Managed IT vs. Break-Fix: Which One Does a 20-Person Windsor Business Need?

Most businesses in Windsor-Essex start the same way. Someone's cousin sets up the network. A local shop fixes the laptops when they die. The owner handles Microsoft 365 passwords between site visits. It works until it doesn't.

The question isn't whether break-fix is bad. It isn't. The question is whether your business has grown past it.

What break-fix actually is

Break-fix is simple. Something stops working, you call, someone fixes it, you get an invoice. No monthly bill, no contract. For a five-person office with a couple of laptops and no server, that's often the right call.

The catch is in the name. Nothing happens until something breaks. Nobody is installing updates, checking backups, or watching for the login attempt from a country you've never done business with. You find out about problems when a staff member can't work.

What managed IT actually is

Managed IT flips it. You pay a flat amount per user, per month. In exchange, every computer gets monitoring software, updates get installed on a schedule, backups get checked, and staff have a number to call or a portal to open when something's wrong. Fixing things is included, not billed.

The provider now has a reason to keep your systems healthy. Every breakdown costs them time they aren't paid extra for. That lines up their interests with yours in a way hourly billing never does.

Five signs you've outgrown break-fix

• You have 10 or more staff who can’t work when their computer is down.
• There’s a server, or a shared drive, that nobody has tested a restore from.
• Someone in the office has been phished, or nearly.
• Windows updates are whatever each person clicks, whenever they click it.
• You don’t know how many Microsoft 365 licences you pay for, or who has one.

Two or more of those and you're already paying for managed IT. You're just paying in downtime and the owner's evenings instead of a monthly invoice.

Where break-fix still makes sense

Under ten staff, no server, nothing regulated, and an owner who doesn't mind being the IT department. That business is fine on hourly support, and a good provider will tell you so instead of selling you a plan.

Specter Systems still does hourly work for exactly those businesses. Nobody gets pushed onto a monthly plan they don't need.

The pricing question

Managed IT is priced per user, per month, and the number depends on how many people you have and what you're running. A clinic with a server and patient data is a different job than a trades office with eight laptops and a printer. Anyone who quotes a number before seeing your setup is guessing.

The honest way to get a number: a free assessment. Thirty minutes walking through what you have, then a written proposal within a week. That's how it works at Specter Systems, and it's how it should work anywhere.

One more thing: support hours vs. security hours

Some providers advertise “24/7 support” and mean a voicemail. Be precise when you ask. IT support, the person who fixes your printer, is a business-hours job. Security monitoring, the system that catches ransomware at 3 a.m., has to run around the clock. Those are two different things, and a good plan says plainly which is which.