The onboarding trap
Here's the play most MSPs run: Quote an attractive monthly rate to win the deal. Then "discover" that the previous environment is a disaster — which it always is — and scope an onboarding project worth 30–60% of the first year's contract value. The client just committed to a monthly agreement and is now hit with a $15K–$50K project invoice before the service has even started.
Some MSPs build their entire margin model around this. The monthly rate barely covers operations — the real money is in the onboarding project and every "out of scope" project that follows.
We think the MSP that inherits your environment should clean it up as part of earning your business — not bill you for the privilege of becoming a client.
The first 90 days
No onboarding project. No separate SOW. No lump sum. Discovery, migration, hardening, and stabilization — all part of becoming a client.
Transition paths
No separate project invoice. No scope-creep SOW. The transition into CloudByte is part of becoming a client.
After onboarding
If you've been a client for a year and need a GCC High migration, an office buildout, or an infrastructure overhaul — that work is quoted at a fixed price and spread across your existing monthly invoice. No lump sum. No separate billing relationship. No scope creep.
We quote a number. That's the number. If our scoping was wrong, additional work is covered at the quoted price. You never pay for our estimation error.
The project cost is spread across 6–12 months on your existing monthly bill. One predictable number that covers both operations and the transformation.
If requirements change mid-project, work pauses and we re-scope with a new fixed price before continuing. No silent scope expansion. No surprise overages.
Every project ends with documentation: what was changed, why, how it's configured, and what to monitor going forward. Audit-friendly and client-owned.
Common mid-engagement work: GCC High migrations, office buildouts, firewall deployments, network segmentation, VPN modernization, infrastructure overhauls, compliance remediation for new frameworks, and M&A technology integration.
Two approaches to the same moment
Tell us where you are and where you need to be. We'll map the 90-day transition plan, confirm what's included, and show you what Aurelius looks like when it goes live.