By Owen Wollum / Dependable IT Support ·
At a minimum, good small-business IT support should include day-to-day technical support, management and monitoring of your computers and network, Microsoft 365 support, cybersecurity protection, backup oversight, software updates and patching, and help coordinating with technology vendors. It should also give you someone who understands your technology environment before something goes wrong—not someone meeting your network for the first time during an emergency.
Just as important, you should understand what is not included. There is a meaningful difference between maintaining the technology your business already has and expanding or substantially changing that technology.
After roughly four decades working in IT and cybersecurity and decades supporting small businesses and nonprofit organizations, I believe that distinction is one of the most important things a business owner should understand when evaluating an IT provider.
IT Support Should Be More Than a Help Desk
For many business owners, “IT support” still means calling somebody when a computer stops working.
That is certainly part of the job. Employees need help when Outlook will not open, a printer disappears, a computer becomes unusually slow, a password problem prevents someone from working, or an application suddenly starts behaving strangely.
But that is only the visible part of IT support.
A good IT provider should already be familiar with your computers, network, Microsoft 365 environment, security systems, backup systems and other important pieces of your infrastructure. Ideally, many problems should be detected, prevented or resolved before they become serious enough for an employee to notice them.
That familiarity is one of the primary reasons we generally provide managed IT services rather than traditional break/fix support.
With break/fix service, a technician may be walking into an environment he or she barely knows every time there is a problem. There may be years of undocumented changes, unusual configurations and dependencies that aren't immediately obvious.
In other words, the technician doesn't necessarily know where all the bodies are buried.
With managed services, your IT company should know your environment. That knowledge can make troubleshooting faster and reduce the risk of fixing one problem while unintentionally creating another.
Cybersecurity Should Be a Core Part of IT Support
Twenty years ago, keeping computers working was arguably the central job of a small-business IT company.
Today, I believe cybersecurity is the most important responsibility we have.
Your IT provider should not simply wait for a virus warning to appear. Cybersecurity should be woven into the ongoing management of your technology.
Depending on the organization and its risks, that can include things such as:
- Keeping operating systems and commonly used software patched and current
- Managing endpoint security
- Protecting Microsoft 365 accounts
- Implementing and maintaining multi-factor authentication
- Reviewing account and administrator permissions
- Helping employees recognize phishing and other common attacks
- Monitoring systems for suspicious activity
- Planning how the business will respond if something does go wrong
- Making sure reliable backups are available for recovery
The National Institute of Standards and Technology's Cybersecurity Framework 2.0 describes cybersecurity through six major functions: Govern, Identify, Protect, Detect, Respond and Recover.
That's a useful way for a business owner to think about IT support too. Protecting a company isn't accomplished by installing antivirus software and declaring the job finished. Cybersecurity is an ongoing process.
For us, supporting the technology and protecting the business are no longer separate jobs.
Backup Is Not Enough Unless You Know You Can Restore It
Most business owners know they should have backups.
The better question is:
Can you actually restore your data when you need it?
A backup system can report that jobs completed successfully for months and still leave you with an unpleasant surprise when a real disaster occurs.
I sometimes describe an unverified backup as playing Russian roulette.
Your IT provider should know what is being backed up, where those backups are stored, whether backup jobs are completing properly, and whether the data can actually be recovered.
NIST's small-business cybersecurity guidance similarly recommends regularly backing up business data and establishing measures to protect and test those backups.
The objective isn't to have a green checkmark on a backup dashboard. The objective is to recover the business when something fails, gets deleted, is encrypted by ransomware or becomes otherwise unavailable.
Microsoft 365 and Everyday Business Applications Need Support Too
For many small businesses, Microsoft 365 has effectively become part of the company's infrastructure.
Email, calendars, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint and Microsoft Office applications can be every bit as important to daily operations as the computers sitting on employees' desks.
Your IT provider should be able to help manage the Microsoft environment and troubleshoot the applications employees depend upon every day.
That does not mean your IT provider should pretend to be an expert in every piece of specialized software your company uses.
A law firm may have legal practice-management software. An accounting firm may have tax applications. A construction company may rely on estimating software. A medical practice may have specialized clinical systems.
We don't pretend to be experts in every line-of-business application our clients use.
What we will do is work with the company that supports that software when necessary. If their software vendor says the problem is the computer, network, operating system or Microsoft environment, we can work with them to get the problem resolved.
That leads to another service I believe is extremely valuable.
Your IT Company Should Help Deal With Other Technology Vendors
Few things frustrate a business owner more than having two technology companies pointing fingers at each other.
The internet provider says it's the network.
The software company says it's the computer.
The copier company says it's Microsoft.
And the business owner is stuck in the middle trying to translate between people who should be talking directly to one another.
A good IT company should be willing to help coordinate with the other vendors that touch your technology.
