Contracts for Managed Services: Building a Master Services Agreement

For many computer repair and IT professionals, offering monthly managed services to their customers can be a great way to grow their business and increase customer loyalty. However, there can be several barriers to entry that many find hard to overcome. One of these hurdles is the legal side of offering managed services, including writing contracts between the provider and their customer.

We want to make it easier for our Partners to start to offer managed services. Gillware’s backup solutions are a great service to start off with, and to help remove another roadblock, we’ve developed a contract template for our Partners to use as a Master Services Agreement between them and their customers.

The MSA was drafted with Gillware’s attorneys to protect the reseller and their customer, and can be modified to fit the individual needs of any business. With a few small tweaks and blanks to fill in, the contract can be prepared in no time.

The document covers a number of key areas, including:

• Backup Services: Defining what service is being provided to a customer is an obvious first step in developing a contract. The MSA template covers this definition to be in line with the solutions Gillware offers.
• Fees and Pricing: This section lays out the costs of the service being provided, and outlines the different charges in a pricing exhibit in order to clearly state expected charges up front.
• Coverage and Support: By laying out the level of service and support to be provided, resellers can set realistic expectations for action in the event of a failure.
• Limitation of Liability: In order to protect the reseller, this section outlines the maximum amount of damages a customer is allowed to seek in the event of a discrepancy with the service.