Managed services or in-house IT: the real comparison for an SMB

“We’ll hire an IT person.” It is many executives’ reflex answer when IT becomes a topic. Sometimes it is the right one. But it is rarely costed all the way through. Here is the comparison we run with our clients.

What an in-house position really costs

Salary is only the start. Add social charges, holidays, the continuous training this job demands, monitoring and backup tools to buy, and above all no backup: a single IT person covers neither nights, nor weekends, nor their own holidays. The day they leave, knowledge of your infrastructure leaves with them.

What a managed services contract covers

A team of engineers with complementary skills (network, security, cloud, telephony), 24/7 monitoring, tools already in place, written procedures and documentation that belongs to you. All for a monthly fee known in advance, usually below a fully loaded salary for an SMB under 100 endpoints.

What managed services do not replace

Daily proximity and fine knowledge of the business. Beyond 150 to 200 endpoints, or in organisations with heavy application stakes, an internal IT manager becomes relevant.

The model we recommend most often

Hybrid: an internal point of contact (often an administrative manager or a technician) who knows the users and priorities, backed by a managed service provider that brings expertise, monitoring and on-call. The contact keeps control, we carry the technical load.

How to decide

List your incidents from the last twelve months, the time spent and what they cost in lost activity. Then compare with a managed services quote and a complete loaded salary. We run this exercise for free during the initial audit.