IT Support Plans in Hong Kong: What a Monthly Plan Includes, Seat by Seat

The short answer: A monthly IT support plan in Hong Kong is a fixed fee per user that buys a service desk, device monitoring and patching, Microsoft 365 or Google account management and a monthly report; higher plans add security tools, backup, on-site visits and longer hours. Brocent publishes three plans, Essentials, Business and Premium, at the live Hong Kong prices shown below. Buy the plan that matches the hours your staff actually work and the on-site help you actually use, not the biggest one.

This article is for a Hong Kong owner or office manager comparing IT support plans and pricing. It does one thing: it takes each line of a monthly plan and says what that line buys for each person you pay for. If you want to compare a monthly plan with paying by the hour or buying prepaid hours, read our guide to how much IT support costs in Hong Kong instead; this article stays on what is inside the plan.

IT support plans and pricing in Hong Kong: the three plans

Every Brocent plan has the same contents in every market. The price differs by market because engineering and on-site costs differ. The live Hong Kong prices are below, per user per month, on an annual commitment billed monthly.

Three rules apply to all three plans:

• No minimum number of users. A three-person office can buy a plan.
• No discount for more users. The price is set by what the plan includes, not by how many people you have.
• Month to month is allowed. With no annual commitment, the price is 1.2 times the list price shown.

What every seat includes, on every plan

Whichever plan you choose, each user you pay for gets the following. This is the baseline to hold any other quote against.

• A remote service desk in English and the local language. In Hong Kong that means English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
• Unlimited requests within the plan's service hours. You are not charged per ticket.
• Several ways to ask for help: portal tickets, email, phone, WeChat, WhatsApp and LINE.
• Monitoring and patching of devices through remote management software (often called RMM: a small agent on each computer that reports problems and installs updates).
• Antivirus status checks, so a laptop whose protection has stopped working is noticed.
• Microsoft 365 or Google user management: new starters, leavers and changes.
• A monthly report on tickets, devices and patches.
• Free onboarding, measured in remote hours (see below).

Essentials: remote support in business hours

Essentials is the plan for an office where most problems can be fixed remotely and an engineer is needed on site only now and then.

• Hours: business hours, 8×5, 09:00 to 18:00 local time, unlimited requests.
• Response: 1 hour to respond, 4 hours to fix remotely.
• Devices: monitoring, patching and antivirus status checks.
• Accounts: Microsoft 365 or Google joiners and leavers.
• On-site: not included. Visits are bought separately as hours, with a two-hour minimum per visit; the hourly rates are on our Token Service rates page.
• People: a shared service desk.
• Onboarding: 2 hours remote, free.
• Fair use: around half an hour per user a month on average, with no extra charge for going over during the contract term.

Who it suits: small offices, branches of a larger company, and teams that work mostly in the cloud.

Business: adds security, backup and one visit a month

Business keeps everything in Essentials and adds the items most Hong Kong companies are asked about by clients, auditors and insurers.

• Hours: business hours, 8×5, unlimited requests.
• Response: 30 minutes to respond, 2 hours to fix remotely.
• Devices: Essentials plus managed EDR (endpoint detection and response: security software that watches for attacks on each computer, with people reviewing its alerts) and cloud backup with 50 GB per user.
• Accounts: Essentials plus a multi-factor sign-in policy and conditional access (rules that decide who can sign in from where and on which device).
• On-site: one visit a month included, two hours per visit. Unused visits do not roll over.
• Reports: Essentials plus a quarterly review and an asset register.
• People: shared service desk plus an account manager.
• Onboarding: 5 hours remote, free.
• Fair use: around 0.8 hours per user a month on average, with no extra charge for going over during the contract term.

Who it suits: offices of roughly ten people and up that hold client data, need backups they can prove, or get security questionnaires from customers.

Premium: 24×7 cover and a named desk agent

Premium keeps everything in Business and adds round-the-clock cover and more named people.

• Hours: 24×7, unlimited requests.
• Response: 15 minutes to respond, 1 hour to fix remotely.
• Channels: the same as Essentials, plus a dedicated line.
• Devices: Business plus MDR (managed detection and response: a security team watching and acting on alerts around the clock), a managed firewall, DMARC (a setting that stops others sending email in your company's name) and email security.
• Accounts: Business plus management of privileged (administrator) accounts.
• On-site: two visits a month included, two hours per visit, no roll-over.
• Reports: Business plus a summary for a head office in another country, compliance mapping (ISO 27001, DPDP, APPI, GDPR) and a vCIO annual roadmap. A vCIO is a senior adviser who plans your IT with you, part-time.
• People: account manager plus a named service desk agent.
• Onboarding: 10 hours remote plus one on-site visit, free.
• Fair use: around 1.2 hours per user a month on average, with no extra charge for going over during the contract term.

Who it suits: companies whose staff work at night or across time zones, trading and finance teams, and anyone reporting to an overseas head office.

