What Exactly Is a Managed Service Provider (MSP)?

Skip to main content

A Managed Service Provider (MSP) is an outside company that looks after your IT for a fixed monthly fee. Instead of calling someone only when something breaks, the MSP monitors, maintains and secures your systems all the time, so problems are caught early and your team can get on with their work.

Want this sorted for you?Talk to our Burgess Hill team about managed it support. Free, friendly and no obligation.

What an MSP typically covers

  • Helpdesk support for your staff by phone, email and remote session
  • Monitoring and patching of laptops, desktops and servers
  • Microsoft 365 administration: users, licences, email and security settings
  • Backup management and recovery testing
  • Cyber security tools such as endpoint protection, email filtering and multi-factor authentication
  • Onboarding and offboarding of staff
  • IT planning, budgeting and advice on what to replace and when

MSP vs break-fix support

With break-fix, you pay by the hour when something goes wrong, so the supplier earns more when things fail. An MSP is paid a predictable monthly amount, so it is in the provider’s interest to prevent problems. For most businesses with five or more staff, managed support works out cheaper and far less disruptive over a year.

How ABCOM works as an MSP

ABCOM has supported businesses and charities from Burgess Hill, West Sussex, since 1996. Our managed IT support is priced per user per month, with a named team who know your systems. You can get an instant estimate using the price calculator on that page, or book a free IT review.

Related: Why use an outsourced IT support company? · What is an SLA?

Want this looked after for you?

ABCOM has supported Sussex businesses and charities since 1996 and is an NCSC Assured Service Provider – Cyber Advisor (Cyber Essentials). Talk to a real person about your IT.

Also read

How ABCOM can help

Talk to a real person at our Burgess Hill office. We are an NCSC Assured Service Provider and have supported Sussex businesses since 1996.

Scroll to Top
Free 3-minute quiz · No sign-up for your score

Is your team using AI you don’t know about?

Score your Shadow AI risk across policy, data, tools, people and detection, then get the three controls to fix first.

Take the Shadow AI Check10 questions · about 3 minutes