Top Myths About Managed IT Services

First, the good news: more businesses of every size are familiar with managed IT and understand some of the ways it might help their business become more agile, productive, and secure. But I often hear a few misconceptions and assumptions that I’d love to clear up so that business owners and IT personnel get a better understanding of what they can and should expect from a provider. 

5 Common Managed IT Myths, Busted

There are five myths I hear more often than all the rest that I’d love to bust, once and for all. Let’s get to it, starting with the most common one — cost!

Myth 1: Managed IT Services Pricing Is Prohibitive

Especially when economists are forecasting a recession, it’s difficult for many business owners to think about adding a service. But when you consider all of the things you won’t have to budget when you add Managed IT to the mix, it’s easy to see how managed IT services can pay for itself, and then some. 

Here’s what’s typically included with Managed IT services:

• Day-to-day IT needs
• Frequently used business software 
• Help desk support
• Maintenance and repair services 
• 24/7 network monitoring 
• Cybersecurity services

You’re paying for these things anyway, either with your budget or through your employees’ time. And if you haven’t kept up with current cybersecurity best practices, you could end up paying exponentially more. The average cost of a data breach for businesses with fewer than 500 employees is $2.98 million.

Many prospective clients I talk to are surprised to hear that large managed IT providers like Marco can save them quite a bit of money on software alone. But to throw out some real numbers, 50% of companies who engaged an MSP saved 1-24% in annual IT costs, 33% saved 25-49%, and 13% reported savings of more than 50%.

Myth 2: Managed IT Is a One-Size-Fits-All Solution

All Managed IT service offerings are not the same. Sometimes I work with a new client whose previous provider only had preset service packages, with no ability to mix and match or customize their services to fit a business. That is not the case with us. When you talk with a flexible IT provider, expect them to ask you quite a few questions about your business, how you work, and what you’d like to accomplish before they start suggesting solutions. 

These types of conversations are important to have, because even if a provider perfectly meets your needs right now, those needs can change quickly. With a provider that can adjust their services to fit your business, it’s easier to scale up or down. Even better, IT staff retention challenges will no longer lead to business emergencies.

Additional Pro Tips

Before you sign anything with a new provider, make sure you read through your Service Level Agreement (SLA). You’ll find everything you need to know about who will be responsible for what and what you can expect. Pay special attention to response times, and whether your provider will be proactive to address potential issues, or only take action after something’s broken. If you see something in there that you don’t like, ask your provider if they’re willing to make an adjustment.

Myth 3: Managed IT Comes With Hidden Fees

Marco's Managed IT Services are an investment in your organization that allows you to reduce risk and benefit from world-class expertise without hiring additional staff.  Companies invest in this service by paying a consistent dollar amount every month. Once you get started with our Managed IT Services, there are no additional costs above your monthly investment. 

As I said before, however, not every provider is the same. There are a number of different pricing models in our industry, and you tend to get what you pay for. Some managed IT providers will seem cheaper on paper, but will charge steep fees should anything go wrong. To put it another way, they make more money when your business experiences more disruptions, and they make less when they prevent them. We use a per-user model so that we do well only when we’ve done our job well for you. 

Myth 4: Managed IT Services Aren’t for Small Businesses

I still hear this one far too often. Many small businesses underestimate the threat cybercriminals pose to their organization — they consider themselves too small to be a target. But the opposite is true. Cybercriminals know that small businesses are far less likely to have cybersecurity experts at their beck and call, and therefore, they’re the perfect targets for attacks that take relatively little time to set up and can still generate huge profits. 

The top five cybersecurity threats for small businesses are largely preventable if only these businesses had basic cybersecurity in place. And because we price per user, our smaller businesses pay much less to access the same expertise and on-demand services we offer enterprise-level companies every day. 

If that’s not enough of an incentive, think about your current IT staff and their capacity. If you’re one of the lucky ones, you’ve got highly skilled IT personnel that aren’t constantly overwhelmed with tasks. They’re able to keep up with patching, and they provide quick troubleshooting and excellent support. But what happens when something happens on a weekend or after hours, or your top IT person goes on vacation? Having someone available to you 24/7 in case of emergencies offers peace of mind that’s tough to beat.

Myth 5: Managed IT Will Replace Your In-House IT Team

We can replace in-house teams, but it’s more common that we supplement internal teams as needed. Your internal IT staff knows quite a bit about your business and how it needs to run. Their insight is valuable, and we love working with internal teams to take on projects that they don’t have the time or the specialized expertise to take on themselves. They can offload help desk support, cybersecurity, cloud migrations, and more, while they can work more closely with you to help you achieve your business goals.

Outsourcing Your IT Services Quickly and Easily 

Business trends tend to slowly trickle down from enterprise-scale companies to their SMB counterparts, and Managed IT is one of them. But as cybersecurity threats mount, it’s critical that small businesses, at the very least, beef up their cybersecurity. And getting help from a managed IT provider is the quickest, easiest way to do it.

Our US-based staff includes over 650 certified systems engineers and technical representatives, and we have the bandwidth to serve organizations of every size. But if you’re still researching solutions, you probably still have some lingering questions about whether Managed IT would be the right fit for your business. Click the link below to get answers to frequently asked questions.