Most small and medium-sized businesses in the UAE and Qatar choose one of three ways to look after their IT: an annual maintenance contract (AMC), a managed IT service, or their own IT staff.
The short answer
- IT AMC: best when you want planned maintenance and support visits for a fixed yearly fee.
- Managed IT services: best when you want continuous monitoring, security management and support for a monthly fee per user or device.
- In-house IT: best when you have enough daily IT work to keep a full-time person busy, usually alongside an external partner for specialist work.
IT AMC (annual maintenance contract)
An IT AMC is a yearly agreement in which an IT company maintains your computers, servers, network and printers for a fixed fee. It usually includes:
- scheduled preventive maintenance visits;
- remote and on-site support;
- agreed response times written into the contract;
- a register of the devices covered.
It suits businesses that want predictable costs and an outside team that already knows their setup.
Managed IT services
Managed IT services go further. The provider monitors your systems continuously, applies updates, manages security tools and backups, and supports your staff. It is usually billed monthly per user or per device, and includes regular reviews of your IT and security.
It suits growing businesses that rely on email, cloud systems and remote work every day.
In-house IT
A full-time IT person knows your business closely and is on site. However, one person rarely covers networking, security, Microsoft 365 and support equally well, and holidays and sick days leave gaps. Many companies combine in-house staff with an external partner.
How to decide
- Count your users, devices, sites and critical systems.
- Decide what downtime costs you per hour.
- Ask for a free assessment and a fixed-price proposal for an AMC and a managed plan.
FortuXpert offers both IT AMC and managed IT services in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and Qatar. Book a free IT assessment to compare them for your business.