Five questions to ask before signing any MSP quote

If you're comparing managed IT quotes, three things are probably true: the prices are within £10/user of each other, the feature lists look almost identical, and you've got no idea how to actually choose.

We help clients navigate this all the time — including ones who didn't end up choosing us. Here's what we tell them.

1. "What happens at 7pm on a Friday?"

The honest answer separates real 24/7 cover from "we have a number you can call which goes to voicemail." Ask specifically: who picks up, what's their job title, and what's their target response time. Then ask to see last quarter's actual response time data.

2. "Show me a sample monthly report"

If they hesitate, that's your answer. A real MSP has standardised monthly reporting — ticket volume, resolution times, security posture, patch compliance. Box-shifters write a paragraph in an email.

3. "What's your engineer-to-client ratio?"

Industry benchmark is roughly one engineer per 50 users. If you're being onboarded into a book where each engineer carries 200+ users, you'll feel it in response times within three months.

4. "What's not included?"

Get the exclusions list. Project work above X hours? Hardware procurement? Out-of-hours emergencies? Email migrations? Some MSPs write exclusion lists longer than the inclusion list. Read it.

5. "Who owns the data and the tenant?"

This is the one most people forget. Make sure your Microsoft 365 tenant, your domain, your DNS, your backup repositories — all of it — are owned by your company. Not the MSP. If you ever need to leave, that ownership is the difference between a clean handover and a hostage situation.

A bonus one we like

"Can I speak to a client who's been with you for less than a year?" References tend to be 5-year happy customers. Newer ones tell you what onboarding actually felt like.

Want a copy of these five questions as a PDF checklist for your next procurement round? Drop us a note and we'll send it over.