Managed IT Support Services: What's Included, SLAs & Price per User (HK/SG 2026)

Short answer: Managed IT support services outsource your day-to-day IT to a provider that monitors, patches, secures and supports your users for a fixed monthly fee, usually priced per user. A sound contract states what is covered, the response and resolution times for each priority level, and the price table. The current Brocent price table is embedded below and updates automatically.

What do managed IT support services include?

A managed IT support service is an outsourced IT department. Instead of calling an engineer when something breaks, you pay a recurring fee and the provider is responsible for keeping your devices, accounts, network and data working. For a Hong Kong or Singapore company with 5 to 500 staff, that normally means six things:

• Monitoring and alerting. Servers, networks, endpoints and cloud workloads are watched around the clock, so most faults are caught and fixed before users notice.
• Helpdesk and end-user support. Staff raise a ticket, call or message, and an engineer responds within a stated time. Onboarding and offboarding of users, password resets and "how do I" requests sit here.
• Device management. Laptops, desktops, phones and printers are patched, protected with antivirus, enrolled in device management and tracked in an asset inventory.
• Security governance. Monthly patching, vulnerability scanning, privileged-account control and periodic access reviews, aligned to ISO/IEC 27001 controls.
• Backup and disaster recovery. Scheduled backups, restoration tests and recovery drills against agreed recovery-time and recovery-point objectives.
• IT leadership. A virtual CTO or vCIO who keeps the IT roadmap, vendor list and budget, so a growing company gets senior judgement without a senior hire.

That is the scope of Brocent's Managed IT Services, which are billed per employee per month, with the current rates on the pricing page. The rest of this guide explains how to read the scope, the service levels and the price table before you sign anything.

How are managed IT support services priced?

There are four common models. Most proposals are a mix of them, so ask which one each line item uses.

Pricing models compared

• Per user per month. One rate for each employee, which usually covers that person's devices up to a stated limit. It scales with headcount and is the easiest model to budget. It is the model Brocent uses for its core plans.
• Per device per month. A rate for each laptop, desktop or server. It suits companies with many shared or kiosk devices, but it can punish firms where each person has three devices.
• Flat monthly fee. A fixed fee for a defined scope. It is simple, but check what happens when you hire or add an office, because the fee is often renegotiated.
• Break/fix or token-based hours. You pay per visit or draw down a block of pre-purchased hours. It works as a top-up for onsite work and projects, not as a replacement for monitoring.

Two clauses change the real price more than the headline rate: what happens when headcount changes mid-term, and which work counts as a billable project rather than included support.

Current Brocent price table

Managed IT prices change, and a number typed into an article goes stale. This table is generated from the same data as the pricing page, so it always shows the current figures for each market (Hong Kong, Singapore, mainland China and the United States), together with the date they are valid to.

Prices are set per market, not as one global rate. The Enterprise tier is quoted individually, so it has no list price. For the full breakdown of what each plan includes, see Brocent pricing.

Which managed IT plan fits a company of your size?

Brocent's plans are named by company size. The differences are mainly about how much dedicated attention you get, not about whether the basics are covered.

• Startup (1 to 5 employees). The essentials for a very small team: monitoring, helpdesk, one device per user and a short complimentary onboarding block. Extras such as IT budget preparation are billable.
• Established (5 to 300 employees). Adds a dedicated account manager, website and domain monitoring, annual IT budget preparation and up to three devices per user. This is where most Hong Kong and Singapore SMEs land.
• Growth (10 to 500 employees). Adds a dedicated service desk agent who learns your environment, a bi-annual budget review and a longer onboarding allowance.
• Enterprise (25+ employees). Adds a dedicated infrastructure support engineer, IT vendor management for up to ten of your vendors and the largest onboarding allowance. Pricing is custom.

Sizes overlap on purpose. A 40-person firm with a heavy compliance load and many devices per person may choose Growth over Established for the dedicated agent. The comparison matrix on the pricing page lists every difference line by line.