Response times on a monthly IT support plan

The response times above are the plan-level promise: 1 hour on Essentials, 30 minutes on Business and 15 minutes on Premium. Separately, every ticket is ranked P1 to P5 by impact and urgency. Our SLA page explains how each level is defined, and the Hong Kong page states an engineer on site within 4 business hours for P1 and P2 incidents (on Premium, any time within the 24×7 window). Every project has different SLA requirements, so we can agree a project-level SLA to match yours. For what the five levels mean in practice, see our guide to SLA priority levels P1 to P4.

What a monthly plan does not include

Be clear on this before you compare quotes.

• Hardware and licences. Laptops, firewalls, Wi-Fi access points and Microsoft 365 subscriptions are bought separately. The plan manages them; it does not pay for them.
• Projects. An office move, a server replacement or a tenant migration is quoted as a project, not a support ticket.
• Extra on-site time. Visits beyond what the plan includes are bought by the hour at the rates on the Token Service rates page.
• One-off security reviews. These have their own published price. A Microsoft 365 security audit starts at US$450 for up to 10 users.
• Servers and network equipment. Managing a server or office network is priced as an add-on; the add-on prices are on the managed IT support plans page.

How to choose a plan seat by seat

Plans are set per office, not per person, so the real choice is which plan each office needs. Use four questions.

1. When do people work? If nobody needs help after 18:00 or at weekends, a business-hours plan is enough. If they do, Premium is the plan that covers it.
2. How often do you need someone on site? Less than once a month: Essentials plus paid visits. About once a month: Business. Twice or more: Premium, or a dedicated engineer if it is every day.
3. What do clients and insurers ask for? Backups you can prove, multi-factor sign-in and endpoint protection are in Business. If you are asked for round-the-clock monitoring or email protection, look at Premium.
4. Who do you report to? An overseas head office that wants a summary and a compliance map is a Premium reason.

A typical example

Take a 25-person Hong Kong office, all on Microsoft 365, open 9 to 7 on weekdays, with a client that sends a security questionnaire every year. Business usually fits: the hours are covered, the questionnaire's backup, multi-factor and endpoint questions are answered by what the plan includes, and one visit a month handles desk moves and new hardware. The monthly cost is 25 times the Business price in the table above. If the same company opened a two-person branch in Tsuen Wan, that branch could sit on Essentials. This is an illustration, not a client case.

How to save money on a monthly IT support plan

• Do not buy hours you do not work. Premium's 24×7 cover is worth it only if people need help at night.
• Do not pay for visits you will not use. Visits in Business and Premium do not roll over; if you rarely need someone on site, Essentials plus paid visits is cheaper.
• Commit for a year if you are sure. Month to month costs 1.2 times list.
• Remove unused licences. Ask the service desk to list Microsoft 365 licences held by people who have left; it is part of user management on every plan.
• Put branches on a lower plan. Different offices can be on different plans on one contract.

Questions to ask about any IT support plan

Use these with any provider, including us.

• Is the price per user or per device, and what counts as a user?
• What are the service hours, and what happens to a ticket raised outside them?
• What is the response time and the remote fix time for each plan?
• How many on-site visits are included, how long is each, and do unused visits roll over?
• Is backup included, how much storage, and when was a restore last tested?
• Who owns the admin accounts and documentation if we leave?
• Is there a minimum number of users or a minimum term?

Our guide to managed IT support services: what is included, SLA and price per user goes deeper on the SLA side of these questions.

FAQ

What is included in a monthly IT support plan?

On every Brocent plan: a remote service desk in English and the local language, unlimited requests in the plan's hours, help by portal, email, phone, WeChat, WhatsApp and LINE, device monitoring and patching, antivirus checks, Microsoft 365 or Google user management, a monthly report and free onboarding. Business and Premium add security tools, backup, on-site visits and more.

How much is a monthly IT support plan in Hong Kong?

The live Hong Kong prices per user per month are in the table in this article, on an annual commitment. Month to month costs 1.2 times that.

Is there a minimum number of users?

No. There is also no discount for more users; the price is set by what the plan includes.

Are on-site visits included?

Not on Essentials, where visits are bought separately with a two-hour minimum. Business includes one two-hour visit a month and Premium two. Unused visits do not roll over.

What happens if we use more support than the fair-use figure?

The fair-use figures (about 0.5, 0.8 and 1.2 hours per user a month on Essentials, Business and Premium) are averages. There is no extra charge for going over during the contract term.

Can we change plans later?

Plans are set per office, so you can move an office to a different plan. Talk to your account manager or the service desk about the timing.

Is 24/7 support included?

Only on Premium. Essentials and Business cover business hours, 8×5.

Next step

Price your exact headcount, and switch an office between plans, on our managed IT support plans and calculator. To see the Hong Kong team, office and local response commitments, visit our Hong Kong IT support page.