Changes to the way we charge for GovPress hosting
From the end of this month, we’ll start generating GovPress invoices automatically, based on the usage data that your hosted service generates. This will start to affect invoices from 1st June onwards. We’ve been working on this change for a while, and are excited to tell you about the improvements this will bring.
Why are we doing this?
Until now, we haven’t had a cost-effective way to generate invoices from usage data, so all of our invoices have been manually entered. This means they also have to be manually changed when clients change their infrastructure, and that takes up a lot of the team’s time.
We’ve been working hard to make this process more efficient and more accurate by automatically incorporating usage data into our billing process.
What’s going to change?
After this change is introduced, you’ll see more detail in your invoices:
- You’ll see exactly what kind of instances and databases you have, and how many hours each has consumed
- You’ll see how the support charges you pay break down into installation charges and managed support
- You’ll see the amount of bandwidth and file storage you’re using, and the costs for each
Invoices will also be sent on a different day. They’ll continue to be in arrears, but will arrive at the beginning of the next month, rather than the 30th of the current month.
Will our charges change?
For most clients, there will be small changes in the amount charged.
Minor fluctuations over the year
Under our current billing arrangements, the cost of infrastructure in use is calculated for a year, which is then billed in equal monthly payments. After this change, invoices will be calculated based on actual usage, so the amount billed will vary along with the number of days in the month.
Charges for non-inclusive file storage and transfer
For some of our clients, this will mean our charges will be a bit higher.
Until we completed this work, we didn’t have an effective way to charge for transfer and file storage, as outlined in our G-Cloud pricing and terms. The majority of our clients consume file storage and transfer within the amounts included in their service (100GB of transfer and 10GB of file storage), and so will see no change. Clients using more than these amounts will see now see charges on their invoices.
What’s the plan?
We’ll be migrating clients to our new billing system from this month onwards. While we’re making this transition, we’ll be manually reviewing every invoice we send using the new system, to check that it’s in line with previous invoices.
If we find a discrepancy, we’ll get in touch to discuss it with you. We don’t want anyone to be surprised by an invoice they receive from us, and we’ll work closely with you to resolve anything unexpected.
This is a big change for us, and our clients. We hope that our new billing approach will give you much more transparency about the services you’re receiving from us, and the resources that your sites consume.
We would love to hear your feedback as this change is introduced. If you have any comments or concerns or would like to talk further, please get in touch with us via your delivery manager, by emailing contact@dxw.com or by creating a ticket.