Outsourcing IT support

Caged

Caged

Caged

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This is probably the most relevant forum for this to live in as I think it attracts people in similar roles to mine, despite not being about servers.

So I help out a friend of mine with the IT at their business, and it's grown to the point where I can't really deal with the day-to-day stuff any more since I have a day job and don't want to spend my evenings doing yet more IT stuff.

While I am most likely going to be kept on retainer for strategy type decisions and evaluation of new products/suppliers, I am keen to remove myself from the day-to-day support tasks like changes to phone directories, new account creation, permission changes, switchport updates, client OS issues etc.

Does anyone have any experience with outsourcing the helpdesk role in the businesses where they take on the IT Manager role? I don't forsee the outsourced company needing to go to site at all, it can all be done remotely, they just need someone they can call during business hours who can assist them with basic desktop issues. If the location is important then the company is based in the East Midlands. I have noticed that BT offer this (http://www.itservices.bt.com/products-services/managed-and-support-services/) but have no idea what it's like or how it's priced. For an idea of size, the company has around 30 employees so it's not tiny but it's not huge either, I would be surprised if more than a couple of cases a day were raised.
 
Company I used to work for in the east midlands does this and along with most other IT service companies they will offer a remote maintenance agreement based on the amount of users/computers etc.

As it's remote only support it shouldn't matter on location but if you were to go away on holiday and need some on-site cover then it may be important. Feel free to trust me if you would like any details and apologies to the mods if this goes against the forums rules (last time I checked it doesn't). Even if it's just to gauge an idea on cost.
 
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Thanks for that, I haven't ignored anyone, just not had a chance to take this any further but I have passed those companies along. Xez I sent you a message but not sure if you got it, my trust works so give that a try. Options are good, beats just Googling random places that might be running testimonials on their site that are years out of date.
 
Caged said:
Thanks for that, I haven't ignored anyone, just not had a chance to take this any further but I have passed those companies along. Xez I sent you a message but not sure if you got it, my trust works so give that a try. Options are good, beats just Googling random places that might be running testimonials on their site that are years out of date.
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Didn't get anything I'm afraid so I've dropped you a messaged.

Thanks
 
I used to work as a IT assistant and dealt with a remote company when we needed small things sorted, or something on another site sorting and all I can say really is get a few companies in and have a sit down with them, go through what you want and what they can offer.

There are so many companies like this now (like the one I work for now :D) that it's just down to personal preference if you ask me. I liked when a person from the helpdesk or implementation team came and not just a salesman. Taking the time to learn our network, common issues and what not is so much better than a company who will just bill out at £85/hour to try and resolve something.
 
What sort of prices are we looking at here if a person would come in a couple of days a week and be part of an IT department?
 
joemc said:
I used to work as a IT assistant and dealt with a remote company when we needed small things sorted, or something on another site sorting and all I can say really is get a few companies in and have a sit down with them, go through what you want and what they can offer.

There are so many companies like this now (like the one I work for now :D) that it's just down to personal preference if you ask me. I liked when a person from the helpdesk or implementation team came and not just a salesman. Taking the time to learn our network, common issues and what not is so much better than a company who will just bill out at £85/hour to try and resolve something.
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I used to do this and go along with the Sales person. I felt that having someone who was going to be the one implementing any projects etc always helped with the sales so long as it can be communicated in a way that can be understood.

Felix, I would say it entirely depends on what that person is expected to do. I imagine that most companies would simply charge consultancy rates of £700-1000 a day. A one man band who isn't as technical would be less but obviously this has pros and cons...
 
Xez said:
I used to do this and go along with the Sales person. I felt that having someone who was going to be the one implementing any projects etc always helped with the sales so long as it can be communicated in a way that can be understood.

Felix, I would say it entirely depends on what that person is expected to do. I imagine that most companies would simply charge consultancy rates of £700-1000 a day. A one man band who isn't as technical would be less but obviously this has pros and cons...
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Consultancy is a completely different game to outsourcing a long term part-time contract. I'd expect closer to £250-£500 a day for something long term.
 
kitkat9933 said:
Consultancy is a completely different game to outsourcing a long term part-time contract. I'd expect closer to £250-£500 a day for something long term.
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Even less than that if you just want the basics.

The firm I worked for charged per device, so some of our contracts were only £100/£200 a month for end-user support and some extras like AD management. Backups, projects, new devices were then all extras but it scaled pretty well.
 
^ that sounds far too cheap.

I would expect to be paying around the £1000/month mark for access to a helpdesk, phone support, and proactive monitoring/patching, and a a few hundred per day if someone needed to come onsite. See how that went and have a review after a quarter to see if either side feels that the service is working and it gives the MSP a chance to re-assess whether it's a client they want to keep.
 
Think we pay about £800 per month for 2nd and 3rd line support - a few servers, 220 users.

Including 1 hour response to tickets, hardware monitoring, and 2x "VIP escalation" per year for if something critical goes belly up or the MD can't find something :D

We massively under-utilise the support, but now I'm covering the whole of IT for the company I suspect that will change!
 
Cost is really going to depend on:

Location (I would assume London based Support is more expensive for Example)

Amount of Users / PCs / Laptop etc
Amount of Servers

While the Remote Support is not going to be an issue for most things it makes sense to find a local IT support provider within 50ish miles ideally but no more than 100 of your friends Business I would think. I would be careful and make sure you keep an eye on them and what they are doing, far too many idiots out there from the servers / systems I've audited.

Normally Telecoms would be sepurate also.
 
nutcase_1uk said:
Think we pay about £800 per month for 2nd and 3rd line support - a few servers, 220 users.

Including 1 hour response to tickets, hardware monitoring, and 2x "VIP escalation" per year for if something critical goes belly up or the MD can't find something :D

We massively under-utilise the support, but now I'm covering the whole of IT for the company I suspect that will change!
Click to expand...

I'm going to add something - we (not I I might point out) declined to pay for a "health check" of the setup when we changed to them. Having found some potential issues with the exchange setup I think we should have...
 
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