How are Managed Services Usually Priced, Compared to Break-Fix Services?

Outsourced IT services are a very popular option for modern businesses, with options ranging from fully managed services to the traditional break/fix approach. However, when weighing these options, it is only natural that price plays a heavy part in the considerations. While we won’t go into any precise pricing, we do want to discuss some overarching trends concerning the two options and their associated costs to prove that managed services are, in fact, the better option for modern businesses.

A Comparison Between Managed Services and Break-Fix

Let’s begin by really distilling the two options into the most basic description of each.

• Break-Fix services are transactional in their nature, with each issue in need of resolution being billed separately. 
• Managed services operate as an outsourced department would, with all services (based on the established agreement) covered by a set monthly subscription cost.

This is really the crux of the matter: how a business is charged for the IT services they receive. Naturally, there are many, many more differences between the two—proactivity versus reactivity and the scope of the offered services first coming to mind—but we want to really hone in on the financial differences between the two.

It Comes Down to How Much You Get for Your Money

When you rely on a break-fix service to ensure your business remains operational, you inherently accept some degree of downtime. It’s unavoidable. The way that break-fix works, reacting to an issue after it has already interrupted business processes, means that downtime is going to be involved to some degree.

As a result, you’ll already be losing money through lost productivity and maybe missed opportunities—and that’s before you have to pay to have the issue itself resolved. On top of that, you have no guarantee that the issue won’t come back later and cause the whole process to repeat.

Compare that to what a managed service agreement covers: complete monitoring and maintenance of your infrastructure through remote technologies, with live assistance readily available for your team members as needed. We’ll still come to the office if an issue arises that can’t be resolved remotely, but we’ll do so empowered by the data we can collect and analyze while our technician is en route.

With all this (and more) delivered at a consistent, predictable, and therefore budgetable monthly cost, managed services are effectively the equivalent of bringing on an entire IT team for approximately the cost of hiring one IT person internally.

While We May Be Biased, The Comparative Value We Offer Speaks for Itself

I’m confident that you don’t like being nickel-and-dimed in your business’ dealings, which is one reason why we operate in such a way that it doesn’t happen. We try to minimize the surprises that our clientele’s IT gives them so that they can focus on the operations of their business, accomplishing their goals, and making more money (less of which they have to spend fixing recurring and persistent IT problems).

So, while it may be tempting to simply rely on the low-commitment services that a break/fix provider offers, you need to consider if low-commitment is really in your best interests. Wouldn’t you rather make the predictable investment into a team that is committed to your success?

If so, give us a call to learn more about our flat-rate, fee-free IT services at (978) 482-2020.