As business models are still shifting and settling into post-Covid norms, the demands on the technology that supports those businesses are greater than ever before. For many companies, managed IT services might have been a short-term solution for the rapid switch to the remote work environment brought on by the pandemic but ended up being a permanent IT solution a few years later.
In 2022, businesses are realizing that their managed service provider (MSP) is essential to keeping their operations running smoothly. In this article, we talk about the reasons many businesses find an MSP worth the costs– in both quantifiable and unquantifiable ways.
Who needs managed IT services?
If you run a cash-only hot dog stand or a tutoring business with only two other tutors, you might not need managed IT services. But as soon as your company begins to grow and you hire a few other people in addition to yourself, use credit card transactions, break into $100k or $200k of revenue, your small business is now working with a substantial amount of data.
Companies can benefit from an MSP for a variety of reasons. As a small business, hiring an IT staff person as a system administrator to manage your network (which includes full time salary and benefits) is more expensive than using an MSP (which only adds a monthly cost either per employee or per device). Or, if your medium to large company is growing quickly and your needs are outpacing the abilities of your IT department, a monthly MSP cost would not only bridge capability gaps but would also allow for re-evaluation in the future.
There are many reasons an MSP is a good business move for companies of all sizes.
You can’t put a price tag on it
- Intangibles: time & energy
Anxiety about security or network failures, added stress from additional responsibilities, the hours spent here or there on something that could have been taken care of, lost reputation or trust with your customers or shareholders if there is a data breach… these are not tangible, measurable costs to your business. There’s no dollar figure for these problems, but they are all-consuming problems– time, energy, stress.
On the other hand, having someone to call 24/7, the relief of handing off administrative work, the security and stability of an MSP monitoring your network and keeping it online… While these may not be quantifiable either, knowing an MSP provides peace of mind and relieves stress on you and your employees is worthwhile.
- Slightly more tangible: productivity
Depending on the metrics you have in place to measure productivity, you should be able to quantify how much an MSP increases your employees’ and business’ productivity. Regardless, with an MSP you can expect:
- Enhanced security through remote monitoring, patching, and disaster recovery (to name a few)
- Increased attention to core competencies
- Effective implementation of upgrades, innovative technologies, and products
- Maintained compliance with international standards throughout different industries
Each of these areas of managed IT support increase productivity for your entire business.
- Business scalability & agility
MSPs offer support on a month-to-month basis with a malleable set of services and an open-ended ability to access experts for upgrading, implementing changes and upgrades, migrating to new network systems, and more.
It’s tough to quantify just how much this benefits a business, but the ability to scale up or out as necessary in order to stay as competitive as possible is an invaluable benefit to having an MSP.
…But sometimes you can put a price tag on it
- Data breaches & downtime
A data breach or leak can cost your business thousands of dollars. Enlisting the proactive help of an MSP includes monitoring and added security features and management so that your network is much safer from outside threats. Not only does having an MSP reduce the likelihood of breaches happening, but they also reduce the damage done should one occur.
Aside from a tarnished reputation and lost trust, there are data out there that suggest just how much you risk if you aren’t taking every precaution and do get breached. The cybersecurity company Kaspersky published a study of over 5,500 companies around the world and found that 90% of them experienced a security incident. The overall average enterprises spent on breaches was $551,000, with small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) spending an average of $38,000 to remediate security breaches (source).
The cost of downtime also adds up. According to Statista, as of the third quarter of 2021, companies faced an average of 22 days of “downtime,” which they define as any time a business is not working at 100% productivity as the result of an attack (source). Tech research and consulting firm, Gartner, reported that the overall average amount of money lost during IT downtime is $5,600 per minute, and cited another source that estimated losses at $140,000 to $540,000 per hour (source).
These statistics are not one-size-fits-all and represent a range of companies from giant down to very small businesses. The point remains that data breaches and downtime can be quantified into a dollar figure, and often the costs of employing an MSP pale in comparison to the losses you might see with a less secure network.
- Cost of monthly managed IT services
The next obvious question is: Well, how much does a managed IT service cost?
The answer isn’t a simple one, as MSPs offer a variety of services, and most will tailor their services to your business needs. If an MSP offers a per-user or per-device cost, it can vary greatly from $10 to $250, with costs for other services or projects, startup fees, or consultation fees.
Additional factors to consider include the number of people or devices covered, the number of servers, the amount of data to manage and secure, and the details of upgrades you might be implementing. These costs are all very dependent on your unique business. Despite the varying needs of businesses, two things tend to be true:
- Hiring an MSP ends up costing less and being more cost-effective than hiring a full-time administrative person or IT staff person.
- Having a monthly MSP cost allows for a budget rather than cash flow issues when tech problems arise
Call us!
Our professionals at Royal Network IT Solutions, Inc. have over 50 years of experience providing technical support to businesses in the Tustin and Eastvale areas of California. As technology has evolved and challenged a company’s need for technology support, we have expanded our ability to provide a range of managed IT services to our clients.
Call or email us today for a consultation at (949) 236-7700 or services@rnitsolutions.com.