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Managed IT services save your company time, money, and plenty of headaches. These specialized services proactively monitor and cover issues, so that you can focus on what you do best: building your business.
When it comes to pricing for Boston managed IT services, the process can range from simple to complex. In general, the elements that impact the cost of IT services include service level agreement (SLA) which includes response, engagement and resolution times, what components are covered, who is receiving support, hours of coverage, remote and onsite, and quality of the company delivering support.
To get a general idea about what managed IT service will cost, here’s a quick breakdown of managed service provider pricing and the benefits of hiring a managed services provider.
Like any business, IT service providers adapt their pricing based on the type of work. The more complex the environment and higher the support “white glove” service required, the price increases. Before diving into pricing, ask yourself the following questions:
- What technology is to be supported?
- What users and what level of help do they need?
- What are the hours that need to be included?
- If you have internal IT staff, are you looking to free them up for more strategic tasks?
- What subcomponents are you looking to outsource?
- Do you have processes and standards that need to be adhered to? Are their compliance requirements?
- Are you looking for strategic IT leadership or just a fix-it service?
- Do you desire cybersecurity solutions?
Your answers will help determine a more accurate estimate of the costs associated with managed IT service.
Managed IT Services Packages
So, what does managed IT services cost? Most IT service providers offer different levels of service packages and solutions and managed IT services price lists. Like most items, the more comprehensive the package, the higher the cost. When deciding on a package, think about how you answered the questions above. If you use complicated technology or don’t have an existing IT team, you might want to get more inclusive coverage.
Even if you do run across problems that are outside of your package’s coverage scope, your service provider can still resolve those issues, but most likely it will be at an hourly rate. For reference, an average IT managed services hourly rate is typically between $125 and $300 depending on the job.
The managed IT services rates vary and there are generally three types of managed IT services packages that you can choose from: Monitoring only, remote and or onsite services, security Services. Managed IT services can help provide much-needed relief for an over-extended internal IT team or substitute an in-house IT team altogether.
Monitoring Only
Monitoring packages are at the lower end of the MSP range. While they might be the most affordable, they also have the least amount of coverage. For this package, your service provider is going to be like an IT security guard. They’ll watch over your system and let you know if something goes wrong. Then, it’ll be up to you to either solve the problem yourself or hire them to take the appropriate actions.
While this package doesn’t offer the most comprehensive coverage, it can still help you catch issues that an internal team might not have time to see. Monitoring services can help you detect problems such as cyber threats early before they become major catastrophes.
This package is best for businesses with an existing IT team, but lack their own system monitoring capabilities.
Monitoring services typically cost between $25 and $50 per month per user, or can be per device monitored.
Remote and Onsite Services
These services include some level of support to remediate problems. As they include more labor the cost will be higher than monitoring alone. Services may or may not include onsite service, but for those that do not, you can just usually pay for any onsite support that is required.
Note that some providers will not only fix problems but work to prevent them from occurring in the first place by being proactive. For example, when monitoring systems detect, or a potential problem is realized when an engineer doing proactive maintenance, actions are taken to alleviate the bottleneck or concern before it impacts your business. Stopping a problem before it impacts your business is a big positive for your company.
Some Boston IT support providers can also help you with your IT strategy, planning, and/or backup and recovery services. Coverage will vary based on your provider and their offerings.
Some will require your staff interface through one person in your office where others will allow all of your employees to call direct to get 24/7 remote support to have an expert help them resolve issues at any time of the day. This is the most popular choice for small and midsized businesses.
Managed IT services are usually charged by the user or by the device and on cost around:
- $75-250/user
Why such a big price range? Even though many providers call their service “managed services” your results, and how you experience them varies significantly. Quality of staff/turnover, remote/onsite, service level, company culture, leadership, management, communication skills all plays into cost.
Security Services
As cybersecurity risks have become a reality of our digital world. IT support by default, does not include all of the concerns related to cyber threats. These components are critical to protect your business and you should evaluate them to find the services that you require. Some of the most common are:
Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) is a solution that collects data from many components as possible across your network to give a whole viewpoint of what is going on. It is easy to miss trends when you only look at one point of data.
Cyber NOC services to provide 24/7 real-time Managed Detection and Response (MDR). This service provides threat hunting and response once they have been discovered. A proactive approach to protection instead of waiting to address a problem after it has done its damage. Often compliance requirements dictate that you cannot take a passive stance towards protecting the business.
User cybersecurity training, as users are now the easiest point to break into your systems, training users is the way you reduce that risk. Training should have testing, education and tracking components and occur regularly to be effective.
IT usage policies to clearly instruct your staff on proper technology usage and reduce your business liability should an employee use your resources in a manner that exposes you.
Cyber Risk assessments to produce a clear list of exposures and liabilities so the executive team is informed and can prioritize actions to protect the business.
Costs here range here too widely to even put basic numbers but the cost for getting hacked, encrypted and business interruption far exceeds the cost of prevention. Service providers can provide these services to you and costs can be per network, per device, or per user.
Managed Service Provider Pricing Models
Once you’ve chosen a package and level of support, your IT service provider will bill you based on the agreed-upon service pricing model. Models vary by region, provider, and customer requirements, so clarify how you’ll be billed upfront before hiring a managed IT service.
Per-User Pricing
This is probably the most common pricing model for managed IT services. You’re charged based on the number of people who are using the service. This can be helpful as a single user could have several devices such as a workstation, laptop, smartphone, tablet, etc.
This pricing model makes it easy to calculate what your managed IT service will cost. Take the number of employees who use technology—which typically means all of them—and multiply it by the service rate.
Per Device Pricing
For this pricing model, you’re charged based on the number of devices covered by your service contract. It can be calculated the same as per user pricing, except instead of users, multiply your service rate by the number of devices used in your company.
Covered devices should include anything used for business purposes within your company, including all desktop computers, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.
Understanding the Cost of Managed IT Services
Determining managed IT service rates isn’t as straightforward as looking at a single price tag. It depends on your unique business, the coverage you need, and the pricing model used. The service level agreement you have with your Managed IT provider will also play an important role in determining the price. No matter which package you choose, moving to a managed service provider can save you time, frustration, and money on your IT solutions.
For a more detailed managed IT service price list, contact the experts at NENS for a free consultation or to request a quote. We offer four levels of managed IT services including security managed care, server managed care, remotely managed care, total managed care as well as a suite of advanced and enhanced cybersecurity services so you can choose a package that best suits your needs. Let our professionals manage your IT services so you can focus on more important things – like growing your business.