What SLAs should managed IT support include?

The SLA decides whether the contract protects you. Three questions matter: how fast does someone respond, how fast is it fixed, and during which hours does the clock run.

Brocent publishes five priority levels on its SLA page:

• P1, critical. Service halted or severely degraded, for example users cannot reach email or finance systems. First response in 15 minutes, remote support in 30 minutes, onsite within 4 business hours or as planned, resolution target of 8 business hours.
• P2, high. Part of a system is down or degraded. First response in 15 minutes, remote support in 30 minutes, onsite within 4 business hours, resolution target of 24 business hours.
• P3, medium. Some users are affected but critical components work. First response in 30 minutes, remote support in 60 minutes, resolution target of 48 business hours.
• P4, low. A feature problem or improvement request. First response in 60 minutes, remote support in 120 minutes, resolution target of 48 business hours.
• P5, routine. Planned or routine requests such as new installations and password resets. First response in 60 minutes, resolution target of 72 business hours.

There are two service windows. The standard window is 8x5, Monday to Friday. The premium window is 24x7 and supports P1 and P2 emergencies with a 4-hour onsite response at any time. Every Brocent plan includes 24x7x365 monitoring and the 15-minute P1 response.

How to read any provider's SLA

• First response is not resolution. A 15-minute response means a qualified engineer has picked up the ticket. Look for a separate resolution target.
• Business hours versus calendar hours. "8 business hours" can stretch across a weekend. Ask when the clock stops.
• Remote versus onsite. Most faults are fixed remotely. For onsite, the commitment that matters is a published hours figure in the contract, not "as soon as possible".
• Who sets priority. The impact and urgency matrix should be written down, so a P1 is not decided by whoever is on shift.
• Remedies. Ask what happens when a target is missed: reporting, review meetings and service credits.

For a deeper look at how P1 to P4 are defined, see IT support SLA priority levels explained.

What is usually not included?

Reading the exclusions is as important as reading the inclusions. These are typically separate line items at any provider, Brocent included:

• Projects. Office moves, server migrations, a Microsoft 365 tenant consolidation or a new-site network build are scoped and quoted separately.
• Infrastructure add-ons. Managed network and wireless, virtual servers and per-device cloud backup are listed as add-ons on the pricing page.
• Advanced security services. Vulnerability scanning, patch management and security awareness training have their own rates, while MDR/EDR, SOC monitoring and a fractional CISO (vCISO) are quoted individually.
• Onsite work outside the plan. Onsite support is delivered through a token-based model, including non-business hours, weekends and holidays.
• Third-party licences. Microsoft 365, antivirus and other licences are normally billed at the vendor's price.

A good proposal lists these exclusions by name. If a quote does not, ask.

Hong Kong or Singapore: what changes?

The service model is the same in both markets, and the differences are mostly commercial and regulatory.

• Currency and price. Prices are published per market. Hong Kong and Singapore each have their own table above, so you are not converting from another currency.
• Delivery footprint. Brocent has had a Hong Kong office since 2016 and has been headquartered in Singapore since 2021, after being founded in Beijing in 2007. Singapore customers are served from the Singapore headquarters, and a single contract can cover several APAC offices.
• Onsite SLA. Brocent's published onsite target for P1 and P2 is 4 business hours or as planned. Confirm the onsite time for each of your offices in the contract.
• Languages. Support is multilingual (English, Chinese, Japanese and Hindi), which matters for firms with mixed teams.
• Data protection. Hong Kong firms look at the PDPO and Singapore firms at the PDPA when a provider handles personal data. Ask how the provider restricts access and logs administrator activity.

If your company operates in both markets, ask for one master agreement with a schedule per country instead of two unrelated contracts.

How do you compare managed IT support providers?

