2022 Pricing Guide: Co-Managed IT Services In Las Vegas
Are you starting to feel overwhelmed with your business’s professional-level IT problems? If so, you’re probably thinking of outsourcing part of your IT tasks to a co-managed IT service provider. However, by outsourcing to a third party, you’re opening up your business to additional costs.
So, how much does co-managed IT services cost? This depends on the level of your business’s IT needs. Each business will have a unique fee depending on the number of users, the current IT setup, and the number of locations. These factors can cause the cost of co-managed IT to fluctuate from $100/user per month to $250/user per month.
Getting the exact pricing for co-managed IT services presents a bit of a challenge for most businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses. That’s why we have created this guide. It will walk you through different pricing strategies and the costs you can expect.
What Factors Affect the Price of Co-Managed Services?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all price for co-managed IT services. Every business will have a unique bill depending on the following factors:
1. Current IT Setup
Your current IT setup will directly affect your co-managed IT plan. You need to assess how effective your in-house IT department is in meeting your company’s IT needs and where a managed service provider (MSP) needs to step in to support your company.
Basically, there are three types of IT setup. Below is a description of how they operate and how co-managed IT can improve them:
- The one-man show: This is an IT department run by one person— they handle all of the company’s IT needs. The one-man show IT department is common in small companies with less intensive technical needs. Even so, when such companies grow, the single person running the department will be overwhelmed.
- The leaderless team: Such IT departments depend on one person (a team leader) to get the team through the day. When the team leader quits, your IT department can be left floundering and exposed. MSPs are usually called to step in when such situations arise.
- Project-needing team: Some businesses need long-term IT partners to do vital, more complex projects that their in-house IT departments don’t have the time and expertise to complete successfully.
Each of these scenarios will determine the price you expect to pay since each situation needs something different from your MSP. Suppose any of these scenarios describe your IT department, then it’s high time you started looking into co-managed IT.
2. Number of Office Locations
The number of office locations your company has directly affected your MSP’s ability to provide co-managed IT services. This is because they must ensure that their services reach all your office locations. As such, the more locations a company has, the more computers they need to set up and manage. This will increase the price. The reverse is also true.
3. Number of Users
MSPs usually price their co-managed IT services on a per-user basis. The more users a company has, the more workstations an MSP will have to manage. Usually, businesses that benefit from co-managed IT have at least 50 users and an internal IT person or team.
4. Number of Servers
The number of servers a business has can dramatically affect the price of IT support. Just like the more users you have, the higher the price of co-managed IT; having more servers will cause the price to go up as well. This is because more servers equal increased complexity on firewall and network, more security measures, more backups, etc.
What Is the Total Cost of Co-Managed IT?
Typically, co-managed IT costs two-thirds of the price of fully managed IT services. For instance, a fully managed IT service could cost $150/user, but a co-managed IT service could cost approximately $100/user.
Besides the per-user price, you will also need to consider possible onboarding expenses. Onboarding is the process through which an MSP collects your user and IT data. It sets the tone for an MSP’s future relationship with its clients. Everything from the point you enter into a contractual relationship with an MSP to the point your services go live comes under onboarding. This process is important in integrating your business into an MSP’s support center. In a nutshell, co-managed IT costs approximately two-thirds of managed IT plus the onboarding fees.
Does Partnering With a Co-Managed IT Provider Save You Money?
The cost of IT staff is rising. Not only that, but it’s difficult to find the right expertise at the time you need to scale up. By engaging with a co-managed IT service provider, you’ll be able to keep the resources you have and supplement their roles with services that specifically fill the void you have currently.
Co-managed IT services are designed to save you money in the long run through proactive planning and preventive maintenance. By implementing timely security upgrades and monitoring systems, your equipment will function optimally, and you’ll experience less downtime.
Additionally, when you partner with a co-managed IT company, your project costs will be estimated and quoted separately and will be done so in advance. This enables you to place a specific amount of dollars in your IT budget. IT service providers have project managers who plan, schedule, and manage resources on their end so that you don’t have to. Considering these benefits, when you partner with a co-managed IT provider, you’ll cut down your IT costs.
Get a Specific Answer for the Cost of Co-Managed IT
Regardless of whether co-managed IT is less costly than fully managed IT services and in-house IT departments, it is still a significant budget adjustment for businesses. And each business has a personalized budget for co-managed IT services based on the number of users, the number of locations, the current IT setup, and the number of servers. You’ll also need to factor in possible onboarding costs.
Network Security Associates (NSA) has helped set up co-managed IT for several Las Vegas businesses. Approximately the price of co-managed IT ranges between $100 and $250/user per month. Even so, this will still depend on your IT needs. Getting the exact quote on how much co-managed IT services cost can be frustrating. Contact us for help to get a customized quote.