is it included or billable?
- What about employees using their home computer to access the network; do you provide support for them?
- What if the client doesn't pay, or pays late? Are the services cut off? Does interest accrue on the amount outstanding?
- What about remote offices? Do you bill for travel if you have to go onsite? Can you bill the client for 'remote hands'?

These are just a FEW of the topics that were discussed at my meeting and ones that you should decide your position on BEFORE agreeing to deliver an "all inclusive" managed services contract to a client.

If you want more information on this topic, I would recommend going to http://www.mspcontracts.com/ to get a free audio interview I did with IT attorney Greg Phillips. It's absolutely free folks -- no strings attached. And this is one area that you can never be too informed about!