Use this checklist to put two or three proposals side by side:

• Scope. Is every item in the six-part list above named, or only "IT support"?
• Price unit. Per user, per device or flat? What triggers a change mid-term?
• Priority levels. Are P1 to P5 defined, with first-response and resolution times?
• Service window. 8x5 or 24x7? Is monitoring 24x7 even when the helpdesk is not?
• Onsite. Is there a stated onsite time, and what does an onsite visit cost?
• Security. Are patching, vulnerability scanning and access reviews in the base fee?
• Backup. Are restore tests and recovery drills in scope, with RTO and RPO written down?
• Exit. Can you take your documentation, passwords and asset register with you at the end?

For a fuller selection process, read how to choose a managed IT services provider in Hong Kong. If you are still deciding whether to outsource at all, see managed IT versus an in-house IT team for Hong Kong SMEs or the Singapore version.

What should the contract say about term, contacts and exit?

Three clauses are easy to skip and expensive to fix later.

• Term. Plans are billed monthly, per user or per device. Brocent says discounted annual and multi-year terms are available if you want to lock in a rate, and a vCIO quotes both options when you request a plan. In any proposal, check the notice period and what happens to the price at renewal.
• Named contact. Every Brocent plan lists a named vCIO with a technology roadmap. Established and above add a dedicated account manager, Growth adds a dedicated service desk agent, and Enterprise adds a dedicated infrastructure support engineer. Ask any provider who your named contact is and how quickly they respond.
• Exit. You should be able to take your documentation, administrator credentials and asset register with you, so a change of provider does not start from zero. Brocent lists customer-owned documentation and credentials among the items included in every plan. Whatever the provider, ask for the exit steps in writing: how long the handover takes, what format the documentation is in, and who rotates the administrator passwords once the new provider takes over.

Frequently asked questions

How much do managed IT support services cost per user?

Per-user pricing varies by market and plan size, and it changes over time. The table in the pricing section above shows the current Brocent price for each tier in Hong Kong, Singapore, mainland China and the United States. Use it as the reference, and treat any number quoted elsewhere without a date as unreliable.

What is the difference between managed IT and break/fix support?

Break/fix means you call and pay when something fails. Managed IT means the provider is paid to prevent failures through monitoring, patching and backup, and to respond quickly when they happen. Managed IT turns IT cost into a predictable monthly line, while break/fix is cheaper only until the first serious incident.

What response time should I expect for a critical incident?

For a P1, expect a first response within 15 minutes and remote support starting within 30 minutes. Brocent commits to a 15-minute first response on every plan, with a resolution target of 8 business hours and onsite attendance within 4 business hours or as planned.

Is 24x7 support included?

Monitoring is 24x7x365 on every plan. The standard helpdesk window is 8x5, and the premium 24x7 window covers P1 and P2 emergencies at any hour, with onsite attendance within 4 hours. Confirm the window in your contract.

Does managed IT cover Microsoft 365 and cloud services?

Microsoft and third-party application updates are part of every plan, and your Microsoft environment is monitored and patched like any other system. Migrations and tenant consolidations are projects, and licences are billed at the vendor's price.

Will the price change when I hire more people?

With per-user pricing, the monthly amount follows headcount. Check the contract for how and when new users are added and whether you can reduce headcount without penalty. Also note which plan band your company size falls into, because the size ranges overlap.

Can a small company with fewer than 10 staff use managed IT?

Yes. The Startup tier is designed for teams of 1 to 5 people, and Established covers 5 to 300 employees. Very small teams usually benefit most from monitoring, backup and a reliable helpdesk, because they have no internal IT to fall back on.

How do I start?

Pick the plan band closest to your headcount, list your offices and the systems you use, and ask for a written scope and SLA before you compare prices.

Next steps

Brocent's Managed IT Services page lists what is included, and the pricing page has the full plan matrix. For a scoped quote for your headcount and offices, talk to a vCIO. A quote request is reviewed by a vCIO within four business hours, and no payment is required at that stage.