If you’re a business owner, do you ever sit down and run through all of your expenses and ask yourself what you’re actually paying for? We’ve been there. Technology expenses like hardware, software licensing, cloud hosting, management and maintenance, support and service agreements all add up quickly, and it makes it easy to question what you can trim to save money without sinking the ship, especially when you rarely need to call your current IT provider.
What Am I Paying For?
If you utilize a managed service provider (MSP) who handles the maintenance and support of your IT infrastructure, it’s likely you pay a flat monthly, quarterly or yearly rate to cover the upkeep of your workstations, servers and network infrastructure. This model has become increasingly common and it makes a lot of sense; it takes a decent amount of maintenance to keep a business network running smoothly, and when it’s handled proactively there are fewer issues in the long run.
One thing to note is we can’t account for every AREASERVED provider, because everyone has their own way of quoting and billing for their IT service, but typically if you get a monthly flat-rate bill per user or per device then your IT company is providing some level of service on a regular basis. That may or may not be all-inclusive support for end users, cover hardware failures, etc. What’s important is that you’re getting what you pay for and that your IT is handled in a way that isn’t setting you up for failure down the road.
When reviewing your regular technology bills, when you see the line item for maintenance and support, you might look back at how often your team had to call for support or put in a service ticket over the past several months. If your IT has been running smoothly the past few months, you probably have that one big question
It’s the Pareto Principle
The Pareto Principle, more commonly referred to as the 80/20 rule, states that 80 percent of the effects come from 20 percent of the causes. Basically, it’s an ounce of prevention equals a pound of cure.
That’s exactly how IT works. If you set everything up right, configure it and document it well, then carefully monitor it, you won’t be running back and forth to keep fixing it. It’s typically much more cost effective to manage and maintain your network than it is to set it and forget it and only come back when something goes horribly wrong.
If your IT is running smoothly, your users are productive and your security is passing every audit with flying colors, then that ongoing management and maintenance is performing exactly how it’s supposed to.
We hope this helped explain how most managed IT bills work. If you have questions, or want to know how we can help keep your organizing running smoothly, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at 844.671.6071.