3 September 2026LANTEK Computers
Managed is not a protected term. Any provider can use it, and plenty use it to describe an arrangement where you pay monthly and they still charge you every time something goes wrong. That is a retainer on a repair shop, and it is not the same product.
The distinction that matters is not the word list in the proposal. It is whether the provider is paid to stop things happening or paid when things happen. Everything below is really a way of testing which one you are being offered.
The things that should be included, without asterisks
Monitoring, with somebody actually watching
Every provider will say they monitor. The question is what happens at two in the morning when something alerts.
Ask it directly: if a server runs out of disk space at two in the morning on a Sunday, what happens? A real answer describes who is notified and what they do. A vague answer means the monitoring generates a report somebody reads on Monday, which is not monitoring, it is record keeping.
Patching, on a stated cycle, including the things that are not Windows
Operating system updates are table stakes. What separates providers is the rest: browsers, the PDF reader, the Java runtime that one application still needs, firmware on the firewall and the switches.
Most of what gets exploited is not a brand new flaw. It is a known one with a fix that was available and not applied. Ask what the cycle is, what happens when a patch breaks something, and how you would know whether a given machine is current.
Endpoint protection, managed rather than installed
Antivirus on the machine is the beginning, not the answer. What matters is whether somebody is looking at what it reports, and whether anyone would notice a machine that has stopped reporting altogether. A machine that dropped off the console three weeks ago is the one worth worrying about, and the difference between a managed service and an installed product is whether anybody spotted it.
Backup, with a restore test that has actually happened
Included backup should mean included verification. Ask when the last restore test was, what was restored, and whether you were sent the result.
If the answer is that backups are monitored and all green, that is a description of a dashboard. The test is a different thing, and it is the only evidence that the backup is a control rather than an intention.
Onboarding and offboarding
Setting up a new starter and, more importantly, closing an account the day somebody leaves. Ask whether leaver processing is included or billed, and how it is triggered, because a leaver account that still works is both a security finding and a licence you are paying for.
An asset register you can see
What you own, how old it is, what is under warranty, what licences you hold and how many. A provider running a managed service already maintains this because they cannot work without it. If it takes two weeks to produce, it did not exist.
This is also the document that makes budgeting possible, because it tells you which machines are going to need replacing next year rather than which one failed this morning.
Documentation, and the fact that it is yours
Network diagram, how things are configured, where the credentials are held. Ask explicitly whether you receive it if the relationship ends. The answer to that question tells you a great deal about the provider’s view of the relationship.
A review that happens on a date
Somebody sitting down with you periodically to go through what broke, what is ageing, what is coming, and what should be budgeted. Without a scheduled review this never happens, because there is always something more urgent.
The things that are usually extra, and reasonably so
Being clear about this is not a criticism of providers. A monthly fee cannot cover unlimited project work, and one that claims to is either priced for the worst case or will find a reason to decline.
Projects. Migrations, office moves, a new server, a cabling job. These are scoped and quoted separately and that is normal.
Hardware and licences. The fee covers managing them, not buying them.
Third party software support. Your provider can be the first point of contact for the accounting package, but the vendor relationship is usually yours.
Out of hours work that is planned rather than reactive. A migration on a Saturday is project work.
Training. Some is inevitably included in the course of helping people. A programme is a separate thing.
What should not be extra is fixing something that broke during normal use, in normal hours. If it is, you are on break-fix with a subscription attached.
The wording to query before you sign
These are the phrases that cause the arguments later.
Unlimited support. Ask what it excludes, because something always does. Unlimited remote support during business hours is a real and honest offer. Unlimited on its own is marketing, and the exclusions will be in a clause somewhere.
Best endeavours. Means no commitment. Fine in some places, not for anything you depend on.
Response time. Response is not resolution. A four hour response can mean an acknowledgement email at three hours and fifty minutes. Ask what is being promised, and what happens when it is missed.
Per user or per device. Neither is wrong, but they produce very different numbers depending on your business. Count both for your own situation, especially if staff have more than one machine or you run shared machines on a shop floor. Reading an IT quote goes into this.
Reasonable use. Undefined by design. Ask for the definition and how often it has been invoked.
Minimum term and notice period. Together these decide how trapped you are if it does not work out. A provider confident in the service does not need a long lock-in.
The questions that reveal the most
If you only ask a few, ask these.
When did somebody last restore from our backup, and what did they restore? A specific answer means a managed service. A general reassurance does not.
Show me the asset register. Either it exists or it does not.
What happens at two in the morning? Tests whether monitoring is watched or logged.
Who owns the domain and the tenant? Should be you. If the answer is unclear, that is the first thing to fix, whatever else you decide.
What was the last thing you fixed before we noticed it? The best question of the five. A provider who is genuinely proactive has an example ready, because that is the job. A reactive one will have to think about it.
Where to go from here
Five more questions of the same kind, aimed at a provider you already have, are in five questions worth asking your IT provider this week. If you are weighing up a move rather than an audit, how to change provider without stopping the business covers the sequence.
What we include is set out on Managed IT Services and Service Plans. If you want an outside read on what you currently have, that is what the free health check is for.