An ERP Support Contract With Numbers In It, Not Adjectives
Most annual maintenance contracts are priced as a percentage of licence value and promise nothing you can measure. Ours names the priority definitions, the response and resolution target for each one, the coverage hours, and how many days of change effort you get every month.
50+ ERP and software projects. Zero failed projects since 2021.
Most support contracts are bought on a percentage and never measured again
Two mistakes cost buyers more than anything else: assuming the vendor subscription covers them, and accepting a response target with no resolution target attached.
Vendor support covers the product. It does not cover your system
A vendor subscription fixes defects in the software as shipped. It does not touch your configuration, your customisations, your integrations, your reports or your users, and that is where nearly every real ticket lands. An AMC exists to close exactly that gap, so the first question to ask any provider is which of the two they are actually selling you.
- Product defects go to the vendor. Everything else is the AMC.
- Integrations and custom code named explicitly in scope.
- User questions counted, reported and traced back to a cause.
A response target without a resolution target commits nobody
Four hour response sounds fast until you realise the clock stops when someone replies to say they have received your ticket. What the business cares about is when it can invoice again. So we quote both numbers for every priority, define P1 by business impact rather than by how loudly the caller complains, and publish the definitions so either side can tell whether a target was met.
- Response and resolution stated separately, per priority.
- P1 defined as cannot invoice or cannot despatch.
- Missed targets reported by us, not discovered by you.
The six things an AMC has to define before it is worth signing
If a proposal is missing any of these, you are buying availability rather than service. Ask for them in writing.
Five steps from a first look to a contract you can measure
Everything a support contract with us covers
Break-fix against an SLA
Incidents triaged to a published priority, with both response and resolution clocks running.
Configuration changes
Workflows, approval rules, tax and pricing setup, access rights and new users as they join.
Integration monitoring
Failed syncs, stuck queues and bank or marketplace connections checked before users report them.
Reports and dashboards
New reports, layout changes and management dashboards funded from the monthly allowance.
Refresher training
Short sessions aimed at whatever the ticket taxonomy shows people are repeatedly getting wrong.
Upgrade and patch checks
Release testing on a copy first, so an upgrade does not become your next P1 incident.
What a measurable AMC actually gives you
Already know which ERP you are supporting?
The commercial model on this page is the same everywhere. What changes is the upgrade cadence, the customisation risk and where a ticket has to go.
Why teams move their ERP support to TCB Infotech
ERP support and AMC questions
What does an ERP AMC actually cover?
How much does ERP support cost and how is it priced?
What is the difference between a response time and a resolution time?
Will you support a system somebody else implemented?
What happens if we exceed the included hours?
Do we still need an internal ERP owner if we have a support contract?
Get a Support Contract You Can Measure
Book a free consultation. Bring your current AMC if you have one and we will tell you what it commits to, what it leaves out, and what a contract with real targets would cost you instead.
Book a Free Consultation →No commitment. A straight read of your current support arrangement.
What Is Inside an ERP Support Contract
The parts of an AMC that decide whether it is worth the money: how priorities and targets are written, who answers the first call, how the fee is structured, and what the monthly report has to show you.
From priority definitions to a monthly report you can act on
Priorities defined by business impact, with two clocks per priority
P1 means the business is stopped: you cannot invoice, you cannot despatch, the month cannot close. It is not the ticket from whoever shouts loudest. Each priority carries a response target and a separate resolution target, and both are published so either side can check whether they were met. A typical shape is a one hour P1 response with a four hour resolution, against a five day resolution at P3.
- Written definitions for P1 to P4, agreed before signature.
- Response and resolution quoted separately for each.
- Coverage hours stated per priority, including month-end and peak weeks.
Keep first line inside, route defects and changes out
A fully in-house team is only economic once your ERP is large enough to keep two or three people busy. Fully outsourced is expensive because a consultancy day rate is a poor way to answer how-to questions. For most mid-market organisations the hybrid wins: one trained key user per function handles the questions training should have covered, and genuine defects, changes and integration faults come to us. We will help you set that key user up even though it lowers our ticket volume.
- A named internal ERP owner and one key user per function.
- A written routing rule for what escalates and what does not.
- Refresher training aimed at whatever the ticket mix keeps showing.
Fixed fee, retainer or time and materials, with the trade-off named
A fixed annual fee gives you a budget you can plan and gives the provider an incentive to close tickets quickly, but it can quietly discourage the bigger fix. A retainer with a bucket of days is the honest middle: you know the cost, we report the hours, and unused change days are visible. Time and materials is the cheapest if your system is stable and your volumes are low, and the worst if they are not. Stable and low volume points to time and materials. Growing or heavily customised points to a retainer.
- Fixed fee: predictable, best for a settled and standard system.
- Retainer: defined support and change days, reported monthly.
- Time and materials: lowest cost at low volume, no ceiling at high volume.
Everything the support contract delivers
A signed SLA schedule
Priority definitions, response and resolution targets, coverage hours and the escalation path.
A single ticket channel
One route in, every ticket logged and classified, so nothing lives only in somebody's inbox.
Monthly SLA and taxonomy report
Attainment per priority, the defect against training against data split, and hours used.
A change allowance
Agreed days each month for enhancements, report changes and new users, prioritised with you.
Upgrade and patch testing
Releases tested on a copy of your system first, with the regression list handed to you.
Living documentation
Runbooks, configuration notes and code kept current and handed over, plus a written exit process.