Do I need an MSP for IT Support? 

Content by: Jeff Loehr from Start Grow Manage

When you sit by yourself sending emails and managing Zoom calls, the IT support burden isn’t very high. You probably don’t need an MSP. 

If you’re successful, things will change: You’ll add people, systems, and complexity. Even as the need to integrate more systems, complexity, and vulnerability increases, you quickly become a target for hackers. 

With this increase in complexity, the amount of time you or your people spend grows exponentially to the point where it clogs up the entire business. Hiring an MSP will cost some money, so the question is, when is that cost an investment in your profitability and sanity? 

Below is a description of the problem. I’ll then discuss when you need to hire an MSP. 

Without an MSP, IT will take over your life. 

There will be IT issues once you have an office with a couple of people. That’s a given. Somebody will mess something up somewhere (it might even be Microsoft or Google). Suddenly, things aren’t working, and you must figure it out. 

Someone on your team will take their time to sort out the problem. They’ll search Google, rely on information from 10 years ago, call their brother-in-law, or who knows what to figure out what to do. They make a change; it makes things worse. Nobody in your office can work, and everybody is frantically searching Google to find a solution. 

You keep paying salaries, but no work gets done. 

You need someone you can call who will solve the problem for you. That’s the role of an MSP. 

Access to a helpful Helpdesk used to be available only to large companies that could afford to hire a team. Now, anyone can hire and get support from a team dedicated to removing technology from their operations meetings (and general consciousness)! 

So how do you know you need an MSP

Your IT is driving you nuts (AKA, you’re always dealing with technical issues.)

Either you or someone on your team is dealt 

You spend hours on support calls trying to fix your IT systems. 

You deal with sensitive data (or, well, data)

If you retain any kind of sensitive data, you are at a significant risk of cyber attacks. 

This is especially true with financial, health, and legal data, but you may have more sensitive data than you realize. Contact information, credit card information, and social security numbers on 1099 forms are all interesting targets. 

Many small firms think they fly under the radar, but the truth is the opposite. Small firms are soft targets, and hackers often see them as a way to get into larger firms. 

Cybersecurity is almost impossible for anyone to keep up with these days. Hackers work 24/7, so even if you check your antivirus every six months, you’re vulnerable. You need a team to counteract the hackers, and MSP can help. 

You rely heavily on your IT infrastructure

If you have point-of-sale, financial, or line-of-business systems that must be up and running for your business to be up and running, you want someone to manage those systems. 

The cost of down or even slow-running systems can easily surpass the cost of hiring an MSP without adding any other benefits.

You have multiple systems that communicate with each other

Email, Zoom, and MS Word are straightforward; you might get away without support. 

Once you start adding your line of business software that you connect to your CRM and accounting packages, you will likely need some help with that. You could do it yourself if you have infinite time and patience, but you are much better off handing this over to an MSP. 

You have more than 3 people in your office

Okay, I admit that 3 is an arbitrary number, but the complexity skyrockets once you start adding people to your office. Humans always create issues in IT. Add more humans, and you’ll have more IT issues.

 

You got breached or scammed

Ideally, you’ve recognized the cyber security risk before you get breached or scammed. In most cases, the breach or scam comes first. Seeing money disappear into thin air or losing access to your files is chilling. 

When that happens, talk to an MSP. They can help you prevent future incursions. Nobody can 100% promise that your system is secure; break-ins can still occur. But a dedicated team acting on your behalf will be your best defense. 

You receive a compliance questionnaire from a vendor, an insurance company, a client, or a regulator and don’t know what it means. 

Cyber-security compliance is becoming increasingly important. New state and federal laws and regulations cover everything from privacy to internal controls. 

But the requirements are not only governmental. Given the threats, many organizations, especially financial institutions, have security requirements. Also, insurance companies are becoming more stringent in their requirements. 

When you start receiving these questionnaires, you know it’s time to bring in the experts. 

You will need IT support

There is a temptation to put off hiring support; it is a cost, after all. However, managing IT, ensuring it works for you and not against you and stays as protected as possible, takes specialized expertise. 

Your job is to run your business and do what you’re good at; the MSP will handle the technical stuff, keep you compliant, and ensure your technology works for you, not against you. 

Also, MSPs often add significantly more value than they cost through reduced downtime, efficiency gains, and planned expenditures. After a few months with a good MSP, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without them. 

Read more about what an MSP can do for you here. 

If you are hiring an MSP and want to know what questions to ask, here are 10 questions to ask MSPs.