Outsourced IT Support

If you are reading this, you have probably already decided you are not hiring an IT person. Most pages on this subject will tell you that is correct, because most pages on this subject are written by companies that sell outsourced IT.

So here is the honest version, including the cases where hiring wins.

The arithmetic

A junior IT hire in Metro Vancouver costs somewhere around $55,000 to $70,000 before employer costs, and closer to $75,000 to $95,000 loaded. Someone experienced enough to design your network and handle security properly is meaningfully more.

Against that, fully managed IT in this market runs $110 to $250 per user per month, with most small businesses landing between $150 and $200. Ours is $125 to $225 depending on how much is managed rather than just set up.

Which means the crossover looks roughly like this.

At five people, outsourcing is not close. You would be paying a full salary for a role with a few hours of actual work a week, and that person would be bored within a quarter.
At fifteen people, outsourcing is still clearly cheaper, and the gap is not the main argument. Coverage is. One person cannot be ill, on holiday, and available at the same time.
At twenty five people, the numbers start to converge and it becomes a genuine decision rather than an obvious one.

When hiring is the right answer

There are real cases, and a provider who pretends otherwise is selling rather than advising.

You need somebody physically present most days. A workshop, a plant, a clinic with equipment that fails in person. Remote support cannot touch a machine.
Your business runs on software nobody outside knows. A specialist line-of-business system where the institutional knowledge is the job.
IT is your product. If you are building software, your engineering team is not something to outsource, though the corporate IT underneath it frequently is.
You are past forty people and growing fast. At that point an internal lead who owns strategy, with an outside team doing the delivery, is usually the right shape. That is co-managed IT, and it is a legitimate answer rather than a compromise.

What outsourcing actually buys

Not just cost. The things people underestimate:

Breadth. One hire knows what one person knows. A practice covers help desk, servers, networking, security, backup and automation, and brings in specialists for the rest.

Coverage. Your internal person taking two weeks off is a two week gap. A provider is expected to cover it, and if they cannot, that is a fair question to ask before you sign.

Documentation. A provider who works from a written runbook leaves a record. An internal hire who leaves takes most of it with them, and the next person rediscovers it at your expense.

Predictable cost. A per-user monthly figure is a budget line. A salary plus tools plus training plus the cover you need when they are away is four.

What outsourcing costs you

Worth saying plainly, because it is real.

You lose somebody sitting in the room who absorbs context by osmosis. You gain a scheduling relationship instead of a walk-over-and-ask one. Good providers narrow that gap with fast response and genuine familiarity. None of them close it completely.

You are also dependent on the provider's continuity rather than your own. Which is a fair thing to interrogate, and the reason to ask what happens when your usual contact is unavailable before you need the answer.

How to compare providers once you have decided

The comparison is harder than it looks, because two quotes at $125 and $220 per user can both be fair. They are usually not selling the same thing.

Ask every provider the same question: the all-in monthly cost for your exact headcount, with everything they would recommend included. Then check whether security, backup, after-hours and on-site visits are inside that number or billed alongside it.

We wrote the full version as twelve questions to ask before you sign, and there is a free scorecard and quote comparison sheet if you would rather work through it on paper.

What we commit to, in writing

One flat price per person, quoted before you sign
Response times in the agreement, not implied
Unlimited help desk, no per-ticket charges
Month to month, with no long-term lock-in
A written scope that says what is included and what is not
Your systems documented, and the documentation is yours to take

What we would say if you asked us directly

Under twenty five people, outsourcing is almost always the right call, and it is not close enough to need a spreadsheet.

Above that, it depends on how physical your operation is and how specialised your software is. If the answer is "very" to either, hire. If it is "not really", outsourcing still wins on breadth and coverage rather than on price.

If you want a second opinion that is not a sales call, the insurance-readiness review is half an hour and you keep the findings whether or not you hire anybody.

Request a readiness review