How to Find the Best Deal on Managed IT Support Services – A Seattle Business Owners’ Guide (Part 8)

As you already know, pricing varies wildly in the managed services provider (MSP) world, which means that “the best deal” won’t have a dollar amount attached to it. We can’t promise you something BuzzFeed-worthy like “the 10 best IT service deals under $5!” (haha), but we can promise you something even better.

Ready for the secret insight into how you can tell when you’re being overcharged for IT services, how you can think ahead on costs, and how you can keep your costs predictable? Well then, have we got the article for you.

Let’s get started.

If you’ve been reading this guide all the way through, you probably already have your cup of coffee in hand. If this is your first introduction to the Seattle Business Owners’ Guide to IT Security, you may want to start at the beginning.

The 5 Secret Tricks for Getting the Best Deal on Managed IT Support Services

Once you’ve tapped into the advice from Part 7 of this guide and called around to your local managed IT support service providers, you’ll have a shortlist of your top IT support companies.

As you call each company back to negotiate pricing and all those other great details, deploy these 5 secret tricks for finding the best deal possible.

1. Only pay for what you need
   There’s a lot of managed IT support services companies out there with a nasty habit of inflating their margins by charging their clients for avoidable, unnecessary services. Avoid paying for those tacked-on costs by digging deep into what services are included, what those services consist of, and why they think you need them. Look for a provider that tailors your IT support services into a custom package that covers exactly what your company needs – no more and no less. That’s the best deal for you.

2. Watch out for costly red flags
   Sometimes a managed services provider will tell you that, before you can start your IT support plan, you’ll need to replace all your systems with a new, fancy system that they sell. Clearly, this isn’t only a bad deal, it’s a bright red warning flag. Assuming you have reasonably up-to-date systems, there’s no reason you should have to replace your whole setup before you begin getting the support you signed up for. Make sure in advance that your chosen managed IT support services provider supports your system at least mostly as-is.

3. Focus on both service cost AND downtime cost
   Remember that the least expensive provider isn’t always the best deal, because you have to balance your service payment costs with your potential downtime costs. It’s important to make sure you have enough IT support protection to avoid known cyberthreats and recover quickly from unexpected cyberattacks. To determine what “quickly” means in your case, check out this downtime calculator… and then ask your potential provider how quickly they can get your systems back up and running after an attack.

4. Choose fixed price / all-in pricing
   If there’s one thing we all know about IT, it’s that the darn stuff is temperamental. Computers act unpredictably, they lose important files, they crash without warning, they harass you with weird error codes, and finally, one day, they just stop running. There’s no reason your costs should be as unpredictable as unsupported IT. With a good managed IT support company, your IT can be predictable and your costs can be predictable.

5. Check out your IT support company’s partners
   Considering new office technology? Some MSPs maintain active partnership with leading tech companies, which means they might have access to scale pricing on tech that you, as a one-off consumer, can’t get on your own. Choosing a managed services provider that has strong, long-term partnerships with top tech vendors can be a game-changer if you’re planning some new tech investments.

IT Support Pricing Is a Fine Art

You may be surprised to hear that IT support companies struggle with pricing just as much as your company does. As you know, it takes a long time to settle on the right pricing structure for your clients – and it requires a lot of hard-won experience.

Therefore, our last (bonus!) secret tip is to only work with managed IT support services providers that have been around a long time. You can trust that the longest-standing MSPs have mastered their pricing and can therefore offer you both great service and a great deal – plus, they’ll have more experience and be better prepared to protect your tech around the clock.

Choose the Right MSP and the Right Deal

Since 2001, Interplay has been supporting Seattle’s business technology, which makes us one of the longest-standing MSPs around, as well as one of the city’s only true MSPs.

Curious about what kind of IT support you’d get from a master MSP – and how much it would cost? It’s easy to Request a Quote.