IT Managed Service Provider 101

Your network’s size, the age of your equipment, and the level of coverage you need will shape your business’ IT spend. As a business leader, you need to understand your network needs: are you looking for a hands-off, all-inclusive approach or just a little assistance? When choosing your options, you will most likely need to decide between break-fix model or managed IT services.  

Pay As You Go Break-Fix Model – Break-fix pricing varies widely. The price for an onsite visit can range from $75-250 per hour, with most providers requiring at least a couple of hours at a minimum for a service call. 

Fixed Fee Managed Services – Outsourcing IT is frequently the best option, and more affordable in the long run. Many MSPs offer different packages and layers of coverage and some have a great hybrid solution for augmenting your IT department.   

There are two commonly-used pricing options:  
 
Per device: You are billed monthly per device (every PC, laptop, Mac, or server) regardless of how many people are using each.  

Per user: The opposite of per-device, this option bills for every user regardless of how many devices they use. This is the most common pricing model used by MSPs.  
 
Generally, you will find that prices vary significantly among MSPs, however you can expect fees to range between $75 to $300 per user per month, with most pricing falling between the $100 to $150 range. Some MSPs offer a basic plan, offering add-ons a la carte while others provide an all-inclusive plan of services and coverage.  
 
Co-managed:
Co-managed services provide an intermediate step between relying on your internal IT staff, or having everything managed by a managed services provider. Under this model, you can pick and choose what services you need help with, and which you don’t. For that reason, it’s difficult to say whether this will make your budget go up or down, as it depends on the services you purchase. This is, however, a viable option that find themselves in that “in-between” place, before their businesses are big enough to have their own fully staffed IT departments.

What to Consider When Choosing a Managed Service IT Provider (MSP)

There are a lot of MSPs out there, and like restaurants with coffee, each one claims to be the best. Here is a list of things to look for when weighing your options: 

• Experienced Professionals
• A Clear Onboarding Process
• Proven Processes
• Flexibility and Transparency
• Scalability
• The Right Fit
• Support Desk Services
• Consulting and Strategic Guidance
• Proactive Maintenance
• An Effective and Comprehensive Network Security
• Cybersecurity Awareness Training
• Dedicated Support Team

Experienced Professionals

An MSP should provide experienced professionals with the expertise you need to address every aspect of your IT needs including:

• Technicians
• Account Managers
• Strategic Planning Professionals
• Cybersecurity Experts
• Customer Service Representatives
• Thought Leaders

These are just a few of the benchmarks you should look for when considering a partnership with an MSP.

A Clear Onboarding Process

When you sign on with an MSP, what will your first weeks look like? How about a month from now? Six months? Your MSP should be very clear about the steps they are going to take and what that will look like for your business.

A Typical MSP’s Onboarding Process Should Look Like:

Proven Processes

Do they have a proven process to evaluate your business to see what level of support you need?  
 
Look for a company that has three touchstones for every client. An ideal proven process includes:  

Flexibility and Transparency

An MSP should be flexible and willing to work within your budget and should be completely upfront about pricing and coverage. 

• Avoid MSPs that quote prices without researching your company to make sure they are a good fit for you  
• Stay away from one-size-fits-all solutions  
• Read the fine print to make sure you’re getting exactly what you’re paying for 

Scalability

A business can easily outgrow an MSP when the provider is too eager to get a signature on a contract and doesn’t bother to understand their client’s vision and goals. 
 

• Make sure the MSP will give you a free consultation to assess both your current and future needs  
• Avoid any MSP that doesn’t seem willing to align their strategies with your goals 
• Make sure the potential provider has a realistic understanding of where you see your company in a year, within the next five years, and further out 

The Right Fit

You work hard to develop and maintain the company culture, and your MSP should be closely aligned with that culture. No one wants to call a support desk and talk to a technician that’s unhelpful, lazy, and condescending. As you strive to provide great customer service to your clients, your MSP should do the same. Ask yourself: 
 

• Does this company have a “personality” like ours?  
• Can I see myself or my own employees interacting with this MSP’s employees? 
• Are the MSP’s employees friendly and helpful at every level (sales, managers, administrators, help desk services)?  

Support Desk Services

Have you ever tried to Google a solution to a problem because you know a particular company’s customer service line will keep you on hold indefinitely and when they do answer, won’t be very helpful? Your MSP’s support desk services can be a pleasure to deal with or a hassle that your employees will actively avoid. Support Desk services are a vital part of any MSP, and how this department interacts with your employees is critical. 
  

