When your business grows large enough, your IT system will need better protection from external threats as well as more comprehensive and cost-effective IT management overall than you or a lone IT guy can maintain. Needs for managing your network, software applications and devices, for maintaining adequate protections, and for training users only increase as your company grows. Managed IT Services from a Rockhill IT Company provide the most practical solutions for many area businesses.

What is the Cost for Managed Services?

If your company simply hasn’t yet reached the size at which supporting a sufficient team in-house really makes the best sense in terms of cost, you may be looking for online for information about Managed IT Services. And, as you do your research, you may start to wonder, “Where are the prices for Managed IT Services?” And, you may even start to get the impression that service providers are evading the pricing question.

The reason you’re not finding Managed IT Services prices is because pricing for these service packages largely depends on cost factors that are specific to each business and its particular needs.

Please Just Give Me a Price Already!

Maybe you’ve done the math and discovered that you’re wasting valuable time and resources futily trying to manage your IT systems adequately at this point. Now you just need to pin down a Managed IT Services provider to a specific price that you can budget for. No problem.

It’s just that to get the accurate budget number you need requires an assessment of your business’s IT management needs. IT management services must remain flexible enough with their services and with pricing to meet all needs of businesses that have smaller budgets than large companies.

When your business reaches the stage at which it needs the same scope of IT management but scaled only to the extent of its current size, it’s time to have a meaningful assessment performed, to evaluate your particular needs and obtain a price that’s based on those service specifications.

What Kind(s) of IT Services Does Your Business Need?

To figure out Managed IT Services pricing, your prospective service provider will consider the various services that a business may need, such as:

• Desktop Support — When users need IT help in Rock Hill, your business needs the local IT Help Desk resources to maintain productivity.
• Email Administration — Business email systems, especially in growing companies, require a lot of admin time for tasks like removing and adding users, configurations, training for applications and/or devices, updating spam filters, etc., etc., etc., etc…
• Virus Protection — Viruses are a major threat to today’s businesses. They come in through emails, malware, ransomware, flash drives, etc. Strong strategies are necessary to prevent viruses from disabling your operations and requiring expensive fixes to get back up and running.
• Training — Training is often overlooked in IT management costing, but it’s a basic necessity. Merely instructing staff to watch a video or read training material is typically insufficient training, that mounts up costs in user errors and productivity loss during unnecessarily protracted periods of bit-by-bit learning on the job.
• IT Labor — As a business grows, the need to start investing in building an IT team increases. This happens to growing businesses during the phase in which it’s still too expensive to add another in-house IT employee’s pay, benefits, workspace, equipment and tools to the budget.
• Network Monitoring — Some level of network oversight is necessary to maintain optimal performance of your network systems, and especially to ensure that your systems and employees are secure from internal and external threats during day-to-day communications.
• Web Hosting — If your business hosts your websites, applications, and documents on company servers, either software or hardware based, the servers need constant monitoring and maintenance, in order to keep your operations functioning efficiently.
• Technology Procurement — A Managed IT Services company can usually purchase hardware, software, and other equipment and related services at cheaper prices than your business can.
• Data Backup and Storage — As your file storage expands, you’ll need someone to manage all of your data, execute backups, and restore lost files, if/when the need arises.
• Compliance Management — Your technology may need to meet requirements of customer companies that work in regulated environments. In those cases, you’ll need the ability to formulate and implement IT strategies that ensure that your business can meet such needs.
• Security — Security is necessary to protect against unauthorized access to document storages, sensitive information, etc.. Having an administrator who can continually secure your data and intellectual property, etc., is a modern business essential.
• Users — A qualified administrator is necessary for on-boarding your new employees, to set up their access privileges to the right hardware, software, and other technology. Preparation, execution, and training for every employee are tasks that can add up to large IT admin time costs in a growing company.
• VCIO — A virtual CIO is a great benefit to a growing medium-sized company—helping the business leverage technology to advance the company’s business goals. Having an expert on your team, to create your technology roadmap that overlays your business’s growth plan is a big financial win for a business that is not yet ready for an in-house CIO.

There are too many individual IT services to list all of them here. Though various providers offer different types of assistance, the good ones can provide you with all of the services listed above.

Can Your Lone IT Guy Manage All of the Above?

It’s normally just not cost effective for a small to medium-sized business to hire more IT employees to perform all the tasks listed above. And, finding the best qualified IT team members can be especially challenging for smaller businesses.

Managed IT Service Providers (MSPs) often provide comprehensive IT management and oversight, 24/7 IT support, reporting, supplier auditing, IT strategic planning and much more. Ultimately, businesses frequently find that Managed IT Services plans cost a fraction of the amount they would need to budget in order to maintain an in-house IT team. And, the quality of IT systems management is predictably much better from a dedicated team of true experts in Managed IT Services.

But…again…how much does Managed IT Services cost?

Now that you’ve seen many of the usual inclusions in Managed IT Services plans, you have a good idea of what’s involved in pricing under the common service models listed below.

Managed IT Services Pricing — Which Model is Best for My Business?

MSPs pricing models vary, but basically, they usually fall into one of these three categories:

• Flat Fee / Tiered — You pay one price, usually monthly, quarterly, or annually, and it includes all or most of the services listed above. It often includes 24/7 support. Then, you may pay additional costs for extra services, or the flat price may be customized to provide for additional services. The flat price will be based on your business’s particular needs.
• Per User — The price is set per user, based on the services your users will need. As your business grows, you can simply calculate the adjusted costs and easily budget for adding more users.
• Per Device — The price is per device. That means—per each piece of equipment that your business uses. This may include, desktop computers, laptops, tablets, printers, cell phones, printers, copiers, and other IT items.

But, Is It Really Worth It to Depend on Managed IT Services?

Companies with 150 or more users may be able to maintain a full-scale in-house IT systems management and maintenance team for the same or lower cost as by outsourcing Managed IT Services.

Outsourced IT management is usually more cost effective for smaller and mid-sized businesses. The average IT manager can handle a company of around 100 users before a second person is needed. In terms of efficiency, if your company has under 100 users, you’re wasting money having more than one IT worker, and a Managed IT Services provider can give your business much more bang for its buck.

Managed IT Services is also generally more practical for businesses in this size range, because, for example, they don’t take your IT solution away on vacation, or stay home with illness, or add to your benefits costs, etc. And, the Managed IT company brings many more years of combined experience to your business IT needs than a small in-house IT team has and is incomparably more likely to stay up to date on all of the important and constantly evolving IT industry trends.

And, although smaller businesses can least afford to become hacking victims, yet they are hacked at the shocking rate of over 4,000 per day. That’s because hackers are attracted to the least well-protected systems that are easiest to access.

No business should try to beat the odds by operating without strong IT support because IT problems are inevitable, and just one instance of major data loss or prolonged downtime can financially devastate smaller businesses, and/or possibly irrecoverably impact its brand.

Overall, Managed IT Services offer the most practical solution for a small to medium-sized business. The Managed IT Services can reduce total IT costs while offering a more efficient and extensive team of experts to serve your business.

Servcom USA

Servcom USA provides Managed IT Services in Rock Hill, Charlotte, Fort Mill, York, Pineville, Clover and throughout the Carolinas. We understand the challenges confronting small and medium-sized businesses in our area. We can help you with the most cost-effective Managed IT Services available, so you can focus on what you do best—run your business.

Call Servcom USA Managed IT Services Rock Hill, at (803) 619-1414, or email us at marketing@servcomusa.com to talk to one of our experienced team members for more information about our services.