Stop paying R500/hour to learn what just broke
Break-Fix waits for failure. MiBOT prevents it. R480 per user per month (excl VAT, 12-month contract) — less than the cost of a single hour from a Break-Fix IT company.
- Predictable monthly bill vs unpredictable per-call invoicing
- 24/7 monitoring vs “phone us when it breaks”
- Sub-1-hour response SLA vs “we’ll get to it”
Here's exactly what happens when something breaks.
We see it. We fix it. Often before you even notice.
Side-by-side: Break-Fix vs Managed IT (MiBOT)
Break-Fix IT
Pay per call-out. Hope nothing breaks.
- Pricing model
- Per-hour, per call-out
- Typical hourly rate
- R500+/hour, billed in 15-min increments
- Monitoring
- None — you call when something breaks
- Antivirus / ransomware
- Not bundled — separate purchase, often unmanaged
- Patch schedule
- Ad-hoc — patched when convenient or after an incident
- Backup verification
- Rarely tested — “it’s running” is the usual answer
- Response time
- “We’ll get there when we get there”
- SLA
- None
- Monthly report
- None — no visibility between invoices
- Predictable bill
- No — cost spikes whenever something breaks
Managed IT (MiBOT)
Predictable. Proactive. Local.
- Pricing model
- Per-user, per-month, flat fee
- Typical monthly rate
- R480 per user, excl VAT, 12-month contract
- Monitoring
- 24/7 on network, printers, Wi-Fi, firewalls
- Antivirus / ransomware
- Bundled — layered with patching + Privacy Mode + PAMM
- Patch schedule
- Documented cadence, critical security patches expedited
- Backup verification
- Tested restore drills — we know it works before you need it
- Response time
- Sub-1-hour SLA on logged incidents
- SLA
- Documented, signed, holdable
- Monthly report
- Yes — lands in your inbox every month
- Predictable bill
- Yes — same line item every month
| Attribute | Break-Fix IT Pay per call-out. Hope nothing breaks. | Managed IT (MiBOT) Predictable. Proactive. Local. |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-hour, per call-out | Per-user, per-month, flat fee |
| Typical hourly rate | R500+/hour, billed in 15-min increments | R480 per user, excl VAT, 12-month contract |
| Monitoring | None — you call when something breaks | 24/7 on network, printers, Wi-Fi, firewalls |
| Antivirus / ransomware | Not bundled — separate purchase, often unmanaged | Bundled — layered with patching + Privacy Mode + PAMM |
| Patch schedule | Ad-hoc — patched when convenient or after an incident | Documented cadence, critical security patches expedited |
| Backup verification | Rarely tested — “it’s running” is the usual answer | Tested restore drills — we know it works before you need it |
| Response time | “We’ll get there when we get there” | Sub-1-hour SLA on logged incidents |
| SLA | None | Documented, signed, holdable |
| Monthly report | None — no visibility between invoices | Yes — lands in your inbox every month |
| Predictable bill | No — cost spikes whenever something breaks | Yes — same line item every month |
What “uptime” actually means when it counts
Have you ever called your local IT company — and had to wait a whole day for help? Or worse… they never showed up at all? Your computers freeze, your team can’t work, and your business grinds to a halt.
That’s the moment people realise Break-Fix isn’t actually cheaper — it’s just more expensive at the worst possible time. A single half-day of staff sitting idle costs more than three months of proactive management. And the call-out invoice still lands afterwards.
We’ve got a guy that comes in when something breaks, but half the time we don’t even know there’s a problem until someone complains. That’s the line we hear most. MiBOT replaces it with a different one: most SA businesses find out from a user, not from a system. Because nobody’s watching. We are.
Five questions to ask your current IT provider
Are you monitoring our network, printers, Wi-Fi, and firewalls 24/7 — and will you show me the dashboard?
When was our last backup tested by a restore drill (not just “the backup ran”)?
What is our documented response-time SLA for logged incidents — in writing?
What’s our patch schedule, and which critical patches are outstanding right now?
Can I have a monthly report that shows what you actually did this month for what we paid?
Break-Fix vs Managed IT — FAQ
Is R480/user/month really cheaper than Break-Fix?
Almost always, yes. A typical Break-Fix call-out runs R500+ per hour and three or four call-outs in a quarter already exceeds the managed-IT bill for the same users over the same period — with none of the monitoring, backup, or security work happening in between. The hidden cost is the downtime, not the invoice.
What if we have very few IT incidents?
Then either (a) your environment is genuinely well-run — in which case proactive management protects what’s already working, or (b) the incidents are happening invisibly because nobody is watching. Most SA businesses find out from a user, not from a system. Our monthly report tells you which case you’re actually in.
What’s the catch on the 12-month contract?
No catch. The 12-month term gives you the predictable monthly bill and gives us the visibility to invest in your environment (monitoring agents, documented runbooks, patch cycles). Most Break-Fix relationships are open-ended only because they’re structurally one-sided.
We have an in-house IT person. Does this still work?
Yes — plenty of clients run MiBOT alongside an internal IT lead. The internal person stays focused on business-specific projects; MiBOT runs the monitoring, patching, backup, SLA, and reporting layer underneath. The internal person stops being the single point of failure on a sick day.
Is this a national service or local?
Local. Offices in Centurion (Gauteng) and Rustenburg (North West). On-site dispatch is anchored on those two locations; remote support reaches the surrounding service areas under the same SLA.
Break-Fix waits for failure. MiBOT prevents it.
Stop paying R500/hour to learn what just broke. Get a proper assessment, see exactly what R480/user/month covers, and decide from there.
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