IT Support Costs for Architecture Firms in Ontario: What to Expect

ACT360 prices managed IT for architecture firms per user per month under one agreement. The fee covers help desk support, monitoring, patching, security tools, backup management and planning. Microsoft and design software licences, hardware and projects are billed separately.

Counting people instead of devices keeps the bill simple for a studio. A project architect might have a Revit workstation, a laptop for client meetings and an iPad for site markups. Pricing all three separately would triple that one person’s cost for no extra benefit to you.

Full service includes site visits, which most studios need sooner or later: a plotter that jams the afternoon before a submission, or a workstation that won’t start after an update, isn’t always fixed remotely. Remote-only can suit a small satellite studio, or a firm where someone on staff handles the hands-on work, which our co-managed IT service is built for.

Headcount sets the base. Design workstations, how project files are stored and shared, remote work, the number of studios and what clients ask about security decide where in the range a firm lands.

• Design workstations. Revit, AutoCAD, SketchUp and rendering tools lean on the graphics card, RAM and fast storage. Keeping those machines and their drivers stable takes more care than a standard office laptop.
• Shared central models. Several people in one Revit model at once puts real load on the file server and network. A slow open is billable time spent waiting.
• The project archive. Studios keep years of drawings, models and correspondence. More data means more to back up, more to restore, and more to protect.
• Remote and hybrid designers. Working on large models from home needs a VPN or cloud desktop set up for design file sizes, not one built for email.
• More than one studio. Each location adds network equipment and a file-sharing setup to keep consistent.
• Client and insurer questionnaires. Public-sector clients and cyber insurers may ask for proof of MFA, backups and access controls before they sign.

The first 3 are where a studio’s quote differs most from a professional office with the same headcount.

More than the IT line on the budget. Multiply the people who can’t work by their billing rate and the hours lost, then add the evenings spent catching up and any deadline at risk. That total is what the monthly fee protects.

For example, if 10 architects and designers who bill at $110 an hour lose 4 hours because the central model won’t open, that’s $4,400 in billable time before anyone explains the delay to a client. These are illustration numbers, so put your own rates in.

The worse version is ransomware. Statistics Canada reports that about 1 in 6 Canadian businesses (16%) were impacted by a cyber security incident in 2023, that 13% of those reported ransomware, and that recovery spending doubled to $1.2 billion from 2021. For a studio, that means a live drawing set locked days before a submission, and drawings are the firm’s intellectual property. Our business continuity and disaster recovery page covers how backups are built around project files and tested, not assumed.

The fee should cover the routine work that keeps workstations, project files and accounts running and secure, plus someone planning ahead with you. If a quote sits well below the ranges above, check which of these it leaves out.

• Help desk support from a named contact who knows the difference between a slow Revit model and a slow laptop.
• Monitoring and patching for workstations, laptops, servers and Microsoft 365, with updates scheduled away from submission deadlines.
• Endpoint detection and response on every managed device. ACT360 uses Huntress EDR, backed by a 24/7 threat operations team.
• Multi-factor authentication on every account, including shared logins for plotters, file-sharing portals and licence admin.
• Automated daily backups of projects and models with versioning, stored offsite or in the cloud, and test-restored.
• Software and licence management for AutoCAD, Revit, SketchUp and Bluebeam, so a new hire is drawing on day one.
• Quarterly reviews that tie technology spending to utilization, project delivery and the firm’s growth plan.

MFA earns its place on that list. Microsoft reports that MFA plus blocking legacy sign-ins stops more than 99.9% of common identity attacks. Our breakdown of what managed IT actually includes goes line by line.

Microsoft 365 licences, design software subscriptions, hardware, larger projects and cyber insurance usually sit outside the managed IT fee. Budget for them separately so the monthly number stays easy to compare.

• Microsoft 365 licences, billed per user.
• Design software. Autodesk now sells named-user subscriptions, where each person signs in under their own name, so Revit and AutoCAD seats follow people rather than machines. SketchUp, Bluebeam and rendering tools are billed by their own vendors.
• Workstations, graphics cards, monitors, plotters and network equipment as they reach end of life.
• Projects such as replacing the file server, moving the archive to the cloud, or setting up a new studio.
• Custom work, such as a client portal for design review and approvals, scoped and priced on its own.
• Cyber insurance, which increasingly asks about controls your IT provider manages.

Projects are where the wrong advice costs the most. A 35-person contractor’s previous provider quoted $60,000 to replace a failing server. ACT360 asked what was coming next, learned their accounting system would move to the cloud within a couple of years, and delivered a server sized to bridge to that move for $25,000 including installation and migration. The server right-sizing case study walks through it. A studio choosing between a new file server and moving the archive to the cloud faces the same question.

Time licence changes carefully when headcount moves with project wins. Under Microsoft’s New Commerce Experience policy, most subscriptions can only be cancelled for a prorated refund within 7 days of purchase.

Compare scope first and price second. Two quotes at the same per-user rate can cover very different work, so hold both against the same short list.

1. Who supports Revit, AutoCAD and Bluebeam? Or does the provider stop at Windows and email.
2. How is shared-model performance handled? Storage and network looked at first, or new laptops suggested.
3. Are site visits included? If not, what does one cost?
4. How are backups proven? A scheduled test restore of a real project, or a green checkmark.
5. When do updates run? Around your deadlines, or whenever the tool decides.
6. What does leaving cost? Notice periods, early-termination fees and handover terms.

Some providers discount longer terms. ACT360’s published rate doesn’t change with term length, and every Managed IT agreement includes a 90-day exit clause. Our page on managed IT with no long-term contract explains how it works, and our guide to what it costs to switch IT providers covers the rest.