“We only call IT when something breaks. It’s cheaper.”
We hear this from 7/10 SME owners in Pretoria. Then we show them their actual numbers.
Here’s why “cheaper” is costing you 3x more.
The Real Cost of Break-Fix IT
Break-fix means you pay per incident. R850 call-out + R650/hour. Sounds cheap until you add downtime.
| Cost Type | Break-Fix Average | Managed IT |
|---|---|---|
| Annual IT spend | R7,200 | R5,000 |
| Downtime per incident | 6.2 hours | 0.8 hours |
| Incidents per year | 4.3 | 1.1 |
| Staff cost during downtime* | R11,200 | R480 |
| Total real cost | R18,400 | R5,480 |
*Based on R300/hour average salary × 5 affected staff
Why downtime is 6x longer with break-fix:
1. No monitoring. You only know the server is down when staff can’t work. Managed IT gets alerts at 3am and fixes it before 8am.
2. No documentation. Every tech starts from zero. “Where’s the firewall password?” eats 2 hours. Managed IT has your entire network mapped.
3. Reactive vs proactive. Break-fix waits for the hard drive to fail. Managed IT replaces it at 80% health during month-end backup.
The 3 Hidden Costs Nobody Talks About
1. Data loss risk. 60% of break-fix clients had no tested backups. One ransomware attack = R50k-R200k recovery or total loss. Managed IT includes daily backup checks.
2. Security gaps. Break-fix patches what’s broken. MFA, Conditional Access, DLP? Never configured. You’re 1 phishing email from BEC fraud averaging R180k per incident in SA.
3. No IT strategy. You buy a new printer when the old dies. No planning for growth, cloud migration, or POPIA compliance. You’re always behind.
When Break-Fix Actually Makes Sense
Only 2 scenarios: You have <2 staff and all work is on personal laptops, or you have a full-time IT manager. Otherwise, you’re bleeding money.
How to Switch Without Downtime
We onboard 90% of clients in 72 hours with zero disruption:
Day 1: Remote audit. We install monitoring agents, scan for vulnerabilities, document everything.
Day 2: Fix critical issues: enable MFA, block legacy auth, verify backups.
Day 3: Hand over admin access, train staff, go live. Old IT provider cut off.
See Your Exact Savings
Book a R950 IT Health Check. We’ll scan your network and show you the last 12 months of downtime risk in Rands. Takes 60 minutes.
Book R950 CheckStill not sure? WhatsApp us your user count and we’ll send you the calculator.