We often get asked how much managed IT support should cost by companies who are looking to implement a managed IT support service, so we’ve put together a helpful pricing guide to help you understand the average cost per user.
The average cost per user is dependent on the kind of service and support required, such as whether IT security and cybersecurity services are required, whether you also need business phone lines and broadband and whether you will require staff training.
So How Much Does A Managed Service Provider Actually Charge?
The short answer to how much an IT managed service costs depends:
It can be anything between £5 and £500 per user per month.
Why Such a Big Jump and How Does One Narrow This Down?
Well here are some of the questions to ask yourself to determine how much you should pay:
- Do you understand that your business can easily fail due to a cyber security attack?
- Does your business hold sensitive and confidential customer information?
- Is IT critical to your day-to-day work?
- Is technology a real driver for your business growth or just a tool you use?
- How fast are you growing?
Features Which Affect The Monthly Cost Per User:
- How many PCs your business has
- Whether your business is growing quickly or slowly
- Whether there are cyber security concerns (You should be concerned!)
- Whether you will require faster
- Whether you require VoIP phone or broadband services
- Whether you require cloud computing services such as Office 365/exchange emails or Microsoft Azure
- Outdated IT. If your system is outdated or overly complicated this will have to be fixed and included in the onboarding costs and budget plans.
At Goodchoice IT, we much prefer to offer a complete service that covers the daily IT needs you may have. We believe it is important to choose a managed service provider who will understand your companies IT support needs and offer a comprehensive service, covering all aspects of IT support from IT security to communication services.
Some Considerations to Make Before Choosing a Managed IT Support Company:
- If you pay £0-20 per device per month do you think that will cover all the engineering time and allow IT support to focus on business development?
- If you pay £100-500 per user per month do you have a clear idea of the value-added to the business?
- Have you considered co-managed IT support services?
- Do you have a 3-year plan and budget?
- Are you focused on firefighting IT problems or driving business growth? Do you measure results just by resolution speed?
- Are you getting ‘nickel & dime’ IT or overspending?
- Are you focused on business growth or instant support? Why?
How Does Business Growth Affect IT Support Costs?
A rapidly growing business has very different requirements from say, a local accounting firm. Over 20 years we’ve been to many hundreds of businesses of all sizes and can quickly assess what’s needed, and get this aligned to a realistic budget. We will work with you to add business value and align this to your business goals.
Choosing an IT company whose products and services are easy to scale up (or down) is vital to ensuring the smooth running of your business and day-to-day business communications.
Example Case Studies:
We recently started working with an architecture firm who were really struggling with IT performance – they spent just £15 a month to dramatically improve their day-to-day IT experience. Yes, fifteen pounds and knowing what to do, we are now able to ensure their business can grow and scale at ease with their managed IT service.
Many small business owners struggle to get IT working, but once they have a trusted IT partner, they will quickly start to reap the benefits and rewards. For example, 2 new managed IT services clients we started to work with during lockdown were both were trying to do IT all themselves and just couldn’t get things working efficiently, but with our help now have all systems running smoothly. Both can now put that energy into growing their business, not fixing printers!
Things To Be Aware of When Choosing a Managed IT Company
There are many different types of managed service providers and hence many ways one can go wrong when choosing the right managed IT service for their business. Some things to be aware of include:
- Outsourcing Work: Companies selling “IT Support” but not providing any of the service themselves, instead choosing to outsource the work to cheaper workers who won’t have a good understanding of your business or necessarily be based in the UK.
- Inflated Setup Costs: Some companies include front-loaded, projects or hardware overpriced and inflated to make the monthly costs seem very low.
- Expensive Add-ons: Quoting an impossibly low fee and then trying to charge more for add-ons
- Questionable Contracts: Very long contracts with no break clauses
Looking For A Managed Service Provider?
At Goodchoice IT, we have offices in both London and Surrey, perfectly placed to provide on-site and remote IT support to clients in various locations, from Guildford and Woking to Wimbledon, Blackfriars and Croydon.
You can find out more about the cost of our IT support plans on our managed services pricing page and our different guaranteed response times for IT support on our response time page.
If you are getting quotes for IT support we are happy to offer advice, as we understand it’s very hard to understand what the differences are in costs and services, just drop us a message.
If you would like to schedule a call with us and get a quote for our managed IT services, we are happy to have a chat – book a call with us today!