How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Managed Service Provider?

Managed service providers offer several IT-related services — more than simply fixing what is broken or not working. Much of it involves planning and budgeting for future expenses, so you’re not surprised by unexpected costs in the coming years.

Not only are you paying for the expertise and resources of an IT team, but it’s quite common to pay an MSP to rent certain applications or software, such as Microsoft Office 365.

Considering all of those aspects, let’s take a look at what you can expect to pay for an MSP based on Hungerford Technologies’ pricing model.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Managed Service Provider?

The simple answer is it depends. Because there is so much that an MSP can provide, your cost will depend on your business’s location, your needs as a company and how much work you want to outsource versus handling in-house.

Managed service providers typically charge a monthly rate for their services and can offer different coverage tiers that range from handling all IT services to only handling a few and letting you take care of the rest. Most companies that hire an MSP will fall somewhere in the middle.

At Hungerford Technologies, we offer three tiers of coverage ranging from $50 per user, per month up to $175 per user, per month.

ProCare: This is your basic coverage plan that offers limited tech support and management of backups and patching. This is perfect for businesses or nonprofits that want protection but can handle most IT services on their own. Services like dark web monitoring and budget planning will cost extra but are covered in the higher tiers.

ProCare+: This is a middle-of-the-road tier that expands on tech support but also offers planning services such as budget planning, technology consulting and an annual technology summary meeting. It also includes extra security features such as an annual dark web monitoring report, managed antivirus and spam, and managed two-factor authentication. This tier is meant for organizations that not only want to improve their basic security but also want help in identifying future risks.

Advisory: This is the top tier that includes everything from the previous two tiers and more proactive technology management, such as a dedicated network administrator, asset management and recurring site visits. It also includes employee phishing and ransomware training, so your employees know how to identify phishing attempts and ransomware. This tier is good for organizations that want the most protection, priority after-hours support and monthly technology audits that aim to ensure any possibility of risk is mitigated while improving productivity.

The chart below shows what services you will get with each tier.

What’s Not Included?

There are projects not covered in the aforementioned tiers that are priced separately. Simply put, these are additional big-scale services that require extra time and resources on our end. These projects may include workstation refreshes (setting up new laptops and adding software to the new devices) or migrating from on-premises servers to cloud-based servers.

Hungerford Technologies charges $150 per hour for projects, depending on the size and scope.

How Do We Justify Our Prices?

When a company is contemplating whether it wants to spend thousands of dollars per month on a managed service provider, it’s natural to wonder if the cost justifies the value. MSPs mostly offer services rather than tangible products, and we package our services to meet the needs of our customers across different sizes and industries.

We justify our price by providing a range of benefits that include:

• Increased efficiency: Maintaining your systems more efficiently, resulting in less downtime and lower costs
• Proactive management: Using tools to identify and resolve potential issues before they become problems, which prevents unexpected costs and data loss
• Access to expertise: Offering a team of experts with a wide range of knowledge and experience
• Scalability: Providing the necessary resources to handle the variation in demand
• Strategic planning: Helping with the planning and execution of a company’s IT strategy and budget, aligning technology investments with the company’s goals
• Business continuity: Providing backup and disaster recovery solutions, ensuring your business continues to run

Every organization’s IT needs are different, and a tiered pricing system attempts to cover all aspects of managed service providers — giving your business the coverage it needs without paying for unnecessary services.

West Michigan Managed Service Provider

Are you looking to hire a managed service provider for your company? Contact Hungerford Technologies to see how we can help keep your business running smoothly while increasing productivity, security and profitability.