Why Hiring a Managed Service Provider is Crucial for Your Small to Medium-Sized Business

March 10, 2025

Businesses face growing demands to maintain secure, efficient, and scalable IT systems to ensure they stay up and running when most needed. For small to medium-sized businesses, managing an in-house IT team can be overwhelming, time-consuming, and costly. This is where partnering with a managed IT services provider becomes essential. Outsourcing your IT needs to a managed service provider can provide access to more monitoring and a wider array of skillset to enhance your IT security and up-time.

What is a Managed Service Provider (MSP)?

A Managed Service Provider is a company that provides remote or on-site IT support to businesses of any size, allowing them to better manage their IT needs. IT support services can include desktop support, network management, cybersecurity, data backups and any general IT support that is required on a daily basis to operate the businesses. Often times, the IT support company offers monthly services to monitor and maintain the IT environment, while also provided day-to-day desktop support to users in the office. The monthly support and monitoring are essential in preventing cyber security events through monitoring the systems closely. If there is a cyber security attack, a managed service provider will have your systems backed up and ready to remediate your environment to get you up and running quickly.

For businesses in St. Louis, working with a local IT support provider ensures support that understands the regional business landscape and compliance standards.

Break and Fix Model vs. Ongoing Monthly Support

There are two types of IT providers that you can choose from when finding an IT support team that's right for your business. The first model, which is typically what most small businesses are familiar with, include a "Break and Fix" model of support. This simply means that there is no ongoing monthly support fee and you can call the IT company when you need support. The IT support is then provided on a hourly charged basis and only addresses the matter at hand. This model has become less popular due to the constantly changing IT landscape. Most businesses now prefer a managed it service company that is on retainer monthly. This route ensure that an IT specialist is always monitoring your systems for updates to critical IT environments, available for desktop support, ensures backup devices are running appropriately, as well as makes sure your hardware and software is operating efficiently. Without the ongoing monitoring, there is a higher risk of a data breach creating issues for your business operations. In the long run, the monthly retainer can be significantly less than the "break and fix" model, because the ongoing monitoring and maintenance will prevent breaches that can cause significant downtime and cost in your business.

Why type of IT support do Managed Service Providers offer?

Managed Service Providers offer several IT support services to keep your business' IT environment running smoothly. The following services are the most common provided by local IT companies:

If you are looking for an evaluation of your IT environment, you can schedule a complimentary consultation to decide if a managed service provider is right for you business!