Break-fix

Break-fix is the older model IT support ran on before managed services became standard: a client calls when a server goes down or a laptop won't boot, a technician is dispatched or remotes in, the problem gets fixed, and an invoice goes out for the time and materials. There's no ongoing monitoring and no proactive maintenance — the relationship activates only when something is already broken.

The economics are the key difference from managed services. A break-fix provider is paid more when things fail more often and take longer to fix — the incentive doesn't reward prevention. An MSP paid a flat recurring fee per device or user has the opposite incentive: fewer incidents and faster fixes both improve margin, which is why proactive monitoring, patching, and maintenance became central to the managed model rather than optional extras.

Break-fix hasn't disappeared — it still fits specific situations well, like a business with very simple, low-risk IT needs, or an MSP relationship that layers project work on top of a base managed contract. But for anything where downtime or a breach carries real cost, the misaligned incentive of pure break-fix is the main reason the industry shifted toward recurring managed contracts.