If your growing Chicago business hasn’t quite reached the stage at which it makes sense financially to have an in-house team of IT employees, you may be looking into bringing on a Managed IT Services provider. After a little web research, you may start to wonder why there are no prices listed for managed services plans. It may even look like the IT services are dodging the question of pricing.

How Much Do Managed IT Services Cost for Chicago Businesses?

The cost of managed services from a Chicago IT company mostly depends on factors that are specific to an individual business’s particular IT needs. That’s why you’re not seeing general pricing numbers on providers’ websites.

You’ve probably already done some math and confirmed that you’re wasting money attempting to adequately manage your business’s IT systems. But, you do need to get a figure you can work within your budget for Managed IT Services.

To get the cost number requires a full evaluation of your company’s needs for IT management. Managed IT Services providers know that maintaining flexibility with services and pricing is necessary to be able to meet all of the needs of smaller businesses and their budgets.

Growing businesses reach a stage at which they are likely to need the same scope of IT systems management services, but scaled to their current size. Have a professional assessment of your business’s IT services needs, in order to obtain a price that’s appropriate, based on specifications determined from the assessment.

Which IT Services Does Your Business Need?

To determine an appropriate pricing for Managed IT Services, the various IT services that your business needs are factored into costs. For example, IT services may include the following, among many others:

  • Security: Protection from unauthorized access to sensitive customer data and other information and intellectual property is a business essential.
  • Desktop Support: Users need fast and effective IT support that understands your business’s unique systems and use of applications, in order to maintain maximal productivity.
  • Virus Protection: Viruses are a serious threat to small businesses. Viruses enter in emails, ransomware, flash drives, malware, etc. Effective strategies must be used to keep viruses from seriously impacting your operations.
  • Network Monitoring: Network oversight maintains your systems, and ensures that your network and employees are kept secure from external and internal threats during daily communications.
  • Email and On-Boarding Administration: A lot of administrative time is used for removing and adding email and other applications and systems users, training, updating spam filters, various configurations, and many other related tasks in setting up new users.
  • Training: Simply having staff members view a video or read some introductory applications training material can result in costs that add up due to productivity loss due to inadequate training and excessive user errors.
  • Web Hosting: Servers need to be continually maintained and monitored, to keep functioning efficiently for businesses that host their own websites and applications, and files on their own software- or hardware-based servers.
  • Data Backup & Storage: As your business grows, file storage needs an increase, and need for more efficient management of data, backups, file recoveries, etc., increases.
  • Compliance: Your IT processes may need strategic modifications to meet security benchmarks of customer companies that operate in regulated cyber environments.
  • Virtual CIO: Having a VCIO can provide strategies to help a growing business leverage its information technology in achieving business objectives and goals.

IT services vary from one provider to the next, but a good Managed IT Services company can provide you with all of the above-listed services.

Is IT Management With One In-House IT Employee Cost-Effective?

It’s not usually cost effective to have multiple IT employees for a small to medium-sized business. Just finding an ideally trained and experienced IT management employee can be very difficult and time-consuming for a smaller business.

A Managed IT Service Provider offers full-scale IT management, reporting, 24/7 support, auditing of suppliers, strategic IT planning, and many other services that lift the burden of IT concerns from a busy business owner. And, typically, Managed IT Services plans cost far less than maintaining an in-house IT employee and are much more efficient and comprehensive in managing all facets of IT needs.

Managed IT Services companies can also purchase software and hardware at lower prices, due to volume buying, than a business pays on its own.

Pricing Managed IT Services Chicago — What’s Right for My Business?

Here are the general options of pricing frameworks used by Managed IT Services for businesses:

  • Per Device: The price is set per each piece of IT equipment to be managed, such as servers, printers, copiers, desktops, laptops, hand-held devices, and other IT items.
  • Per User: The price is set per user. This makes it easy to budget as your business grows and you add users.
  • Flat Fee: The price is a set based on needs and is paid monthly, quarterly, or annually for all included services. Additional costs for extra services can often be arranged. Or, additional services may be added to the set price.

Is it More Practical to Use Managed IT Services for Smaller Businesses?

A business usually needs to add an additional IT employee when it reaches about 100 users. Having more than one person managing IT with under 100 employees is normally an unnecessary waste of financial resources. Businesses with many users (150 or more) can often manage their IT systems at a cost lower than outsourcing for their business size. However, for smaller and medium-sized businesses, outsourced IT management is usually more cost-effective and efficient.

Smaller businesses get more for their money with a managed service. And, Managed IT Services are more practical than having a single IT employee who leaves the business without coverage on vacation, sick days, etc. and increases expensive benefits costs. Plus, Managed IT Services offer the combined experience of a team of experts and is sure to keep pace with all new IT industry advancements.

IT problems are sure to occur. A serious data loss or long period of downtime due to an IT crisis can deal an unrecoverable blow to a smaller business. Small businesses can’t afford to absorb the shock of being hacked, yet they’re hacked at the staggering rate of more than 4,000 every day in the US. (Hackers know that smaller businesses are likely to be the least protected systems.)

Generally, Managed IT Services offer small to medium-sized business the most practical solution for controlling total IT costs and maintaining the best quality of IT management.

ACT Network Solutions, Cary IL

ACT provides Managed IT Services for businesses in Chicago and throughout the greater Chicagoland areas. We are familiar with the challenges that growing businesses in the metro region face. We can help you with the most cost-effective way to manage your information technology systems so that you can be free to focus on running your business.

Contact ACT Network Solutions at (847) 639-7000 any time, for more information about Managed IT Services for businesses in Chicago and the surrounding areas. We’re here to answer all of your questions.