The 3-year math. Visible. Audited. Defensible.

Most ERP support contracts get more expensive every year. Allari’s model gets cheaper. Here is the chart, the contract clause that enforces it, and the customer data that proves it.

We charge for work done, not for capacity

Most ERP support contracts charge a fixed monthly fee structured to cover worst-case workload — essentially an insurance premium priced for the spike that might never come. Quiet month? Vendor keeps it. AI accelerates throughput? Vendor keeps it. Platform matures and tickets drop? Vendor keeps it.

We charge for the work the team actually did. Each month we sit down with you, walk through the work in OpenBook®, and queue the next automation or root-cause project together. When the work shrinks, your spend shrinks. Same labor pool, same platforms — different contract and delivery model.

The contract clauses that bend the curve

Baseline measurement. Engagement begins with a 90-day operational baseline. Ticket volume, chronic backlog %, recurrence rate per category, and median time-to-resolve are measured and locked into the contract as the starting state.

Monthly compression review. Each month, senior engineers review the measured compression curve against the baseline. Retired repeat-work categories, published runbooks, and reclaimed capacity hours are signed off jointly by Allari delivery leads and the customer’s IT leadership.

The recalibration clause. If monthly compression stalls below the contractually-agreed minimum, the engagement triggers a written recalibration. Either Allari adjusts the operating plan to restore the curve, or the customer can adjust scope.

At-will termination, no penalty. If the contract isn’t working, the customer says stop and we stop — same day. No multi-year envelope. No notice period, no clawbacks, no transition fees, no exit penalty. The meter stops the day you say stop. The vendor hands over documentation, runbooks, and active ticket history on the way out.

Termination terms

Same-day termination, no notice required. Walk away any day. Every artifact yours. No clawback. No exit fee. The meter stops the day you say stop.

The math, by year

• Year 1. Fixed-fee MSP: baseline cost. Allari: down 8% from baseline as initial root causes are eliminated.
• Year 2. Fixed-fee MSP: same (decoupled from workload). Allari: down 15–25% as recurrence drops.
• Year 3. Fixed-fee MSP: same. Allari: down 30–40% from baseline.
• 3-year TCO. Allari 25–30% lower than fixed-fee TCO.
• Vendor incentive. Fixed-fee MSP does less work for the same fee. Allari compresses your queue and proves it monthly.

Proof

• Global electronics manufacturer. 12% → 6% chronic backlog over 36 months. 1.77-day average ticket closure. 20-year partnership.
• Global advanced-materials manufacturer. 25 FTE-equivalent of senior architects redeployed.
• National services leader. 7-year operating partnership. ERP operations continuously. 3,956 tickets resolved across the engagement.

The mechanism

Cost compression doesn’t happen because we charge less; it happens because recurring tickets get eliminated. Global electronics manufacturer 36-month longitudinal ticket study (January 2022 – February 2025) measured chronic backlog compressing from 12% to 6%, sustained, across 463 closed tickets in the January– sample. Average ticket closure: 1.77 days (−72% from 6.42).

Frequently asked questions

What’s the typical year-3 cost vs year 1?

Compression magnitudes vary by baseline. Customers with higher chronic backlog see steeper year-one curves (25–30% by month 12). More stable customers compress 10–15% year one, building to 25–35% by year 3. The baseline measurement determines trajectory; the monthly review enforces it.

Is this just a fixed-fee MSP contract?

No. A fixed-fee MSP holds scope and bills change orders when the queue grows. A deflationary contract holds outcome — steady-state coverage plus monthly compression.

How is this defensible to my CFO and board?

OpenBook® publishes the underlying ticket data, compression metrics, hours, and spend-to-date as an auditable ledger; the monthly senior-engineer sign-off is documented.

What if our internal team changes during the contract?

The compression curve is engineered into Allari’s operational discipline; the OpenBook® ledger, runbooks, and monthly compression plan transfer cleanly if your team rotates.

What happens when the queue is already small?

The Run layer reclaims a smaller absolute amount, but freed senior-engineer hours are redirected into integration hardening, automation buildout, security debt remediation, or migration readiness work.

See what your 3-year math actually looks like — a 45-minute working session where you bring your current support contract and three months of ticket data and leave with a baseline measurement and projected compression curve. Get your operational baseline. Or see the deflationary model.

See this on a live engagement →

For the full thesis behind this math, read The Deflationary Thesis — a founder essay on why ERP support contracts have to compress.