Guide · Managed IT services
Fifteen years ago it was called a “maintenance contract”; today it is called “managed services”. The term now appears on almost every IT service provider’s website and, on its own, says little. But there is a real difference behind it – and it can be summed up in one question: who notices first that something is wrong?
The core
In the traditional model – known as break-fix: it breaks, it gets fixed – the client gets in touch when something stops working. The service provider comes out, fixes the problem and invoices for the time spent. That is a perfectly legitimate model, and for some businesses it is the right one.
With managed services, the direction is reversed: the systems report to the service provider before the user notices anything. A hard disk that is 92 per cent full is not an incident – but it will be one in three weeks. A backup that has been silently failing for eleven days only becomes a problem when someone wants to restore something.
Everything else – firewall, backup, patches, server support – can be included in either model. The real difference is who looks first. That is why the question to ask of a quote is not “What’s included?” but “What happens between two incidents?”
In everyday practice
Not in the service description – that sounds similar in both cases. But in three very ordinary situations.
In concrete terms
The word is in every brochure. Behind it are four things you can ask about and put in the contract.
Servers, network components, backups and storage space are checked around the clock. What matters is not that monitoring takes place, but what someone responds to and at what value. Monitoring that only reports a failure is not an early warning system – the user notices that on their own.
Operating systems, applications, drivers and firmware are kept up to date – in a controlled and tested way, not blindly. Ask about the maintenance window: when are updates installed, and what happens if an update breaks something?
A backup that has never been restored is an assumption. What counts is the regular restore test – not the green tick in the backup log. Ask to see the result, not the settings.
Devices, access credentials, special features, contacts at the manufacturer. This is the least spectacular point and the most important: without documentation, every successor starts from scratch – and charges for it. It should belong to you and be handed over when the contract ends.
To be honest
We sell managed services contracts – and still regularly turn business down. In these cases, billing by time spent is the more honest model:
Before you sign
“Managed services” is not a protected term. There is no standard, no certificate and no minimum level of service that has to stand behind it. You can still check a quote – at four points:
First, the response time. Is there a stated time limit, when does it start, and during which hours does it apply? Or just “as soon as possible”?
Second, the exclusions. What is expressly not included – licences, storage space for the backup, manufacturer maintenance, projects? The most common point of dispute is the first invoice for something the client thought was included.
Third, the access credentials. Does your own administrator account remain in place? Are domains and cloud accounts registered in your name? A provider that will not commit to this makes a switch technically impossible.
Fourth, the end of the contract. Notice period, cooperation with the handover, surrender of all data including the backups. You settle this now, not when there is a dispute.
How to compare quotes in figures and which six factors determine the price is covered in detail in What do managed IT services cost? – where you will also find a comparison sheet with twelve questions. What matters when choosing a provider is covered in Choosing an IT service provider.
Frequently asked questions
No – these are two different things that are often confused. Monitoring runs continuously: systems report whenever an alert is triggered. The availability of people is a matter for the contract.
Our phones are staffed Mon–Fri from 9 am to 6 pm; emergency support outside business hours is agreed explicitly. Standby costs money whether or not it is needed – which is why we tell you in advance what it costs instead of selling it as a given.
In substance, often none. A good maintenance contract from 2010 contains much of what is called “managed services” today. What is new is mainly the technical possibilities: remote monitoring, automated distribution of updates and central device management now work reliably, which was not the case twenty years ago.
A provider who uses the term but only responds when called is selling a maintenance contract under a new name.
No. Support can be put together from building blocks. Some businesses only hand over servers and backup and look after the workstations themselves; others hand over everything.
For businesses with their own IT person, splitting the work is usually the better solution: we take on whatever requires specialist knowledge or round-the-clock standby, and the in-house colleague handles day-to-day operations.
First, an inventory: what is there, how it is set up, where the access credentials are, what is missing. This takes longer than most people expect and regularly brings to light things nobody knew about any more.
How this works in detail is described on the Managed IT Services page under “What actually happens when we take over an existing IT environment”.
That depends on how often something comes up in your business. In a quiet year, you pay more with a flat fee; in a turbulent one, considerably less. The difference lies less in the amount than in predictability – and in the fact that prevention happens at all: monitoring, updates and tested backups are, as a rule, only part of the first model.
With the other two, you pay for fixing, not for preventing. Figures can be found under What do managed IT services cost?
Dipl.-Ing. Mohamed Khater
Dipl.-Ing. Mohamed Khater founded INFONET Computer GmbH in Cologne in 1992 and still runs it as its owner. He continues to work on the technology himself instead of just managing it – the assessments in this article draw on more than three decades of managed services contracts, takeovers and inventories at small and medium-sized businesses in the Rhineland.
Free inventory
If the answer is “the user”, it is worth having a conversation. We look at what is running in your business and tell you honestly whether a managed services contract pays off – or whether billing by time spent remains the better choice in your case.
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