The concept behind Managed IT Services is to proactively take care of your IT infrastructure to monitor, manage and prevent IT problems before they happen.  IT Managed Services  saves your business from ongoing IT problems by proactively taking care of your network infrastructure.  Ideally with the right setup and proper planning 95% + of IT problems can go away with Managed IT Services.   So what is Managed IT Services?

Managed Services provides you or a Managed Service Provider with the tools required to monitor and fix your IT infrastructure. These tools let you know about issues before they become expensive problems.  A Managed IT Service Provider is like having your very own IT staff, but without having to pay for full time employees.  The tools make an IT person’s job easier, and those benefits save you money in the long run.  Just like your car, you wouldn’t want to drive very far without all of the instrumentation to inform you of potential probems, like running out of gas! Manage IT Services provides you with instrumentaion and tools required so your IT equipment can perform the all of the tasks and communications to keep your business up and running.

The cost for having managed services outweighs the costs of not having it.  How well could your business run if you lost your data, if your server crashed ? Are you properly patched for Security updates from Microsoft and your virus protection software? Is your firewall really securing your network?  Do you have a preventative maintenance plan to keep your computers running smooth? These are all questions you should have an answer to, and if not, Managed Services will help make sure you have the answer, solve all those issues, and more.

Pricing for Managed IT Services vary, but it usually comes in a few different flavors.  One is a monitoring only plan.  This puts software on your machines to monitor your network, server and PC’s, then alerts you if there are problems.  The monthly cost for something like that is $5-$10 per desktop and $25-$50 per server, and then whatever the providers hourly rates are for fixing issues.

The next tier is a more proactive approach, this includes all the monitoring tools, plus provides security patches, such as Microsoft Updates, and Patches for other software like Flash and Java, usually provides antivirus software and management, desktop optimization, priority service for when problems arise, discounts on labor, and backup solutions for your data, e-mail and servers.   A more proactive plan can help solve 90%+ of your IT problems, which saves you money in productivity, IT costs, and overall workplace moral.  The Cost for a plan like this would run between $19-$29 a desktop and $75-$250 a server.

The next level of Managed Services includes everything plus labor.  This does all the monitoring, patching, security, backups, and software management, all at a fixed monthly price.  Prices for this usually run about $79-$130 a desktop and up to $500 per server.  There are no extra costs for labor with this plan, and some providers even include hardware warranties for select products.  Going with this plan gives you a fixed cost for your IT service needs.

Why Managed Services?  Manage IT Services helps make your business run smooth and saves you expensive problems in the long run.  You no longer have to dread calling the IT person and paying them to fix your problems.  If you choose a plan with the right Manage IT Service Provider most of your problems will be fixed already and you can focus on growing your business, not fixing fires.