FAQ

Great question! A managed service provider (MSP)  is, in short, an outsourced IT team that facilitates technical services and technology strategy - a process normally provided by a full-time in-house enterprise team. MSPs offer enterprise-grade services such as a vCIO (Chief Information Officer), cybersecurity, network security, cloud services, IT support, 24/7 monitoring, automation, asset management, budgeting, and much more; way beyond a basic helpdesk. For us, a Managed IT Service means protection, trust, and comfort. You focus on building your business – we have you covered. Your team and technology are the priority.

Learn more about the SIRKit difference here.

We believe the best fit for Managed IT services are companies with 10-500 computers or users. Businesses with more than 500 endpoints tend to build their own internal teams due to required complexity, attention, and control. Those with less than 10 have not typically reached a point where more advanced services are required.

Yes. Our systems are designed to securely support your staff and protect your devices from anywhere. The highest cybersecurity risk often comes from the endpoint (users). We highly recommend that all devices are protected by Managed IT Services to safeguard your infrastructure and critical systems.

Great question! An MSP is able to help provide your company with a disaster recovery and business continuity plan, but you want to know if they have one themselves. After all, how can they help you make it through a disaster event like a natural catastrophe or pandemic unscathed if they aren’t up and running themselves?! SIRKit360® is built using "N+1" redundancy to provide high-availability and automatic fail-over. We are also big proponents of cloud to cloud (C2C) back up. Learn more here.  

SIRKit's Hybrid IT program is well suited to provide additional support and extended expertise. We offer quite a few options including:

• We take care of your infrastructure and your team takes care of the helpdesk
• We take care of the helpdesk and your team takes care of the infrastructure

We currently work with numerous larger businesses that leverage our internal tools for security, automation, monitoring, maintenance, asset management, and remote access for their internal IT teams.

Having SIRKit involved offers access to a wide range of expertise, reduces risk associated with employees leaving, and keeps the in-house team compliant and aligned with emerging best practices.

Today, the terms "cloud service provider" and "managed service provider" are practically synonymous. SIRKit’s cloud portfolio is designed to offer an affordable and reliable means for your business to host and protect critical systems and information. While we do offer on-premises IT services, we encourage greater adoption of the cloud. Learn morehere.  

It depends on many factors, including where you reside, the size of your company, service level agreements, etc. Generally, if the MSP is largeand bundles a reasonable number of services and subscriptions into their offering, you should expect $125-$150 per user per month.

Other MSPs may cost less. Look for the right managed service provider, rather than the cheapest. There are fundamentals every business should now have in place to protect itself. It’s important to choose a quality MSP to ensure your business is protected. Based on 3^rd party studies, we recommend budgeting 2-3% of gross revenue for technology. The average technology budget was found to be 3.28% across all sectors. This should cover Managed IT services, cybersecurity insurance, computers, cloud servers, toner, telephones, internet, cell phones, etc.
The reality is, a cybersecurity breach or loss of data can cost your organization much more.

• Nearly 1-in-5 business polled were affected by a cyber-attack or data breach in the last 2 years
• Canadian small businesses spend more than $12,000 per employee to recover from a data breach
• Canadian small businesses suffering a breach were down for an average of 59 hours at a cost of 1.1 million (2018)

Source: ibc.ca and Varonis.com

We are committed to protecting our clients and would love to help you get the right services in place.

Most of our team has been working remotely since the pandemic began back in March 2020. When we design networks, we stress how important it is to break free of conventional designs that require you to be in the office. By using business-grade equipment and modern encryption, you can work safely from anywhere.

This is bad news for the virus (both biological and virtual!) because SIRKit has successfully supported our clients since day one, without interruption.

In rare cases where an onsite visit is required, we take all necessary precautions to keep everyone safe and adhere to AHS protocols.

All that said, we are excited to get back into the office and see our clients and colleagues again.

SIRKit was founded to protect amazing businesses that take their technology seriously. Security First and We F***ing Care are two of the core values our team lives by everyday. We are proud of our commitment to long-term partnerships and have successfully retained ~93% of our Managed IT clients for over a decade.

Our commitment begins on day one. Before onboarding, we complete an upfront audit to clearly understand the existing systems, create documentation, and build appropriate recommendations to address risk.

We are committed to a quality result that cannot be replicated by an automated scan or boilerplate report (which many of our competitors use). The process aligns with a formal audit. It is extensive, thorough, and utilizes many best practices from the NIST and CIS security standards- which are becoming a common requirement.

Rather than waiting for a problem to arise, we prefer to identify and rectify issues immediately, then implement & maintain a long-term multi-year technology plan that will help anticipate and budget for projects.

Our development team has built custom software that analyzes data in real-time to ensure our teams are responsive and accountable.

Why should you choose SIRKit? Because staying current, protected, and leveraging technology to help your team reach its full potential truly requires our expertise and proven proactive process. We are the right MSP to help you achieve your goals.