IT for businesses that have outgrown the arrangement they have
Most businesses do not decide to change their IT. They reach the point where the current arrangement costs more in interruptions than it saves in fees.
Logic Networks works with businesses across London and the rest of the UK, from around ten users to multi site teams. Professional services, property, manufacturing, logistics, hospitality and trades.
What those have in common is that technology is not the product. It is the thing that has to stay out of the way so the work can happen.
We are usually brought in at one of three moments: growth, a failure, or a question from a client that the business could not answer.
In most businesses we take over, somebody’s unofficial second job is IT.
Often the office manager, sometimes a director. They are good at it and it is not what they were hired for, and the hours do not appear in any budget.
- One accountable team, so nobody internal carries it
- A predictable monthly cost instead of unpredictable invoices
- Answers ready for client and insurer security questions
- Replacement costs known a year ahead
What we do for businesses
Four areas cover most of what a growing business asks for.
The order below is the order businesses usually take them, and none of them requires taking the others.
Support your people actually use
Fixed while they are still on the call.
Remote and on site help with a team that knows your setup. Most requests resolved without a visit, and the same engineers each time.
For a business, the value is not the fix. It is that a salesperson does not lose a morning and nobody internal is interrupted to help them.
The whole environment run for you
Predictable cost, no internal hours.
Users, devices, Microsoft 365, cloud and network handled as one arrangement, with an asset record so hardware spending appears in a plan.
This is the point at which the unofficial internal IT job disappears, which is usually the real reason a business makes the change.
Security you can evidence
Answers for the questionnaires.
The controls that stop the common attacks, plus the written answers that clients, insurers and larger customers now ask for before placing work.
Invoice fraud is the specific risk for a business with suppliers and customers. The rule that prevents it costs nothing and has to be written down.
Technology that keeps up with growth
A new office or a new team, without a crisis.
New offices, additional sites, more staff and the migrations that come with them, planned as projects with dates rather than absorbed by your team.
Growth is where arrangements break. A setup that works for fifteen people rarely works for forty without somebody having thought about it.
How businesses usually work with us
Three arrangements, and the middle one is the most common.
The choice comes down to whether you have anybody internal and how much you want to keep. None of the three is a stepping stone to another.
Tell us your headcount and how IT is handled today, and we will say which one we would put forward.
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Support only
Requests handled, monthly or by the hour, with nothing else committed. Suits a business with somebody internal who is coping.
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Managed IT
The whole environment, for a fixed monthly cost based on users and devices. Suits a business where nobody internal should be doing this.
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Alongside your own person
They keep what they enjoy and are good at. We take the specialist work, the projects, the cover and the second opinion.
When businesses call us
The moment is nearly always one of six. Knowing which one applies tells us what to look at first, and usually tells us what the previous arrangement was missing.
If one of these is happening now, say so in the first line of your message.
- Headcount has grown and the old arrangement has stopped coping
- A server, or the whole office, is moving
- A client or insurer has sent a security questionnaire
- Something serious happened, or nearly did
- The current provider has become slow, or expensive, or both
- The person who quietly handled IT is leaving
What we need from you
Three things, and a business can usually supply all three in an afternoon.
Where you cannot, that itself is useful information, and it goes to the top of the first month’s work.
A director who can decide
Somebody who can approve spending and settle a question between two departments. Not a committee, and not somebody who has to ask upwards each time.
Your own access and ownership
The domain in the company’s name, and administrator accounts you hold as well as your supplier. If a former provider holds either, that is the first job.
A view of the next twelve months
Hiring, a new site, a system being replaced, a busy season. Knowing it early turns support into planning and avoids paying twice.
What we usually find in a business in the first month
None of these means anybody was careless. They are what happens when technology grows one purchase at a time.
- Licences still being paid for people who left
- Administrator rights on ordinary users, granted years ago
- A backup running that has never been restored from
- One machine or one person that everything quietly depends on
- No written rule for changing a supplier’s bank details
- Network equipment past the date it stopped receiving fixes
- Two suppliers each assuming the other looks after something
- Hardware spending arriving as a surprise every year
Our steps for working together
Whether you take support or the whole environment, the start is the same and nothing is committed until the third step.
- A conversation What you have, what breaks and what you want to stop worrying about.
- A review of the environment Devices, accounts, network, backup, licensing and contracts, written up as it actually is.
- A plan with costs What we would put right first, what can wait and what it comes to each month.
- Handover Access collected, documentation written, your current provider dealt with by us where you would rather not.
- The first month Higher request volume than normal while the backlog clears, then a review of what is left.
- Then a rhythm Monthly review of requests, repeats, costs and what is coming up in your own year.
What IT costs a business of your size
We cannot put a figure on this page honestly, because it depends on users, devices and how much you hand over. What we can do is explain what the figure is made of, so you can compare quotes properly.
- Per user, per month The support and administration of a person: their account, their mail, their requests. This is the main driver.
- Per device, per month Monitoring, updates and protection for each machine and each server. Servers cost more than laptops.
- Licences, passed through Microsoft and other subscriptions, which are yours rather than ours. Ask any supplier whether they add a margin to these.
- Projects, quoted separately Moves, migrations and replacements. These should never be inside a monthly figure, because then you cannot see either clearly.
- Hardware, when it is due From the asset record, so it is a plan rather than a surprise.
Two questions are worth asking every supplier you speak to. What falls outside the monthly figure, and what happens if we use more than the plan covers. The answers vary far more than the headline prices do.
Working out what the current arrangement really costs
Before comparing a quote, it is worth totalling what you spend today. Most businesses find the figure is higher than they assumed, because much of it is not on an invoice.
Add the provider’s fees, the hardware bought in the last three years divided by three, the licences, and then the part nobody counts: the hours your own people spend. An office manager spending four hours a week on technology is a substantial cost that appears in no budget line, and the interruption cost to whoever they ask for help is on top of it.
We produce this calculation as part of a review, including the hours, because a comparison that leaves them out makes every outsourced arrangement look more expensive than it is.
What good looks like for a business
Nobody in your team is the unofficial IT person. New staff work from their first morning. Your monthly cost is the same unless something was agreed. A client’s security questionnaire takes an afternoon rather than a fortnight. Hardware appears in a budget before it appears as a problem. And when something does break, it is fixed by somebody who already knows your setup.
Related services
Businesses usually start with one of the first two below and add the others as the day to day settles down.
- Managed IT and outsourced IT for the whole environment
- IT support for the requests and nothing more yet
- Cybersecurity for the questions your clients are asking
- Microsoft 365 for mail, files and licensing
- Websites and search visibility for being found
Articles and news for businesses
Practical notes on cost, cover and risk, written for the director who has to sign it off.
The first hour after a suspected email compromise
What to do, in order, when you think somebody has got into a mailbox. Written to be followed by whoever is in the office at the time.
Read the articleThe five security controls worth putting in place first
Security spending often starts at the wrong end. These five controls remove the largest share of everyday risk and cost the least.
Read the articleTurning on multi factor authentication without stopping work
The single change that prevents most account takeovers, and how to introduce it across a team of thirty people in a fortnight.
Read the articleTalk to us about your business
Tell us your headcount, how IT is handled today and what prompted you to look. We will review it and come back with what we would change, in what order and what it would cost.
No obligation, and no sales call unless you ask for one.