IT Retainer Service

With an IT retainer service from Fresh Mango, your IT support is in the best hands. You will always have a point of contact available.

IT engineer supporting business users at a laptop in a bright office.

IT Retainer Service · Fresh Mango Technologies

An IT retainer is an agreement to reserve a set number of support or consultancy hours each month at an agreed rate, giving a business priority access to engineers without committing to a fully managed service.

How an IT retainer works

You agree a monthly block of hours based on your size and activity. Those hours can be used for user support, maintenance, advice, project planning or scheduled visits. Usage is reported each month so there is no ambiguity about what was consumed.

Because the time is reserved in advance, retainer clients receive priority over ad-hoc requests — the practical benefit most businesses are buying.

Retainer or managed service?

A retainer gives access to expertise; a managed service transfers responsibility for keeping systems healthy. Businesses with capable internal staff, or with modest requirements, often prefer a retainer. Businesses whose operations stop when technology fails are usually better served by full management with monitoring and patching included.

Who it is for

Businesses with an internal IT person who needs specialist backup and cover.
Organisations with predictable, modest support needs that still want guaranteed availability.
Firms running a programme of small projects over several months.
Businesses trialling a provider before moving to a managed agreement.

Problems it solves

Waiting in a queue behind other customers when something urgent happens.
Unbudgeted hourly invoices that vary wildly month to month.
No senior technical adviser to sense-check purchases and proposals.
Maintenance that never happens because nobody has allocated time to it.

How Fresh Mango helps

We agree the hours, the rate, what they cover and how unused time is treated, in writing. Retainer time is delivered by the same Caribbean engineering team that supports our managed clients, with access to Microsoft 365, network, server and cyber security specialists as needed.

Best practices we recommend

Base the hours on measured demand — the previous six months of tickets — not on a guess.
Reserve part of the retainer for planned maintenance, not only reactive fixes.
Review usage quarterly and adjust rather than chronically over- or under-buying.
Keep documentation updates inside the retainer scope so knowledge stays current.

Frequently asked questions

What happens to unused hours?

This is agreed in the contract. Fresh Mango sets out clearly whether hours roll over, partially carry forward, or lapse each month, so there are no surprises on either side.

What if we exceed the retained hours?

Additional time is charged at the agreed retainer rate, which is normally lower than standard ad-hoc rates. If overruns become routine, that is a signal to resize the retainer or move to a managed service.

Does a retainer include monitoring and patching?

Not by default — those are features of a managed IT service. A retainer can include scheduled maintenance visits, but continuous monitoring, automated patching and backup verification belong in a managed agreement.

Can a retainer cover project work?

Yes, for smaller pieces of work. Larger projects such as a server replacement, office relocation or Microsoft 365 migration are better quoted separately so the retainer stays available for support.

Related services and guides

Practical advice, no obligation

Not sure whether you need a retainer or full management?

Book a free 30-minute consultation. We will look at your ticket volumes and risks and tell you honestly which model fits.

Book Your Free 30-Minute Consultation

An IT retainer service from Fresh Mango Technologies is like having your own IT technician available, at a fraction of the cost! With an extensive pool of technicians to draw upon we have extensive and up-to-the-minute knowledge of all matters IT.

With IT support from Fresh Mango, your IT support is in the best hands. You will always have a point of contact either via the phone or our unique TickIt system, JIM (available online 24/7). All work is carefully logged and assigned as soon as a requirement is raised. Our IT retainer service plan provides clients with a 5-hour response time and a minimum number of hours of support per month. We provide “as requested” onsite or remote IT support services to retainer clients. Factoring in the improvements brought by our IT retainer service (and 24/7 Tickit help desk), our clients save money when they engage us. IT retainer service clients receive a guaranteed response time of 5 hours.

About our IT Retainer Service Plan

Our retainer support plan provides clients with a guaranteed service response time of 5 hours and a minimum number of hours of support per month. We provide “as requested” onsite or remote IT support services to retainer clients.

Service	IT Retainer Support Plan Summary
Maximum Response Time	5 hours
Telephone Tickit Logging	✓
Email Tickit Logging	✓
Customer Portal Login	-
Tickit Logging Portal	✓
Remote Support	✓
On-Site Support	✓
Remote Server Health Checks	-
On-Site Server Physical Checks	-
Backup Monitoring*	-
Backup Testing*	-
Active Connection Monitoring	-
Telephone Technician Support	✓
Desktop/User Assistance	✓
Desktop/Laptop Health Checks	-
* If a Fresh Mango backup solution is deployed

If you require the additional services not available on this plan, please take a look at our Managed Service Plan. Response Times and Cover We will respond to support requests within 5 hours of the problem being logged via any of the standard methods for requesting support, during standard office hours. We provide IT support to you as requested on any device or system which is within our capability. We will not perform any work unless requested by you and with your consent. With IT support from Fresh Mango, your systems are in the best hands. You will always have a point of contact either via the phone or our unique TickIt system, JIM. All work is carefully logged and assigned as soon as a requirement is raised, available 24/7. You can raise a TickIt in JIM at https://support.freshmango.com/customer/login. Evening Cover Our support ticketing system allows for Tickit creation by customers 24/7. Furthermore, if you raise a ticket with a ‘Critical’ status, every member of staff at Fresh Mango receives a text message and an e-mail. Out-of-hours you can also leave a voice mail on our support number, which is emailed to every member of staff. Thanks to our sister company (CCS 2000) based in the United Kingdom, remote support is available to customers in the BVI as early as 5AM. Technicians in all offices (UK and the Caribbean) can all provide remote assistance and have remote access to assist when required. Weekend Cover For urgent issues weekend cover is usually available (out of hours callouts do incur an additional cost, this is to allow us to reward employees, facilitating the service). In an emergency, the Fresh Mango ticketing system can be used to report the issue (it can even be raised on a mobile device if you don’t have internet availability). Contact Fresh Mango today to find out how we can improve your business with our IT Retainer Service.