Pros and Cons of The KR Group’s Managed IT Services

Over the past decade of offering managed IT services, here at The KR Group, we’ve been asked multiple times, “Why should I choose you as my managed services provider?” IT manager tracking KPIs on a laptop

It’s a fair question.

We know we aren’t the only managed services provider (MSP) who can handle your IT needs, and in the interest of transparency, we want to give you an unbiased as possible review of ourselves.

We believe there are three pros to choosing us, but we also know there are two cons to our services.  

By discussing our strengths and weaknesses we want to prepare you for what managed IT services with us will look like.

The pros of choosing The KR Group as your MSP

Like all MSPs, we are a third-party you hire to take care of your IT needs. Instead of having an in-house IT engineer, you choose a company to solve the IT needs as they arise.

Since MSPs primarily work remotely and are serving multiple customers, they’re often less expensive than hiring an in-house engineer with the same capabilities.

There are many benefits of managed IT services. However, there are some advantages our services have over both in-house IT and other MSPs, such as:

  1. We’re available all day, every day.
  2. Our managed IT services are cost-effective.
  3. Our MSP engineers are knowledgeable.

These are the things that set our specific services apart and could make us a good fit for you.

Pro #1: We’re available all day, every day.

Any MSP you contract with will provide more availability, or redundancy, than an in-house engineer.

With an in-house engineer, you can expect him or her to take days off for vacations, illnesses, and emergencies. However, with an MSP, if your primary engineer takes a day off, you’re covered by another staffed engineer.

At The KR Group, this redundancy is available 24/7/365. That means you don’t have to worry about ever being without IT help.

If you have an overnight or weekend emergency, your contract with us allows you access to our on-call engineer, who will work with you to get whatever wasn’t working back up and running.

Pro #2: Our managed IT services are cost-effective.

We know cost is often a deciding factor on what product or service you choose in both your personal and business life.

In general, you can expect to save money by contracting with an MSP instead of hiring your own IT engineer.

When it comes to how we fare with our competitor’s rates, our pricing is right in the middle.

You’ll find cheaper alternatives on the market, but they might come with offshore support. On the other hand, you’ll also find MSPs who charge more than us because they have different business models.

One way we are different than some MSPs when it comes to cost is we bill you monthly per user instead of per device.

We think it’s easier for you and us to track users than devices. Machines can go offline and go in and out of production, but if someone leaves or joins your organization, it’ll be obvious.

Pro #3: Our MSP engineers strive for approachability.

We know some of the problems with managed IT services revolve around lacking the daily relationship with an in-house IT engineer.

At The KR Group, we solve that solution by assigning a group of engineers to your organization. You’ll build a relationship with them. They’ll get to know you, and you’ll get to know them.

We also schedule more on-site visits than some of our competitors. We don’t want the only time we’re on-site to be when your problem requires it.

By scheduling weekly pre-set times of on-site service, we make sure you’re building a relationship with your engineers.

We also try to be accessible by not enforcing a strict protocol on service requests. There are some MSPs, who require you to make all help requests through tickets. However, we’re more than willing to talk to you over the phone if you need that level of assistance with a problem.

One of our goals is to provide approachable IT, and this is one of the ways we try to set ourselves apart.

Not everything is positive about our services, though, and we’re not shy to discuss the negatives of our managed IT services.

The cons of choosing The KR Group as your MSP

Like all MSPs, we have our problems. We’re not on-site all the time and can’t dedicate all of our resources to one company. If your employees need frequent, hands-on support, you might be better served by your own, in-house engineer.

Two cons to our managed IT services are:

  1. We provide managed services for companies in the 10 to 100 user range.
  2. Our MSP contracts have a minimum one-year agreement.

While we believe there are silver linings to these two things, we want to be upfront with our less attractive qualities.

Con #1: We serve customers in the range of 10-100 users.

We specialize in this user range because there is a demand for it. If you’re within that range, having an MSP allows you to tap into the expertise of a highly-skilled engineer without paying $100,000 or more.

However, you might still want the savings and benefits of an MSP if you employ 200 people – double our high-end limit.

If you fall outside of our user range, we’ll suggest two options.

  1. You could find another MSP who has the ability to handle the increased demand of a larger user-count company.
  2. You could hire your own IT engineer since your budget can accommodate the cost of an in-house IT better than a company half your size.

Con #2: You’ll be locked in for at least one year with our managed IT services.

If you want the ability to switch MSPs within the first year of your service, you’ll end up with a penalty for breaking the minimum one-year contract.

We do start our managed services contracts with a 90-day trial period. This gives you a chance to see if our services meet your needs. If they don’t, you can change to another provider without any penalties.

If you agree to continue using our services after the first 90-days, though, you’ll be committed to contract for one, three, or five years and be subject to a penalty for ending the contract.

We do offer an incentive, however, for choosing longer contract terms. Our three-year contracts come with a 15% discount, and our five-year contracts come with a 25% discount.

Don’t take just our word for our services.

If you’re looking for a more objective source to review our services, you can look at our online reviews. We have 5 stars on Google Reviews and Facebook.

In 2019, The KR Group was also named to CRN’s Pioneer 250 list of MSPs and Tech Elite Solution Providers 250 list. If you’re looking for a new MSP and want to take advantage of our 90-day trial period, check out our checklist for onboarding or contact us to schedule a free consultation.

Leave a Comment

WE'RE SERIOUS ABOUT YOUR EDUCATION!

Want the articles from our Learning Center delivered to your inbox? Stay up to date with the latest on cybersecurity, collaboration, data center, managed services, and more.

Scroll to Top