That might include:
- Internet service providers
- Software vendors
- Copier and printer companies
- Phone-system providers
- Website or hosting companies
- Microsoft
- Hardware manufacturers
We will work with those vendors as much as our client wants us to.
That doesn't mean assuming responsibility for software we don't support. It means helping the client get the right people talking to each other and resolving the problem instead of leaving the business owner to referee.
Remote Support Should Usually Be the First Choice
There was a time when most IT problems required somebody to physically come to the office.
That is no longer true.
For the small businesses we support, roughly 95% of what we do can be handled through remote support. And in many cases, that's better for the customer.
If someone can securely connect to your computer and begin working on a critical problem immediately, it doesn't make sense to wait for a technician to get into a car and drive across town simply so you can say the service was performed onsite.
Remote support usually means a faster response.
But that doesn't mean location no longer matters.
There are situations where someone genuinely needs to be there—installing hardware, dealing with a physical network problem, diagnosing equipment that cannot be reached remotely, or handling an unusual emergency.
That's one of the reasons I still believe there is an advantage to working with a local IT company. Most of the time we don't need to be onsite.
But when we do need to be there, we can be.
And, admittedly, I also like to visit clients from time to time just to remind everyone that I'm still alive.
What Should Be Included—and What Should Cost Extra?
This is an area where expectations can go wrong very quickly.
My general rule is simple:
You are paying your managed IT company to maintain your existing infrastructure. If you are substantially adding to or changing that infrastructure, there may be an additional cost.
Normal support and maintenance should not turn into a surprise invoice every time someone asks for help.
I recently encountered an especially troubling example: a six-person nonprofit that had been paying an IT company roughly $2,000 per month—and was still being charged extra every time it called for support.
That's not how I believe managed IT service should work.
At the same time, a monthly support agreement shouldn't reasonably be expected to cover every technology project a business may ever undertake.
Examples of work that may legitimately be separate projects include:
- Moving to a new office
- Replacing a large number of computers
- Major network upgrades
- Installing significant new infrastructure
- Large Microsoft 365 migrations
- Major server projects
- Extensive new cabling
Even something as simple as a new computer can depend on the arrangement. For example, when a client purchases a PC through us, we include installation and configuration. If they purchase it elsewhere and ask us to prepare it for their environment, we charge a flat configuration fee.
The important thing isn't that every IT provider draws the line in exactly the same place.
The important thing is that you know where the line is before you sign the agreement.
Response Time and Communication Are Part of IT Support
Technology problems are frustrating enough without wondering whether your IT company knows you exist.
A small business should understand how it will reach its provider, how quickly it should expect acknowledgement, and what happens when something is genuinely urgent.
Our clients have my cell phone number.
If someone calls and I'm available, I'll answer. If I'm already working with someone else, I try to return the call or text within about 15 minutes.
If something is truly critical, the client should expect someone to start working on it immediately.
Not every problem is an emergency, of course. A printer problem for one employee isn't the same as the entire company being unable to access its systems.
But clients should never feel as if they submitted a ticket into a black hole.
Good IT support is partly technical ability and partly communication.
You Should Know Who You're Hiring
The IT services industry has seen a great deal of consolidation, with larger companies acquiring smaller local providers.
There are legitimate business reasons for those acquisitions, and larger organizations can offer resources that smaller providers cannot.
But there are advantages to working with a locally owned IT company too.
I believe accountability is one of them.
When one of my clients has a serious problem, there isn't a distant corporate structure separating that client from the owner of the company. They know who is responsible.
That matters to me.
So does operating ethically.
An IT provider may have extraordinary access to a client's systems, data, passwords and business operations. Technical ability is essential, but trust matters just as much.
Questions to Ask Before Choosing an IT Support Company
When comparing providers, don't simply ask, “How much per month?”
Ask exactly what that monthly fee buys you.
Some useful questions include:
- Is normal employee support included, or will I be billed every time someone calls?
- What cybersecurity services are included?
- Who is responsible for monitoring and testing my backups?
- Do you support Microsoft 365?
- Will you coordinate with our other technology vendors?
- What work is considered a separate project?
- How quickly can I reach someone when something important happens?
- Can you provide onsite help when it is genuinely necessary?
- Am I required to sign a long-term contract?
- What happens if I'm unhappy with the service?
Those answers will often tell you more than the monthly price alone.
What Should Small Business IT Support Include? The Bottom Line
Good small-business IT support should give you much more than somebody to call when a computer breaks.
You should have a technology partner that understands your environment, helps employees when they need assistance, keeps systems maintained, protects the business from cyber threats, oversees backups and recovery, supports core platforms such as Microsoft 365, works with other technology vendors and responds quickly when something important happens.
Just as importantly, you should clearly understand what is included in your agreement and what will cost extra.
Your IT company should already know your systems before the emergency occurs.
Because when something critical fails, that is a terrible time for everyone to start getting acquainted.