Top Factors Influencing IT Support Costs For Small Business
IT expenditure can benefit your organization. Do you know IT support costs for small businesses? Discover these expenses to help your budgeting and allow you to enjoy IT support.
IT support helps small organizations enjoy many benefits. It can help you save on costs, satisfy your clients, and optimize your operations.
You need to know your business’ IT expenses. IT support costs stretch beyond people. Your organization pays for the equipment the personnel use, monitoring devices for cybersecurity threats, maintaining servers, upgrades, etc.
You need to know the IT areas you invest in to ensure your organization budgets for strategic IT solutions and avoids missing essential services.
What factors influence your IT support costs?
This article will help you discover the top factors influencing IT support costs for small businesses.
Factors That Affect IT Support Costs for Small Business
Do small businesses have fixed IT support costs?
You do not pay a fixed fee for your IT support. The amount you pay depends on many factors.
- The Number of Employees: Your employees can affect your IT expenses. For example, you may pay more to support the IT needs of many employees. The work they do can also affect your IT costs. You are likely to pay more if their functions need a lot of IT support.
- IT Support Setup: Your IT support setup can influence your IT support expenses. Organizations can choose fully managed, co-managed, or internal IT support arrangements. These configurations lead to different expenditures by your organization. For example, you will spend on salaries, benefits, and equipment for internal IT staff. You may avoid paying benefits with external/managed IT support.
- Data Stored: The data you have can affect your IT support costs. You may pay more if you handle sensitive data or have a lot of data. For example, you need sizeable storage for a lot of data. Sensitive data may require more cybersecurity protocols and programs, which cost money.
- Upgrades: Your IT support costs can be higher if you need frequent improvements. You may need innovations if your industry has continual IT developments that you require. For example, medical institutions with electronic-protected health information (e-PHI) need to protect their networks. They may need to upgrade their cybersecurity with cybersecurity developments to safeguard e-PHI from developing threats.
- Maintenance and Issues: You may have more IT expenses if your infrastructure needs a lot of care and develops many complications. For example, legacy systems may be prone to breakdowns that need the IT company to fix. You may pay more if the IT company’s employees visit your sites often to fix these problems.
- IT Company: Different IT companies can offer the same services at varying prices. For example, an IT company with experienced professionals and an excellent reputation may offer services at a higher fee. Small organizations can pay a higher amount to enjoy the company’s expertise and have few risks.
- IT Solutions: The IT solutions you need or use can affect your IT costs. For example, you may pay more if you use onsite data storage compared to cloud servers.
Many experts recommend that organizations outsource part or whole of their IT support. One reason for this belief is that outsourced IT can be cheaper than internal IT support. An IT staff’s salary is $35,000–135,000 per year. You will also have to pay them benefits, such as paid leave. Outsourced IT costs around 35,000 per year, without extras. Outsourced IT will also allow you to concentrate on your core functions by taking non-core tasks off your plate.
Types of Outsourced IT Costs
You may incur these types of expenses when you outsource your IT support.
Recurring IT systems costs
You incur these expenses regularly. For example, you will need to make periodic payments for maintaining firewalls. Consult with your IT company to determine the right price to pay. Your fees will depend on the IT company’s services that you use. The IT company can estimate the amount based on the number of devices, servers, and the amount of data they service or support.
“Your IT company can establish the recurring amount you should pay depending on the number of servers, devices, and the amount of data they support or service.”
The company can predict the time each device takes to support it. An organization with more appliances needs more hours. Some companies estimate that each device requires 25 hours of support per year. If the company charges $100 per hour, you will determine the amount you pay by calculating the:
Total = (Number of servers + number of devices) × 25 support hours/year × $100/hour
Your number of devices will affect most of your recurring IT expenses, as data storage costs shrink with more data or increase by small margins.
One-time IT systems costs
You incur these expenses once. For example, you will not need to buy Microsoft Office 365 once you get it. These costs may be high as they need upfront payment, depending on your needs. Your organization does not have to worry about them once it pays them. You may do the installation and configuration, but hiring professionals saves you time and money. Outsourcing can help you avoid costly mistakes.
Outsourced IT Pricing Models
Choose the outsourced IT pricing model that works for you.
- Monitoring Only: The IT company provides limited network monitoring and notification services at a fixed fee, such as backup monitoring and patch management.
- Per-User Flat Rate: The IT company provides a fixed fee for every user. Your expenses may increase as you scale.
- Per-Device Flat Rate: The IT company offers a fixed rate for every device.
- Ad-Hoc Fees: You pay when you require services or support. It can be the right choice if you barely use IT, but it can be costly if IT services and support are critical to your operations.
Affordable IT support is critical to the success of a small company. You need to budget for it to enjoy its benefits. Knowing where IT support costs for small businesses originate can help your budgeting. You will plan for essential services and avoid missing critical support.
With over 35 years in the business of supporting and implementing technology for the SME market, and 6 years previously in Corporate IT and Voice. I have seen a great deal of change. The only common thread is I have always focused on the Business Wise application of Technology. We always try to look 5 years ahead of the current technology to make sure our clients are on the right track to meet current and future needs.
