What Is Managed IT Services?
Managed IT Services is a cost-effective way to manage part or all of your IT environment.
Fully managed IT can step in and act as your IT department. Your provider handles everything from business and technology planning to end-user support and system/software upgrades.
Alternatively, co-managed IT can work alongside your IT department. You may elect to have your managed IT partner handle all of the complex IT initiatives while your in-house team handles day-to-day tasks (daily maintenance, backup, administration and IT security). Or, your in-house team may want to tackle the higher-level process and have your managed IT partner take on the day-to-day workload for your organization.
How Pricing for Managed IT Solutions Is Determined
While obtaining new hardware and software or scheduling a one-time project or incident response will often be items you need all-at-once (with some exceptions, payment plans are realistic possibilities), managed IT services work in a subscription model where an ongoing relationship will be handled with monthly payments.
We encourage all prospective clients to have a conversation with a Loffler team member before we can offer a specific quote for you because we need to understand your environment in order to be accurate.
Factors That Impact IT Services Cost
- Number of devices (servers and/or firewalls, for example), number of computers, number of mobile devices. On that subject, are employees allowed to bring their own devices in a BYOD policy?
- Number of locations. Are you planning to grow within the next year? 5 years?
- Remote employees. Whether part-time or full-time, remote employees need secure access to services.
- Length and type of service-level agreement (SLA). An organization's managed IT price can depend on the terms you and your service provider agree upon. Loffler offers incentives for signing longer contracts.
- Point of contact. Does your organization have someone in charge of IT, that can serve as a point of contact?
- Type of backup. Cloud backups and disaster recovery / regular backup of data & critical systems can affect pricing.
- State of current infrastructure. We need to know what kind of systems you’re running on, and how adaptable they are to the managed services support we are able to offer. If an organization is running on old servers that are overdue for an upgrade, we’d likely have to discuss that before being able to entertain a managed services plan.
Why do we need this information? So we can understand how much data is coming from a potential client's environment and scale our resources (engineers, software, etc.) accordingly.
Curious about the Loffler client experience? View our case study:
Example 1: Small-to-Medium-Size Business (SMB) with One Location & Nine Devices
Here's a pricing example from one of our small business clients. This business owner needed the technology to support business growth but didn't have the time or resources to find or hire a qualified IT employee. They decided outsourcing their IT needs was the best route to support their business goals. Let's break down their costs.
Example 2: Business with Four Locations & 100+ Devices
Here's a pricing example from a larger client with multiple locations, servers and over 100 devices. With four locations and hundreds of employees working with computers, it made sense to outsource this business' IT needs to a managed service provider. Let's break down their costs in the graphic below:
When looking at prices, consider the cost and time it requires to find, hire and retain expert IT employees.
According to Payscale.com, the average salary for an employee working in information technology (IT) services is around $89,000, and the cost goes up as the employee has more specialization. Someone is always going to be willing to pay your IT person more than you. The challenge lies in retaining existing employees and finding new ones when needed. So how do you keep your IT team?
The spectrum of expertise and the pay scale varies widely in IT. Are you looking for a $35,000 help desk support person to run to Best Buy and get a mouse, or are you needing someone at $120,000 who can be part network administrator, part infrastructure specialist and part security expert? When prices get too high, it might be time to consider outsourcing some or all of an organization’s IT needs.
Contact Loffler for Managed IT Services
Cost is an important factor when deciding if managed IT services are right for your organization. As a managed service provider, Loffler manages IT needs for many clients, so they can focus on running and growing their businesses. Contact us now to learn more about managed IT.
Latest News
Is Your IT Strategy Putting Your Business Goals at Risk?
Many small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) struggle to develop a comprehensive technology strategy. In some cases, ...
Being Told You Need a New Business Phone System? Read This First.
Originally Published August 2018 Updated November 2024 Upgrading doesn’t have to mean buying new. We’ve worked with ...