What Is Managed IT Support and Does Your Business Need It?

If your business has grown beyond a handful of people, there is a good chance IT support has grown up by accident. Perhaps a member of staff who is "good with computers" handles most of it, a friend helps out at weekends and a local engineer is called when something really breaks. That works, until it does not.

Managed IT support is the most common alternative for businesses of 5 to 100 staff. This guide explains what it is in plain English, how it compares with the other options and how to tell whether it is the right fit for you.

What managed IT support actually means

Managed IT support is an arrangement where an external company, often called a managed service provider or MSP, takes ongoing responsibility for your technology in return for a regular monthly fee. Rather than waiting for you to call when something breaks, the provider looks after your systems all the time.

In practice that usually means:

• A helpdesk your team can call or email with any IT problem or question
• Monitoring software on your computers and servers that alerts the provider to problems such as failing disks or missed updates
• Regular updates to Windows, macOS and business software
• Security tools such as endpoint protection and email filtering, managed on your behalf
• Administration of Microsoft 365, including setting up new starters and removing leavers
• Checking that backups are running and can actually be restored
• Advice and planning, so equipment is replaced on a schedule rather than when it fails

The key word is responsibility. A managed provider is not just there to fix things; it is responsible for keeping them working.

Managed IT support vs break fix

Break fix is the traditional model. When something goes wrong you call an IT company, it fixes the problem and sends an invoice for the time spent. There is no monthly fee and no ongoing relationship.

The weakness of break fix is incentive. If a provider is paid per callout, every fault is income. Nobody is paid to apply updates, check backups or spot a failing hard drive before it stops your day. With managed support the incentive reverses: problems cost the provider time within a fixed fee, so it is in its interest to prevent them.

Break fix can still make sense for a very small business with a simple setup and little reliance on technology. For most businesses that depend on email, shared files and cloud apps every day, the unpredictability and lack of prevention become expensive. Our guide to how much IT support costs covers the pricing models in more detail.

Managed IT support vs an in house IT person

Employing your own IT person has real advantages. They are on site, they know your people and they can focus entirely on your business. For larger organisations an internal team is often essential.

For a business of 5 to 100 staff, though, one person rarely covers everything. IT now spans networking, Microsoft 365, cyber security, backups, phones and hardware, and nobody is an expert in all of it. There is also cover to think about: holidays, sickness and the person eventually moving on, often taking undocumented knowledge with them.

Many businesses find a middle ground works well. An internal IT lead handles day to day requests and projects, while a managed provider supplies the monitoring tools, security stack, specialist skills and holiday cover. This is sometimes called co managed IT.

What is an SLA?

An SLA, or service level agreement, is the part of a managed IT contract that sets out what the provider will do and how quickly. A clear SLA should tell you:

• What is covered, such as which users, devices, software and sites
• Support hours, for example Monday to Friday during office hours, and how anything outside those hours is handled
• Priority levels, so an issue that stops the whole office is treated differently from one person wanting a new shortcut on their desktop
• Response and resolution targets for each priority level, and how the provider reports against them
• Exclusions, such as projects, new hardware or unsupported software, and how those are charged

Be wary of an SLA that only promises a response time. A quick reply saying "we have logged your call" is not the same as fixing the problem. Ask how the provider measures and reports on its performance, and what happens if it consistently falls short.

Signs your business needs managed IT support

There is no headcount at which managed support becomes compulsory, but these are common signs that it is time to look at it seriously.

• A member of staff spends a growing part of their week fixing IT instead of doing their actual job
• Nobody is quite sure whether backups are working or when they were last tested
• You do not know who holds the admin passwords for Microsoft 365, your domain name or your firewall
• Computers are slow, old or still running software that no longer receives security updates
• Clients or insurers are asking security questions you cannot confidently answer
• You want to achieve Cyber Essentials but do not know where to start
• New starters wait days for a working laptop and email account
• IT spending arrives as a series of surprises rather than a planned budget

If several of these sound familiar, a managed provider will almost certainly save you time and reduce risk. If none of them do, your current arrangement may be working well, and that is fine too.

How to choose a managed IT provider

Once you decide managed support is right for you, take time to choose the right partner. Ask to see a sample contract and SLA, ask how they onboard new clients and what documentation you will receive, and check that you will keep ownership of your accounts and data. It is also worth asking how they would handle the move from your current arrangement; our guide to switching IT support provider walks through what a good handover looks like.

Finally, think about fit. You will be working with this company every week, so it helps if they explain things clearly, understand businesses like yours and are close enough to visit when it matters.

How Cyber Fits can help

Cyber Fits provides managed IT support from Sunderland to businesses of around 5 to 100 staff across Tyne and Wear, County Durham and Teesside. We can act as your whole IT department or work alongside an internal IT person. If you are not sure which approach suits you, a free IT review is a good place to start: we will look at your current setup and give you straightforward advice.