Two service desk quotes can show similar prices per agent and describe very different bills. One covers the software and nothing else. The other covers the software, the hosting, the people who keep it running and the support you call when something breaks.
The phrase “all inclusive” only means something if you know what it includes. Here are the eight questions we would ask of any per agent price, including ours, and why each one matters.
1. Does it cover every module, or an edition?
Some products sell features in editions, so the price you were quoted covers the edition you saw in the demo and not the one you will need next year. Ask whether higher tiers unlock features or only service levels.
QuellDesk: every tier gets every module and every feature. The tiers differ only in uptime, recovery and support hours.
2. Is hosting included, and is it dedicated or shared?
Hosting is either in the price or a separate line, and it is either your own environment or a share of one. Both answers matter: one to your budget, the other to your security review.
QuellDesk: hosting is included, and it is a dedicated AWS environment with private networking, a web application firewall and encryption in transit and at rest.
3. Who runs the platform?
Someone has to monitor it, patch it, upgrade it and back it up. If that is your team, the price per agent is missing the cost of the people doing it. If it is a partner, it is probably on a separate contract.
QuellDesk: monitoring, patching, upgrades and backups are run for you by the QuellDesk team, in every tier.
4. What support is included, and when?
Support hours are part of the service you are buying. Check the hours, and check what happens to an urgent issue outside them.
QuellDesk: 8x5 US Eastern on Standard, 12x5 with urgent issues 24x7 on Business, and 24x7 for every issue on Premium.
5. What recovery is committed?
Uptime is only one number. Ask how much recent data could be lost in a failure (the recovery point objective), how long it can take to restore service (the recovery time objective), and what failure the platform is built to survive.
QuellDesk, by tier:
| Standard | Business | Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly uptime | 99.5% | 99.9% | 99.95% |
| Most data at risk | 1 hour | 15 minutes | 5 minutes |
| Time to restore | 8 hours | 4 hours | 1 hour |
| Keeps running if | a server fails | a data centre zone fails | a whole region fails |
6. Are portal users charged?
If you serve many customers, the number of people who raise requests and follow their tickets can be far larger than your team. A price that charges for them grows with your customers rather than with your desk.
QuellDesk: customer portal users are free.
7. Is implementation a fixed price?
Implementation billed by the hour is an open ended number. A fixed price agreed before work starts puts the risk of a poor plan where it belongs.
QuellDesk: migration is one fixed price agreed before work starts, with go-live in 8 weeks and 30 days of hypercare afterwards.
8. What else recurs?
Finally, ask the plain question: apart from the price per agent, is there anything else we will pay every month or every year?
QuellDesk: no. There are no other recurring fees.
Putting the answers side by side
The point of these questions is not to make every quote look the same. It is to make sure you are comparing the same thing. A lower licence plus hosting, administration and an implementation partner can cost more than a higher price that includes all of them, and the only way to know is to ask.
If you would like our answers for your desk in writing, get your price here, or see how QuellDesk compares on what each quoted price covers.