The difference a monthly plan makes
There are two ways to buy IT support. The first is by the hour: something breaks, someone comes, you get a bill. The second is a managed plan, where a provider is paid a monthly amount to keep your systems working and to answer the phone when they do not.
The difference is not the invoice. It is what the provider is paid to do. By the hour, a provider earns more when things go wrong. On a managed plan, it earns the same whether your month is quiet or not, so it is in the provider's interest to do the unglamorous work that keeps the month quiet. That is why a managed plan bundles support with monitoring, updates and security rather than selling them as extras.
What is normally included
The exact list varies between providers, which is why the first question to ask is for the list in writing. Ours is on the managed IT services page. The parts you should expect to find are these.
A helpdesk your staff can use as often as they need. One number and one email address. The engineer who answers can see your setup, fixes most things remotely while the person is still on the phone, and comes to your office when a job needs hands. On a managed plan, a staff member who rings three times in a week has not cost you anything extra.
Monitoring and updates on every device. Each computer and server is checked and patched on a schedule, in the background. This is where most outages start when it is not done, and it is the part a business without an IT person almost never gets around to on its own.
Microsoft 365 administration. New starters set up and leavers closed off, licences adjusted as the headcount changes, and the security settings that come switched off by default turned on and kept on. We do this as a Microsoft Partner, which means the licences come through us and so does the responsibility for how they are configured.
Backup that is tested. A copy of your Microsoft 365 data and your servers, taken daily, with restore tests done so that the day someone needs last Tuesday's version of a file, it is there. A report you can hand to your insurer or your board when they ask.
Security as standard. Multi-factor authentication, protection on each device, email filtering, and a plain-English account of where you stand. Not a separate product sold after the first scare.
Vendors and licences handled. When the line-of-business software vendor, the internet provider or Microsoft needs chasing, the helpdesk does the chasing. You should not need to know which company to ring.
What is usually quoted separately
A managed plan covers running what you have. It does not normally cover changing it. Three things are almost always quoted as their own piece of work:
- Projects. An office move, a new server, a migration from an old system. Scoped and priced before it starts.
- Hardware. New laptops, a replacement switch, a screen. A good provider supplies these configured and ready to use, at a price it is happy to show you.
- Licences. Microsoft 365 and other subscriptions are passed through at the published price, and the plan covers managing them rather than the subscriptions themselves.
A plan that claims to include everything usually includes everything until the first project, so ask to see the line written down. Ours is on the pricing page.
What support looks like in an ordinary week
Someone cannot log in on Monday morning. They ring the helpdesk, the engineer resets what needs resetting and checks why it happened, and the person is working again in minutes. On Tuesday a new starter needs an account, a laptop and the right access; that is a ticket, not a project. On Wednesday an email that looks like it came from the managing director asks for gift cards; the filter caught two like it already and the helpdesk explains the one that got through. On Friday nothing happens, which is the point.
None of those calls appears on an invoice. All of them appear in the monthly report, which is how you know what the plan is doing when nobody is ringing.
Who managed IT support suits
It suits a business of about 10 to 100 staff with no IT person of its own, that is accountable to someone: an insurer, an accreditation body, a head office, a regulator. Our clients are mostly freight forwarders and customs brokers, crane, civil, hire and manufacturing businesses and planning, surveying and engineering consultancies, in Brisbane and south east Queensland, with branches we support remotely.
It suits less well once there are 100 or more staff, or once there is an internal IT person. At that size the better arrangement is usually an outsourced helpdesk working alongside your own people, or a co-managed arrangement with a written split of who does what. We run both, including a remote helpdesk for a national accreditation body, and the right one depends on who you already have.
Questions to ask before you sign
- What exactly is in the monthly amount, and what is quoted separately? Ask for both lists in writing.
- Is the helpdesk unlimited, or is there a cap on calls or hours after which the meter starts?
- Who comes to site when a job needs hands, and is that included?
- Who owns the administrator accounts and the Microsoft tenancy, and what happens to them if you part ways?
- What is backed up, how often is a restore tested, and who sees the result?
- What do you report each month, and does it show the work you did when nobody rang?
- How long is the term, and what does leaving look like?
A provider that answers all seven plainly is one you can hold to the answers. One that cannot is telling you something too.
Where to start
Start with a list of what you have and what worries you, and let a provider look at it before anyone talks about plans. We do that as a free IT and security health check: an outside look at your Microsoft 365, devices and backups, with a written result you keep either way. We have supported Brisbane businesses since 2011, from offices in Sumner and Bowen Hills.