Before answering the question whether or not companies in Westchester County need IT support on a retainer, it’s crucial to figure out what companies expect from IT support providers.

First of all IT companies not only provide computer support but should be considered an extension of the business itself. IT is a sector of a company that deals with infrastructure, redundancy and end user tech support.

Computer services can be provided on request and on a retainer. The retainer part of a services is called with the fancy name “Managed Service Provider” . Provider as such does not have to wait for a user to call but it agrees upfront to a set of predetermined services that will be applied over time to the network. Updates, Windows upgrades, hardware replacements, firewalls and server configuration: all these services have to be agreed upon in the SLA because they constitute the backbone of the services.

To succeed in  the IT business, whether or not you a re asolo shop or a small company, you need to hire the right people and this is very hard to do. You can make more money if the IT people interacting with the clients act very professionally and are quick in solving the problems.

In our opinion, only companies that really run a critical infrastructure, need to outsource their services to a managed service provider. 

What can distinguish a break-fix IT provider that works on requests from a real MSP of IT services? Scalability and structure. The break and fix is usually a small IT company that operates locally, the MSP has many technicians that can be dispatched to the companies in need of computer and network support. 

One advantage of having a client as a retainer is the guarantee of a steady and predictable revenue, which means IT companies can plan for growth and afford to hire more technicians. If you get a client on regular maintenance you can staff for it; with break-fix you don’t know when or if a client will call you out of the blue and maybe wants you to restore the network from a ransomware attack. Break-fix clients are an advantage on the cleint side but a cost and an issue for the IT company that provides the services.

Monitoring a network requires setting up the right tools and alerts. Prompts allow to identify and address potential issues before they escalate, reducing downtime and minimizing disruptions. It goes by itseld that, the more a network, and especially a financial one, is considered a honeypot because of its exposure to ransomware attacks, is targeted by hackers, the more monitoring it needs.

Consequently, when a network is constantly under pressure, a good strategy would be the one to have a disaster recovery plan, a redundant data center and multiple backups stored in a safe place.