Review your MSP’s security work through practical questions about access, completed actions, recovery and incident responsibilities.
Proxar · UK expertise
Managed service provider checklist
Before you compare monthly prices, ask each IT provider to fill in the same gaps: what they look after, when an engineer will help, what costs extra and how you can leave. This managed service provider checklist gives you questions to take into that conversation.
Keep the answers beside the quote. Mark each item as included, extra, your responsibility or still unanswered. A useful answer names the work and the person responsible for it.
Technology partnerships
Technology partners you know
We help you choose and look after the technology your team uses every day.
1. Find out who takes the call
Start with the people using the service. Give the provider your working hours, locations and main applications, including any staff who work evenings or weekends. Then ask:
- How do staff get help? Phone, email or a portal? Can a colleague report a problem for someone who cannot sign in?
- Which hours include an engineer? Check ordinary helpdesk cover, urgent out-of-hours work and charges for each.
- Who decides the priority? Ask how a problem affecting one person differs from an outage affecting the whole office.
- What does the response target mean? An automatic ticket receipt, a human reply and an engineer starting work are different things.
- When will someone visit? Find out how an on-site visit is approved, how quickly it can happen and whether travel is included.
2. Follow a problem through to the end
Try a specific example in the meeting: your finance team cannot use its accounts application on payroll day. The MSP suspects the application supplier. Who opens that supplier ticket, stays on the call, updates your finance manager and confirms that the problem is resolved?
Ask to see an anonymised ticket or sample service report. Look for an owner, a timeline and a next action. A response-time percentage alone will not tell you whether staff have to repeat the same fault every week.
Reviewing a checklist before choosing a managed service provider · Illustrative image
3. Check the work you cannot see on a ticket
Write down who handles updates, security alerts, administrator access and backups. Ask the provider to explain a missed update or a failed backup: who sees it, who fixes it and how you find out if it remains unresolved?
For backups, request the list of protected systems, the retention period and a recent restore-test example. Check what was restored and how long it took. A successful backup notification is useful, but it does not show that your business can recover within the time you need.
For security monitoring, separate the hours when software collects alerts from the hours when someone investigates them. Agree who can isolate a device, disable an account or contact your decision-maker during an incident.
4. Compare the complete cost
Ask for the recurring fee and the likely extras in one place. Work through these items rather than accepting a broad description such as “fully managed”:
- Microsoft and other software licences, including commitment and renewal dates.
- New starters, leavers, replacement computers and adding another office.
- Projects, major upgrades, migrations and work with application suppliers.
- On-site visits, out-of-hours work, onboarding and any initial remedial work.
- Minimum charges, price reviews and what happens when user numbers fall.
Compare the same user and device counts across proposals. If one quote is lower, ask which task, licence or assumption explains the difference. There may be a sensible saving; there may also be work left for your own team.
5. Make leaving part of the decision
Check who owns the domains, cloud tenant, hardware and subscriptions. Confirm how your business obtains administrator access and copies of its documentation. If equipment belongs to the provider, ask what replaces it when the service ends.
Put the notice period, handover work, export formats and exit charges in writing. Ask how support continues while the next provider takes over. A subscription renewal date can outlast the support contract, so check both before committing.
Already have an MSP? Use recent tickets and the current agreement to answer the same questions. Our guide to assessing your existing MSP helps you work out what needs to improve before asking for new quotes.
Client experience
What our clients say
“I’ve worked with Proxar for a number of years and have always found them to be honest, knowledgeable and informative.”
Before you decide
Your questions, answered
What should we ask a reference customer?
Ask about an incident that did not go smoothly. Who kept them informed, what needed chasing and what changed afterwards? Check whether their service includes the same hours and responsibilities as your proposal. A reference for a one-off project will answer different questions from a customer using the helpdesk every day.
What if the answer is “we normally include that”?
Ask the provider to name it in the proposal or service schedule. Until then, leave the item unanswered. This matters most where a missing task could stop work, create an unexpected bill or leave nobody responsible for a security problem.
Do we need a technical person in the comparison meeting?
Bring whoever knows how staff use the systems and what causes trouble. That might be an office manager, finance lead or IT manager. A technical colleague can check the detail, but the provider should also explain the scope and exclusions clearly enough for the person approving the cost.
Can we use the checklist when our contract renews?
Yes. Start with changes since the last agreement: staff numbers, locations, applications and working hours. Pick a few recent tickets and check whether the service worked as promised. Carry unresolved questions into the renewal discussion instead of assuming the old scope still fits.
Your next step
Bring the questions you still need answered
If you are considering Proxar, tell us where the proposed scope is unclear. We can talk through the support, responsibilities and exclusions in our quotation so you have something concrete to compare.