• Google the MSP to get a feel for how it resolves issues  
• Ask to meet the Support Desk technicians who you will be working with  
• Try calling the Support Desk at different times a day to get a feel for how long their wait times may be 

Consulting and Strategic Guidance

Consulting and strategic guidance are how an MSP produces a technology plan, or roadmap, to align your technology with your business. This roadmap should include all planned and recommended changes, upgrades, and improvements for your network clearly defined, prioritized, and priced out to provide you with a comprehensive IT strategy.  
 
An effective technology roadmap should include: 

• Prioritized, individualized, and manageable goals  
• Planning to complement your current IT structure and budget  
• A regular in-depth review of your current technology to identify any misalignment with your business goals 

Proactive Maintenance

A proactive approach to network maintenance provides advance warning to potential problems and can save your business significant downtime and costs vs. reacting to a sudden disruptive incident.  
 
Look for MSPs that offer: 
 

• Routine network testing and monitoring  
• Rapid intervention when a potential problem is identified  
• Automatic patches and upgrades when they become available 

An Effective and Comprehensive Network Security Stack

Modern cybercrime needs modern solutions; traditional antivirus is no longer an effective way to protect your network. Encryption, antivirus powered by AI, multi factor authentication, identity and access management platforms, and other layered strategies are necessary to keep your network secure.  
 

• Does the MSP offer multiple layers of antivirus, such as a fully-manned 24/7 Security Operations Center?  
• Does the MSP offer routine Dark Web credential monitoring to detect stolen personally-identifiable information?  
• Does the MSP guarantee the timely deployment of updates and security patches?  

Cybersecurity  Awareness Training

While your employees are your most valued resource, they can also be your biggest security vulnerability. Most malware and ransomware infections occur through email phishing scams, so it’s vital that your MSP offers routine cybersecurity awareness training to keep your employees informed and vigilant. At the very least, this training should cover: 
 

• Identifying suspicious emails  
• Phishing simulation campaigns to test and educate  
• Explanation of email attack vectors such as spoofing, business email compromise, and fraudulent links 

Dedicated Support Teams

While an MSP may have an excellent Support Desk to handle day-to-day issues, what happens if the problem is too complex to be handled remotely? Will they send out the next available technician or one who is already familiar with your network, employees, and business needs? Having a dedicated support team means your technicians will arrive onsite with an understanding of the issue and how it affects your productivity, as well as documented knowledge of where the issue started and how to fix it.  
 
Top-tier MSPs believe that dedicated teams should go one step further than support. They also provide dedicated teams for every aspect of their relationship with the client, including system administrators, strategic planners, and account managers.

How Can An MSP Save My Business Money?

A recent study revealed that budgetary concerns are among the top issues cited by business leaders when considering their current and future IT plans. While partnering with an MSP seems cost-prohibitive initially, it will save your business money. Here are five ways partnering with an MSP for proactive IT support can save you money:  Predictable Billing – It’s easier to save money when you know exactly what you will spend every month.  

Decreased Downtime – Partnering with an MSP allows proactive monitoring of your network to identify and address potential issues before they affect your network. Increased productivity and efficiency lead to decreased downtime.  

Decreased Indirect Costs – Without managed IT services, your business is at risk for regulatory violations. In the event of a data breach, if you are unable to prove you took the necessary steps to protect your data, your business can be held liable for damages in a court of law. The fallout from such an incident can include damage to your brand, lost customers, legal awards to customers for damages, costly industry violations, and more. An MSP takes some of the liability from business owners by providing comprehensive technological compliance with regulations.  

Prioritize Your IT Needs – As part of the ongoing consulting and strategic guidance an MSP provides, your technology roadmap will prioritize your IT needs. Without expert guidance, business leaders and IT department management may not know where to start with network optimization, cybersecurity programs, and other technology initiatives. An MSP can guide your business by focusing IT spend on the most important and necessary strategies first.  

Trending Tech Will Save Money on Hardware – The recent trend of migrating services to the cloud is saving businesses significant investment in on-premises IT infrastructure. The level of network security, reliability, and backup/disaster recovery that cloud services offer is also far superior to anything most businesses could afford to build themselves. Additionally, the benefit of being able to connect your employees to your cloud services securely from anywhere in the world means increased efficiency and productivity.