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Sheman: Welcome back to Biztalk with Sherman. I’m your host Sherman on from Hometown Insurance services. Really excited to be able to have our next guest on expert Roland Parker. Welcome back, Roland, to the show. Hey, Sherman. Great to be back. All right. So I know we’ve talked about some different topics when it comes to ransomware or working from home. But one of the things that I think a lot of businesses when they start get started, they have kind of an internal IT person. So kind of talk a little bit about what are some of the things that that person might be doing.
Roland Parker: So an internal it typically happens when people have got 30 or more employees and they get an internal IT and they think, well, that’s I’m covered I’ve got internal it and that typically is that person’s checking your backups they’re checking for general help desks things and making sure that you can print and scan and other things. But sometimes where they fall short is that that internal it is not looking at it from an outside point of view. Is your company secure against ransomware, cyber attacks and that type of thing. So it does make sense when you’ve got an internal IT to say, okay, we need to co-manage this with an MSP company that’s able to look at it from a holistic point of view. Can we secure your network and can we make sure that your company is secure against the different types of attacks that are out there and what to do when you’re under attack? Sometimes that can be overwhelming for an internal IT, especially when you’ve got a one IT guy and he’s running between 40 and 50, sometimes 120 people having that MSP to come in and just say, okay, we’ve got you secured. We double checking things on a 24/7 basis, which obviously internal, it’s not going to be able to do that. He has to sleep, has to go on vacation. And the MSP would come in and say we’re we’re monitoring for any changes that are happening. We monitoring the security and we’re there as your, your ultimate defense.
Sheman: So I have to imagine that there’s a different skill set. And what you just described in somebody that does the cyber security side preventing attacks and then there’s someone and having more of a strategy versus someone that’s kind of dealing with the day to day, day to day, right?
Roland Parker: Absolutely. And most of the time, you can’t really afford to have a cyber security specialist and have your internal it. So that’s where it makes sense to actually outsource that to somebody that does that as a professional. And it’s actually not that expensive.
Sheman: Now, I have to imagine when you start looking at this, there’s probably not a magic number, Roland. But how how does a business know when they need to bring in someone to help with this kind of more cyber security protection approach?
Roland Parker: Well, there’s basically three different stages. The people that have got less than ten employees will quite often be they’re not going to outsource much apart from when they go down. But with cyber security on the increase, it then makes sense. Once you start getting to ten or more employees to really have a full managed environment, and that if your MSP provider is not managing security, then you really need to add that when you get to 40 employees, you tend to have a full time IT guy that’s on staff that can help with helpdesk, but that is when you really need to be co-managed and rough pricing. You know, Co-managed can be as little as 25 to $35 per employee, whereas when you fully manage, you’re going to be anywhere from 100 to $200 per employee depending on the complexity of your environment.
Sheman: So then you kind of see right now a lot of businesses as they grow, they start doing a kind of a combination of having maybe somebody internal and then an external partner.
Roland Parker: And we’ll even find as as the companies, they may start off with a full MSP and then they migrate to having a co-managed situation as they get bigger.
Sheman: And so when it comes to that cost, is there any way to kind of see that savings in a sense, or how do you know that it’s being beneficial?
Roland Parker: Well, typically if you listen for the employees, you it really doesn’t make sense to have a full time IT person because fully managed with cybersecurity and everything else is typically going to cost you less than employing a full time IT person. So under 40, hands down, it makes sense to just go full MSP in combination with full MSP, which is managed service security provider. So and then when you get above 40, you might say, well, I really need to have somebody on staff to be coping with the day to day. Running of the things, but I want to have the security option and making sure that my IT guy is doing everything that he should be doing as well. Kind of like a double check.
Sheman: That’s amazing. So so really, it sounds like there’s a way to be able to streamline the process on the front end that I don’t think, okay, I need to go hire somebody if I have 30 employees and that that person is going to be busy enough. Right. With some of the day and day out things that are going to be required.
Roland Parker: Right. And in addition to that, you’re paying all that money, but you’re not getting the cyber security tools that come with the MSP. So realistically, not only is it going to cost you more, but you’re actually getting less out of it. Also with an MSP that provides 24 over seven support like Empress does, you’re actually being monitored and protected 24 hours a day, seven days a week. There’s no way you can get that out of a full time employee. Not unless you’re thinking that he’s actually going to be working 24 over seven, but it definitely gives you an advantage. Now, one of the big things that we find is that companies say to us, Well, we’re smaller, we’re only we don’t want to be fully managed. We’re only going to call you when we have an issue. The problem with that is that you’re not fully protected. So when you go down, you could be hit with a ransomware attack only to discover your backups weren’t working, your employees are shut down during that period of time. And and I mean, that could completely shut your company down. So you could be thinking, well, I’m not going to commit to a monthly amount, but actually it could cost you a heck of a lot more in the in the long run. Whereas if you say, well, I’m going to pay a monthly amount, you know what your fixed costs are. But in addition to that, you’ve got the peace of mind knowing that you’re fully protected. And if anything does happen, you’ve got the backups and security of a of a qualified MSP IT bunch of guys behind you that are going to get you up and running quickly. Otherwise your IT guys coming in blind. He’s relying on you to actually be checking your backups checking security. The chances are you’re not actually going to be doing that.
Sheman: That’s not that old adage where you’re being penny wise pound foolish. Correct. Well, thanks again, Rohan, for coming in. If people have any follow up questions, how can they get in touch with you and your team over that and press.
Roland Parker: The best thing to do? Give us a call to 816479977 or reach us on the web. Impress. Impress computers with an Aztec tech.