Your managed IT services provider (MSP) plays a major role in keeping your business running smoothly, but as your company grows, your IT demands evolve. The level of services they provide may have worked well for you in the past, but now that your needs are different, they might no longer meet your performance, security, or operational needs. If your IT demands change, so too must your service level agreement (SLA) with your MSP.
But how do you know when it’s time to make changes to your agreement? Here are four key metrics to examine that will tell you that it’s time to revisit or upgrade your MSP contract.
Uptime: Are you experiencing more downtime than usual?
IT downtime is more than an inconvenience. It can halt productivity, frustrate customers, and slow your momentum, leading to lost revenue. Most MSP contracts guarantee a certain level of uptime, typically around 99.9%, but even brief outages can add up over time.
If your systems are experiencing frequent outages, slow network performance, or recurring service disruptions, that’s a clear sign your current plan isn’t keeping pace with your operations.
Evaluate how often downtime occurs and how long it lasts. If your MSP’s uptime performance has dipped below expectations, or if your business now requires even greater reliability due to higher customer demand or expanded digital operations, an upgrade to a higher-tier plan may be necessary.
Response time: Are issues being addressed quickly enough?
Response time is the speed at which your MSP reacts to service requests or incidents, and it’s a critical indicator of service quality. If support tickets take longer to resolve, communication has slowed, or their existing response time is just no longer quick enough for your needs, it might be time to renegotiate your contract.
Different service tiers often come with varied response time guarantees. For instance, premium MSP packages may include 24/7 support, faster escalation procedures, and dedicated account management. If your business is growing or operating across multiple time zones, these faster response times can make a measurable difference in maintaining productivity and customer satisfaction.
Review your current SLA’s response time guarantees, and make sure they align with your actual business needs and not just your budget. The higher monthly costs for IT services may be well worth it to maintain better productivity and growth.
Security breaches: Are your defenses keeping up?
Cybersecurity is one of the most important reasons to reassess your MSP contract. If your business has experienced data breaches, malware infections, or suspicious network activity, your current cybersecurity coverage may not be sufficient. Or perhaps your business has expanded and is now required to follow data security compliance regulations such as HIPAA or GDPR. Either way, your cybersecurity posture needs an update, so you’ll need more from your MSP.
Many MSPs offer enterprise-grade cybersecurity services, such as a managed security operations center (SOC), advanced threat detection, and incident response capabilities that go beyond traditional antivirus and firewalls. If your risks or compliance requirements are higher now, your SLA must grow to match them.
New tech demands: Has your IT infrastructure fallen behind?
The technology landscape changes fast and your MSP contract must evolve with it if you don’t want to get left behind. If your business needs new capabilities such as cloud computing, remote work, or custom servers and apps, your IT infrastructure may require additional capacity, bandwidth, or management tools.
Low-level MSP agreements often focus on basic support and maintenance rather than strategic IT growth. They will handle your small office network and support only the tools and infrastructure listed in your initial SLA, which was likely signed well before your business grew to require new technologies.
If you now require new and expanded IT tools and infrastructure, you need a new SLA that includes the maintenance and management of these technologies specifically.
Ready to see how a new, high-level MSP contract can better meet your IT needs and foster continued growth? Contact outsourceIT for a free consultation, and we’ll present a custom SLA that is aligned with your current needs and includes all the tools and services to support your business’s future.
