Managed IT vs. break-fix support: which is right for your business?

Most small businesses get IT help in one of two ways: they call someone when something breaks, or they pay a provider to look after their technology on an ongoing basis. Both can work. The right choice depends on how much your business relies on technology and how costly downtime is.

How break-fix support works

With break-fix, you call a technician when there is a problem and pay for the time or the repair. There is no ongoing agreement, and nobody is watching your systems between calls.

Break-fix can suit very small offices with simple setups and rare problems. The drawbacks show up as the business grows: costs are unpredictable, problems are found only after they interrupt work, and routine tasks like updates, backups and security checks are easy to forget because nobody owns them.

How managed IT works

With managed IT, a provider takes ongoing responsibility for agreed parts of your technology. That usually includes a help desk your team can call, monitoring and updates, security basics, backups and planning for upcoming changes.

The goal is to prevent problems or catch them early, and to give the business one place to start when anything goes wrong. Because the provider sees your whole environment, recurring issues are easier to trace to a cause.

The main trade-offs

• Predictability. Managed IT is usually a regular monthly cost. Break-fix is cheaper in a quiet month and expensive in a bad one.
• Prevention. Managed IT includes the routine work that stops problems. Break-fix reacts once something has already failed.
• Security. Multifactor sign-in, updates and tested backups need someone to own them. Under break-fix, that is often nobody.
• Knowledge. A managed provider builds documentation of your systems over time. With break-fix, each visit may start from scratch.

When each one fits

Break-fix may be enough if you have a handful of people, few systems, no sensitive data and can live with occasional downtime. Managed IT usually makes more sense when employees lose time to recurring problems, when you handle client or patient data, when you are growing or opening locations, or when nobody inside the business owns technology decisions.

There is also a middle ground. If you have an internal IT person, co-managed IT adds tools and extra capacity while they stay in the lead.

Questions to ask any provider

• What exactly is included, and what is billed separately?
• How do we request help, and what happens after we do?
• When is on-site support available?
• Who owns our documentation and administrator passwords?
• What are the contract terms, and how would we leave if we needed to?

For a longer list, see 10 questions to ask before switching IT providers.