Understanding Managed IT Pricing for Businesses

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Managed IT services pricing varies depending on the services your business requires.

As you’d expect, your business’s specific IT costs will depend on the service levels you require; end-to-end management will naturally be more expensive than helpdesk-only services, for example.

That said, investing in the right IT services can save your business thousands of dollars in lost productivity. One study shows IT losses to be as high as $9,000 per minute. Getting the right set of IT solutions for your business, in other words, can be hugely beneficial.

An experienced IT services company will assess your business and build a tailored package that eliminates waste and introduces a variety of benefits to your business – all for a price that you can afford.

That said, let’s dive deeper into what you can expect when it comes to managed IT pricing.

 

Managed IT Pricing Models – Which One Is Right for Your Business?

As mentioned above, managed IT services pricing models can be customized to meet your business’s precise needs.

One of the keys to IT ROI is in fact to develop an IT services plan that is tailored to your business, removing unnecessary costs and redundancies and creating an overall leaner, more efficient, and more effective IT strategy. (See the sections below for a managed IT services ROI calculator.)

In fact, with vCIO support, for instance, you can effectively build a long-term IT plan that ensures your business is constantly outfitted with the IT support services it needs at every stage of its lifecycle.

 

Want to learn more about managed IT services? 

 

 

But it all starts with determining which managed IT pricing model is the one that works best for your situation.

Let’s break it down into two distinct categories: fixed price and break/fix (also known as pay-as-you-go).

 

Pay-as-You-Go

With break/fix support, you’ll receive remote support and other types of services that will be available to handle issues as they crop up. Typically you’ll pay per IT issue your managed services provider (MSP) solves, or an hourly rate for your IT support.

If you don’t encounter IT issues very often or already have an in-house team you trust, this can be ideal as supplementary support or as a way to tackle those sporadic IT disturbances. But if your business is planning on performing larger IT projects like digital transformations or server migrations, they won’t be covered (or if they are, it will be very expensive).

 

Fixed Pricing

With fixed managed IT pricing, your IT spend will be predictable and reliable. But you may be wondering: how much does managed IT service cost per month?

That depends on a few factors.

Your MSP will provide a managed IT services price list that details the services they offer, as well as how much they’ll cost to include in your monthly service package

They may also include other variables like per-user or per-device pricing. So your managed IT pricing will shift depending on size, with small businesses paying less than larger enterprises. These will be provided for a flat fee month to month, but that fee is subject to change depending on if your business grows and/or if you add additional services.

 

Per Device vs Per User Pricing

Per-device support often charges per:

  • Desktop
  • Network printer
  • Managed network
  • Server

 

In addition to other devices. Rule of thumb: the more complex the device, the more expensive it will be under this pricing model. Typical pricing for managed IT on a per-device basis ranges from $10-$150 per device per month.

Per user ofter covers users’:

  • PCs
  • Laptops
  • Tablets
  • Mobile devices
  • Office equipment

 

And pretty much any other device in your IT environment that your covered users will operate. Typical pricing ranges from $100-$500 per user per month. All this depends on the size, scope and complexity of your IT stack.

 

How to Save on Your Managed IT Costs

Managed IT Pricing

Credit: freepik

 

As mentioned earlier, the best way to ensure that your managed IT services rates are optimal, you’ll want to leverage a package that meets your exact needs.

To that end, you can leverage a variety of service packages. Let’s go over a few of the most common arrangements:

 

Monitoring Only

One of the cheaper options available, monitoring-only provides just that: monitoring and break/fix solutions as IT issues crop up. You’ll receive monitoring of your key IT assets like your network and infrastructure, and you can also leverage cybersecurity protections.

This won’t include support for larger and more complex IT projects, but can serve if your business is uninterested in accessing cloud efficiencies or if you already have a well-functioning cloud infrastructure, for example.

 

A la Carte

Consider this the buffet of IT service packages. You pay for services you need as you need them.

This is ideal if you want to maintain maximal flexibility.

This is also great if you need supplemental help for a large IT project – like a data migration or recovering after a data breach – but don’t anticipate those services being required long term.

The main issue with this format is that unexpected IT troubles that crop up can quickly become expensive as you add on services. Additionally, should a project end up requiring more resources and time than initially anticipated, this can also add to your costs.

 

Fully Managed IT Plan

The right fit for your business if you want to never have to think about IT issues ever again.

With end-to-end management, you can ensure that your IT stack is:

  • Monitored
  • Updated
  • Augmented
  • Safe
  • Secure
  • Resilient
  • And more

 

In fact, end-to-end management is often the only way to get access to the most cost-effective technology. You can leverage your MSP’s vendor partnerships, which is not often included in other packages.

With a fully managed plan, your MSP will assess your IT assets and determine which services can yield the highest return for your business. In other words, your managed IT services calculator will show the highest ROI yield on a fully managed plan – when done right.

The drawback here is that it does require commitment, so working with a proven, experienced, MSP is paramount.

 

Managed IT Services ROI Calculator

A managed IT services ROI calculator is rather straightforward.

The average data breach costs a business nearly $10 million. While this is certainly skewed by the bigger players (which can cost in the hundreds of millions), the risk remains for smaller businesses.

Network downtime similarly shows that even just a few minutes of a downed network can lead to thousands in lost productivity (this article even provides an equation for determining downtime cost risk, a handy tool in your managed IT services ROI calculator toolkit).

Aside from what you stand to lose to data branches or lost productivity, you also stand to gain with a top MSP.

Efficiencies only possible with cloud computing or a fully operational cloud environment, for instance, can lead to massive ROI. This is especially true in our age of work-from-home and hybrid environments.

You’ll also be able to automate and expedite many processes, making your overall workflow more efficient.

Finally, you’ll be able to save your team from all the IT issues they have been wasting time struggling with.

Determining all those costs (and potential costs), you can then weigh them against the relatively minor monthly cost of working with a top MSP.

 

Get Elite Managed IT Services for a Price That Works for Your Business

Managed IT Services Price List

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We now know the answer to ‘how much does managed IT service cost’.

The next step is finding an MSP that can help you control your managed IT costs without ever sacrificing quality.

Our services include:

  • End-to-end managed IT
  • Cloud support
  • 24/7 Technical support
  • On-site support
  • Long-term IT strategy development
  • Technology implementation, deployment, and administration
  • IT consulting
  • Project management
  • Disaster recovery
  • Cyber security
  • And more

 

Our team will work tirelessly to ensure that your IT is fully optimized, secure, and will never constrain business growth.

Reach out today for a free consultation.

 

 

Featured Photo Credit: Unsplash