Managed IT
Managed Information Technology ServicesWhat are managed IT services?
Managed IT services refers to the outsourcing of all or parts of a company’s IT management, administration and/or service responsabilities.
This can include anything from day-to-day operational duties such as technical support and IT systems maintenance, to long-term planning and strategic vision/design responsibilities such as lifecycle management, budget planning and technology transformation development.
It can be seomthing relatively simple like taking over responsibilty for a company’s AzureAD administration, or it can be a fairly complex set of interconnecting duties and responsibilities and services, such as handling the complete management and delivery of the entire IT infrastructure and service delivery for an organization.
Alpha Information Technology offers complete IT management and delivery services tailored to SMBs in a simple and straightforward service package. We generally do not take over only part of a company’s IT service or infrastructure, but feel free to Contact Us for all inquiries and we will work with you to find an effective solution for your particular business’s need.
Why utilize a managed IT service?
Companies utilize managed IT services for many reasons, but generally speaking they all come down to service effectiveness and cost efficiency, particularly for SMBs.
Finding, hiring and retaining qualified and suitable candidates with the experience and skill-sets necessary to manage and operate the IT infrastructure and service delivery for an organization is a difficult and time consuming process which many SMBs simply don’t have the expertise or resources to do.
Utilizing a managed IT service transfers these responsibilities to the service provider company in additional to the actual IT service management and delivery, which as you can imagine is a fairly attractive proposition seeing as practically all companies depend on IT to be able to function but it is a difficult area for most companies to manage on their own.
This system of course does depend on the managed IT service provider having competent and qualified personnel who have available capacity to provide service to the business as needed, which can be a difficult thing to find as well.
What's included in managed IT service?
Alpha Information Technology offers our managed IT service clients a comprehensive IT management solution, akin to having an in-house IT team of experienced and highly qualified individuals.
We provide the core IT services critical to the efficient, reliable and functional operation of your business’s IT infrastructure and services, such as monitoring, maintenance and management of your networks, servers, workstations, peripheral devices, Active Directory/AzureAD, endpoint security, backup systems, and more.
Additionally, technical support and service for your employees and end-users are rendered as-needed at low hourly rates, as are project implementations and any other piece-work as desired or required.
We also include detailed IT documentation and data organization for your company, including IT asset discovery and management for physical assets and virtual assets such as licenses and accounts; ensuring you have all your company’s relevant IT information available and organized.
To top it all off, we provide strategic IT planning and lifecycle management for your IT infrastructure and services, including technology transformation and modernization planning and design which is critical to ensure your business’s IT systems and services remain secure, effective and reliable as your business develops.
What isn't part of managed IT service?
We take over a significant range of IT responsibilities from our clients who utilize our managed IT service, but there are still some things that are considered ‘out-of-scope’.
The costs of purchasing new equipment, software or platforms is obviously not a part of our service offering, and any such costs would be the responsibility of the client. Likewise, third party service or support which incurs costs are not covered by Alpha Information Technology; we will work with third party companies of course as needed to complete projects or resolve issues.
There are specific requirements that must be met for a IT system or service to be ‘in-scope’, and if those requirements are not met, the system is considered ‘out-of-scope’ and is not part of the managed IT service agreement. For example, any workstations or servers that are using an operating system version no longer supported by the vendor such as Windows 7 or Microsoft Server 2008, are ‘out-of-scope’.
Additionally, there are certain vendors and manufacturers we require our managed IT service clients to use for them to be part of the service agreement, such as Cisco Meraki or Ubiquiti for networking systems, MS365 or G-Suite for email platforms, etc.
Part of our managed service includes a pre-assessment of your IT systems and infrastructure where we identify areas and items that should be upgraded or changed in your business for them to be ‘in-scope’.
Pricing
Managed IT Services Pricing- Management, monitoring and maintenance of all-in-scope IT systems
- Heavily discounted hourly rates for support and service
- Performance auditing, optimization and configuration
- Security auditing, optimization and configuration
- IT asset discovery and documentation
- Active Directory, AzureAD, MS365 Suite and/or G-Suite management and administration
- Installation, configuration and administration of Alpha IT’s security and management software suite
- Installation, configuration and administration of endpoint security software/platform
- Installation, configuration and administration of backup, DR and business continuity software/platform
- Strategic IT development planning and project management
- IT asset lifecycle management