Who owns the outcome?
Ask who makes architectural and security decisions, who handles escalation, and whether that person remains involved after the sale.
A buyer’s guide to managed IT
Compare accountability before comparing monthly prices.
Most managed IT proposals contain similar product categories. The meaningful differences are ownership, engineering depth, exclusions, recovery capability, documentation, and how the provider behaves when the problem stops being routine.
Get a second opinionSix questions worth asking
Make every provider answer the same hard questions.
A polished proposal is useful only if it reveals who is responsible, what is excluded, and how difficult work will actually be handled.
What is actually included?
Separate help desk, monitoring, patching, projects, on-site work, security, backup, Microsoft 365, after-hours response, and vendor coordination.
How is recovery proven?
Require evidence of restore testing, recovery objectives, isolation, credentials, and the sequence used to return operations.
How is the network documented?
Expect current diagrams, circuits, equipment, addressing, VLANs, administrative ownership, warranties, licensing, and configuration backups.
What happens during a major project?
Determine whether the provider has senior engineering depth or expects the ordinary support queue to design migrations and cutovers.
How are risks explained?
Leadership should receive prioritized business impact, options, cost, consequence, and a clear recommendation—not only technical alerts.
Proposal comparison
Put these items side by side before signing.
CategoryWhat a defensible answer includes
SupportHours, priorities, response targets, remote/on-site scope, escalation, and excluded work
SecurityIdentity, endpoint, email, firewall, segmentation, logging, ownership, and incident response
RecoveryProtected systems, retention, isolation, restore testing, recovery order, and objectives
ProjectsPlanning, pricing method, architecture owner, change control, cutover, and documentation
PeopleNamed technical accountability, staffing model, continuity, subcontractors, and escalation depth
ExitCredentials, documentation, configurations, data ownership, transition obligations, and contract terms
JMB’s model
Owner-led accountability with a credible path to scale.
Jaen remains directly involved in technical decisions and outcomes. He has previously built and led a 38-person technology company with 23 technicians, and JMB can add qualified project or support-desk capacity when an agreed engagement requires it. Current staffing and delivery responsibilities are defined honestly in the proposal.
See the co-managed modelDirect access. Senior judgment.
Bring JMB the proposal you are evaluating—or the relationship that is not working.
A short leadership review can identify missing ownership, hidden exclusions, and the questions that still need defensible answers.