Choosing an IT AMC: What Actually Belongs in the Contract

Most small-business AMC disputes come down to the same thing: the contract said "support" and nobody defined what that meant. These are the clauses worth arguing over before you sign.

Response time and resolution time are different

A four-hour response time means someone acknowledges you within four hours. It says nothing about when the machine works again. Ask for both figures, and ask what happens when the resolution target is missed — an SLA with no consequence attached is a statement of intent, not a commitment.

Define the estate precisely

The contract should list every covered device by make, model and serial number, along with what happens when you add or retire equipment mid-term. An AMC priced per device with a vague device list is where disagreements start.

Read the exclusions first

Exclusions tell you more about a contract than the inclusions do. Look specifically for how these are treated:

• Spare parts — labour-only is normal, but it must say so plainly
• Consumables such as batteries, toner and cabling
• Software licensing and renewals
• Physical and liquid damage
• Work outside stated business hours
• New installations as opposed to maintenance of existing equipment

Preventive work is the point

A good AMC should mean fewer failures, not faster attendance at the same number of failures. Insist on a scheduled preventive calendar — quarterly for most offices — covering drive health, backup verification, UPS load tests, CCTV recording checks and firmware updates.

Ask for the report format up front. If a vendor cannot show you a sample health report, the visits will not produce one.

Documentation and exit

You should own your asset register, network documentation and administrative credentials, and they should be handed over in a usable form at any point. An AMC that leaves you unable to describe your own infrastructure to the next provider is a lock-in, not a service.

Ask what happens at termination. A reasonable contract returns all documentation and credentials within a defined period, without argument.