RSystems
Pricing built to keep your bills lean.
We're transparent about how we price and how we work. Our goal isn't to maximize a monthly invoice — it's to give you sound infrastructure and honest advice, structured so you're never paying for more than you need.
How we work
Four ways we structure an engagement.
Most of our work falls into one of a few models. We choose the one that fits the work — and wherever possible, we steer toward the structure that keeps your costs predictable and contained.
Fixed-Fee Projects
For discrete, definable work, we strongly prefer a fixed fee against a fixed scope. You know the cost before we begin, and we carry the risk of execution. Most of our project work is structured this way.
Managed Support (Retainer)
For open-ended work that can't be neatly defined in advance, we use a monthly retainer. It's ideal for established relationships, where we understand your environment well enough to forecast and budget accurately.
Managed Services (Subscription)
Our ongoing platform and infrastructure administration is billed as a flat monthly subscription, priced per unit — per identity, per endpoint, per site, and so on. Predictable, and scaled to what you actually run.
Hourly
We generally don't structure engagements hourly — it misaligns our incentives with yours. But for certain situations, where neither a fixed scope nor a retainer is the right fit, we do work on an hourly basis.
Our guiding principle: whenever a piece of work can be defined as a project, we pull it out and price it as a fixed-fee project — and we reserve the managed support retainer for the genuinely undefinable. We've found clients are happiest when their bills are lowest, and that means actively keeping the retainer lean and turning to fixed-scope work wherever we can.
Where we start
Nearly every new relationship begins with an assessment.
Before we take on ongoing support or define specific projects, we start by getting to know your environment. An initial assessment is an audit of your current technology and a review of how your team actually works — enough for us to support your business well and make recommendations worth acting on.
A typical assessment covers verifying or creating records of your key assets, confirming access and credentials, reviewing your on-premises and cloud services, network, security and backup posture, and identifying the pain points that matter most. We usually complete one within about four weeks, depending on the state of your documentation and the availability of your team.
An assessment runs between $3,000 and $5,000 — and candidly, we usually lose money on it. That's deliberate. We treat the assessment as an investment in the relationship: if we take the time to truly understand your environment and your company up front, we can give you great advice and build a productive relationship for years to come.
How we propose work
Every project starts with a Recommendation.
When we propose a piece of work, we don't send a one-line quote. We send a Recommendation — a fully considered scope that reflects real research into your context, goals, and constraints. Each one lays out what we propose to do, why, and how we'll implement it; what it will cost in equipment, labor, and licenses; how long we expect it to take; and anything we'll need from you to succeed.
The result is a proposal you can evaluate and approve with confidence — no surprises, no hidden assumptions. Here are three representative examples, lightly anonymized.
Example: Firewall Replacement
To address the client's need to replace aging firewalls, RSystems recommends the following solution.
Scope
- Purchase and configure a new high-availability firewall pair
- Migrate existing rules, routing, and VPN configuration
- Cut over with minimal downtime and verify failover
- Decommission and dispose of the old equipment
Firewall pair, licensing, and security subscriptions
Configuration, migration, cutover, and project management
Expected completion within 4 weeks of approval, provided all requirements are met.
Example: Office Wireless Upgrade
To address the client's need to improve wireless coverage across the office, RSystems recommends the following solution.
Scope
- Conduct a wireless site survey to determine access point placement and count
- Purchase access points, mounts, and PoE switching
- Install, configure, and tune coverage to the survey
- Validate performance across the full space
Access points, mounts, and switching hardware
Site survey, installation, configuration, and tuning
Expected completion within 4 weeks of approval, provided all requirements are met.
Example: Initial Assessment
Before taking on ongoing support and defining specific projects, RSystems starts with an audit of your current technology and a review of your workflow, so we have what we need to support your business and make appropriate recommendations.
Scope
- Verify or create records of key assets (hardware, software, personnel)
- Verify credentials and administrative access
- Review on-premises and cloud services
- Review network topology, security, and backup posture
- Review the current IT budget
- Identify and prioritize pain points and ongoing needs
- Produce initial recommendations
Typically completed within 4 weeks. We ask for the availability of key staff for a few meetings and an on-site visit, and timely access to asset lists and credentials.
Figures shown are illustrative and rounded. Every recommendation is priced to the specifics of your environment.
Managed services
Transparent, per-unit pricing.
Our managed services are billed monthly, priced per unit so you only pay for what you run. Services can be taken à la carte, but most clients are best served by one of our two packages.
| Service | Monthly Price | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Identity Management | $30 | per identity |
| Endpoint Management | $35 | per endpoint |
| Network Management | $300 | per site |
| Security & Domain | $400 | per domain |
| Server Management | $350 | per server |
| Backup Management | $12 | per user |
| Cybersecurity Awareness | $5 | per identity |
Minimums apply to some services. Server pricing shown is for standard (Synology) instances; Windows and specialized servers are priced individually.
Package
Essentials
The minimum entry point for managed services.
$50 / identity / month
Minimum 5 identities.
A streamlined bundle covering the essentials of managed infrastructure. The right starting point for smaller teams, and very often paired with a Managed Support retainer.
Package
Core Suite
The right fit for most organizations.
$500 base + $75 / identity / month
Minimum 10 identities.
Our most complete package — domain and network management plus per-identity identity, endpoint, and backup management, bundled at a lower rate than à la carte. For most clients, Core Suite paired with Managed Support is exactly the right fit.
Managed support
How retainers work.
Managed Support is a monthly retainer for the open-ended work that doesn't fit neatly into a defined project — the questions, changes, and judgment calls that come up in the course of running an organization's technology.
Retainers work best in established relationships. Once we've worked together for six months to a year or more, we understand your average burn rate well enough to forecast annual usage and amortize it evenly across the year. Some months run high and others run low, but you're always working from a known, defined budget.
For brand-new clients, we use our experience to make an educated starting estimate. We then track utilization closely with you over the first few months and adjust quarterly, so your budget stays commensurate with your actual usage — never drifting away from what you need.
And because we actively pull defined work out into fixed-fee projects, we keep the retainer itself as lean as possible. The retainer covers the genuinely undefinable; everything else gets scoped and priced on its own.
Getting started
Setup costs and the things that move them.
Onboarding a new environment involves up-front setup work that varies from client to client. The figures below are ballpark ranges to help you plan — not rigid quotes. Every environment is a little different, and your actual recommendation will reflect yours.
| Service | Typical Setup |
|---|---|
| Identity Management | ~$2,500+ |
| Endpoint Management | ~$2,500+ |
| Network Management | ~$2,000+ |
| Security & Domain | ~$4,500+ |
| Server Management | ~$2,000+ |
| Backup Management | ~$500+ |
| Core Suite onboarding | ~$15,000+ |
Setup costs scale with the size and complexity of your environment and are confirmed in your recommendation.
Larger environments
Organizations of 100+ employees often benefit from economies of scale, which can bring per-unit pricing down.
Co-managed environments
When we work alongside your internal IT team and share responsibilities, our scope is smaller — and there's often room for reduced pricing to match.
Let's find the right fit.
Tell us about your environment and what you're trying to accomplish. We'll start with an honest conversation about how to structure the work — and what it should cost.
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