Managed service provider · New Jersey
How to pick one, and the questions worth asking.
A managed service provider, or MSP, runs a business's technology for a recurring fee instead of charging by the hour. Matano IT Solutions is one, in East Windsor, working with small New Jersey businesses. This page is the seven questions worth asking any provider before you sign, and an honest account of what a small provider does well and what to raise with us before you decide.
Before you sign
Seven questions, and what a poor answer sounds like.
Ask these of us and of everybody else you are talking to. The wording of the answer usually tells you more than the answer.
- Who actually answers when I ask for help?You want a name or a small team. "Our tier one desk" means the person who picks up has never seen your systems, and every real problem starts again at tier two.
- What is the contract length, and the notice?A one to three year term is common and is worth noticing. Ours is month to month with thirty days notice, and an annual term only if you would rather have one invoice.
- Is there a limit on requests?A ticket allowance makes people hesitate before asking for help, which costs more than it saves. Ask what happens in a bad month.
- Do you make money on the hardware and software you recommend?Plenty of providers do, and it is legal and common. It is also the reason a recommendation can be hard to check. Ask, and see whether the answer is direct.
- What is included, and what becomes a project?Every provider draws this line somewhere. The problem is not where they draw it, it is finding out after you have signed.
- Who owns the documentation and the accounts?If leaving means losing the record of how your own systems are set up, you are not a client, you are a hostage. Ask what you get on the way out.
- What happens in the first thirty days?A vague answer here usually means onboarding is billed as it goes. A good answer is specific: a baseline, an inventory, and a list of what was found that nobody knew about.
Honestly
Where a small provider fits, and where it does not.
This is built for you when
You want the person answering to be the person who set it up. You want a written quote rather than a rate card. You want one price per person and no surprises. You would rather ask a question than open a ticket. Five people and up on a managed plan; a firm of one to four has Solo Care at $125 per person, with no minimum.
Ask us about these before you decide
After-hours support is available and can be discussed. If you want it written into the contract with a named response target, ask and we will quote it. A formal attestation against a named standard needs an auditor and we do not hold one, so we prepare the evidence and tell you who signs it. Several sites and a hundred or more people is a different shape of job, and we will tell you honestly whether a tiered desk serves you better than we would.
We publish this because the alternative is finding out in month three. None of it is a reason to look elsewhere on its own, and if something here genuinely is not the right fit we will say so on the first call rather than after the paperwork.
What we are
The short version of us.
East Windsor, New Jersey. Twenty-five years in IT. Remote first, because it is faster, with on-site visits across Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Somerset. One flat price per person per month, a five-person minimum, quoted in writing after a 15-minute review, month to month. Every request tracked, and a reply the same business day. Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. After-hours support is available and can be discussed.
Questions
What people ask about MSPs.
What is a managed service provider?
A firm that runs your technology for a recurring fee rather than billing each visit. In practice it means the help desk, patching, monitoring, account administration, backup and the security baseline are somebody's standing responsibility instead of something you call about once it has broken.
How is an MSP different from an IT guy who charges by the hour?
The incentive. Hourly billing pays for time spent, so the hours arrive when things break. A recurring fee pays for things not breaking, which is why patching and monitoring are included rather than sold. The trade is that you pay in a quiet month too.
What does an MSP cost in New Jersey?
It is normally quoted per person per month, and the honest figure depends on what you run, so a number on a page tends to change on the call. Ours is one flat price per person across three tiers with a five-person minimum, quoted in writing after a 15-minute review. The shape of the deal is published on the managed IT page.
Do we have to move everything at once?
No. A lot of this work sits beside what you already have: a security baseline, a backup that actually restores, email authentication put right. If you do want to move everything across, we coordinate the handover rather than making you do it.
What if we want to leave?
Thirty days notice, and you take the documentation and the accounts with you. Hardware and licenses were bought through you at cost and were always yours. A provider that makes leaving expensive has told you something about the relationship.
How do we judge you without taking your word for it?
Put your domain into the check above. It reads your email authentication, your website and how you show up, in about fifteen seconds, and the report is yours to keep whether or not you ever call. It is the same reading we would start an engagement with.
Ask us the seven