Status quo
What currently happens when something breaks: whose time it consumes, and what does not get done while they handle it instead.
Business case
The budget conversation is different from the service conversation.
Whoever approves the spend needs a comparison, not a pitch. This is a framework for building that comparison from your own numbers.
Lay the paths side by side
Four ways the same problem gets paid for.
An internal hire
Salary, benefits, training, coverage during time off, and the ceiling of one person’s available specialties.
Break-fix support
Variable cost tied to how much breaks, with no consistent ownership of prevention in between.
Managed IT
A flat recurring cost that includes proactive maintenance, and the tradeoff of paying it in quiet months too.
See how break-fix and managed IT differ in more depth in the break-fix comparison, or read what shapes a managed IT price in the cost guide. To turn the comparison into a forward-looking plan, see IT roadmap and budget planning.
Anticipate the room
What a budget approver will actually ask.
Questions to expect
- What does this cost compared to what we do today?
- What happens if we do not approve it?
- How will we know it is working?
What to bring
- Your own recent incident history and hours lost-see the cost-of-downtime framework.
- The published plan comparison for your approximate team size.
- The specific responsibilities that currently have no owner-see the responsibility map.
Build your own comparison
A believable case is built from your own numbers.
- List what the last two or three IT problems actually cost in hours and delay-not a guess.
- Price an internal hire honestly, including time off and the gap when they are focused on one issue.
- Compare that total to the published managed IT starting bands for your approximate team size.
- Decide what “working” will look like before the first invoice, not after.
Honest limit: this page does not publish an ROI percentage or a case study. A believable business case is built from your own numbers, not a borrowed one.
Connect the work
Turn the comparison into a specific number.
Reach the team
Tell us what needs an owner
Share your team size, current support setup, and the responsibilities you want clarified. We will use that to figure out whether an MSP introduction makes sense.
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