5 Top Managed IT Service Providers (With Case Studies)

Modern IT services go far beyond typical help desk tickets and user cybersecurity training. On the surface, it may appear that your IT team simply solves technical issues and updates software systems, but maintaining a business’s technology infrastructure is a complex responsibility that requires expert guidance and a specialized skill set.

If you feel your IT team is falling behind, it may be time for your organization to switch to a managed service provider (MSP) that’s capable of handling the entirety of your IT needs, particularly as your business scales. But how do you know what to look for—and where to start looking?

Why Organizations Switch MSPs

Businesses typically start their search for a better-managed IT service provider because they’re experiencing one or more of the following struggles.

Poor Response Time

Many IT service providers prioritize tickets by the percentage of your company the issue impacts, the degree to which the issue affects productivity, or some other arbitrary reason—which means some tickets are left unanswered for days, weeks, or months.

Unnecessary Service Delays

Unnecessary service delays occur when support lines are answered by non-technical reps who simply put you in another holding queue. When your call gets answered, you may get a technician who does not fully understand your problem and needs to escalate your issue yet again—causing even more delays.

Lack of Strategic Advice

Smaller MSPs may not have the breadth and depth of talent to be able to cover all of your needs, especially if you’re a growing business looking for the latest technology trends.

Limited Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is limited to installing basic antivirus and perimeter-based detection software, leaving you vulnerable to ransomware attacks and unable to maintain industry-specific security standards (e.g., HIPAA or CMMC).

Lack of Apple Expertise

Lack of Apple expertise means the departments or divisions that use Apple products don’t have adequate support. Even if the majority of your company currently uses Microsoft, Apple products are becoming more and more popular, especially as the work-from-home trend seems here to stay. Everyone on your team deserves proper IT support.

At Ntiva, we strive to solve these issues by providing:

A 24/7 help desk line answered by experienced, U.S.-based technicians (in less than one minute on average). If the issue is a top priority for you, it’s a top priority for us.

Dedicated account managers who offer quarterly business reviews, backed by a large professional services team that includes virtual chief information officers (vCIOs), virtual chief information security officers (vCISOs), and more.

A large team of security professionals who advise you on the most advanced security solutions, backed up by our 24/7 Security Operations Center (SOC), anti-phishing prevention training for your employees, custom audits, and backup and disaster recovery (BDR) plans.
Assistance with building IT solutions for staying compliant with HIPAA, NIST SP 800-171, CMMC, CIPA, and more.
A large staff of Apple-certified technicians and Apple-native tools.
Virtually any tools or resources you need to achieve your business’s IT goals.

In this guide, we provide an overview of Ntiva’s specialized IT services and take a deep dive into each of the features mentioned above. Then, we’ll briefly cover four other MSPs to aid your search.

Top Managed IT Service Providers: Option 1, Ntiva

For more than 15 years as an MSP, Ntiva has served organizations of all sizes across various industries including government contracting, healthcare, nonprofit, education, legal services, financial services, manufacturing, and more.

Some of Ntiva’s most-requested services include:

Responsive remote and on-site support
Network monitoring and management
Managed workstations (for both PC and Mac)
Data backup and disaster recovery
Hardware and software procurement
Advanced antivirus and cyberattack protection
Business continuity planning
Risk assessment and proactive prevention
Unified communications system and management
vCISO consulting
Procurement-as-a-service

But we don’t stop there. In addition to a handful of other specialized IT services, we also provide a comprehensive, four-step onboarding process to set you up for the best experience possible, and you won’t be charged during this time.

Let’s dig deeper into a few of these specialty services and show how Ntiva has helped other companies use technology to achieve their business goals and stay secure.

1. 24/7 U.S.-Based Technician Help Desk

Most IT help desks work something like this: A non-technical representative answers the phone and asks you a few general questions about your issue. Then, they create a support ticket, assign a priority level, and assure you a qualified technician will call back. If your issue affects a lot of people in a major way, you’ll likely get a quick response. However, if your problem only affects you or only affects the team in a minor way, you may end up waiting days, weeks, or months before getting a call back (if you ever do).

Additionally, many MSPs assign a low-level technician to manage your ticket upfront and only send in expert technicians when they deem it necessary. This often creates even more delays because the more experienced technician needs to be contacted and brought up to speed before moving forward on solving the problem.

At Ntiva, we believe every problem should be solved in a timely manner, no matter how big or small it is. That’s why we have experienced technicians answering our support line.

Our technical experts answer the phone in less than one minute, on average, and are able to resolve 75 percent of issues on the first call. Plus, all of our technicians are based in the U.S. to mitigate language barriers.

Testimonial from Destra Capital

“Being a small company and having a bigger company like Ntiva, which provides us with our outsourced IT, was a great find. Their help desk is very responsive ... They worked their tails off to get us moved to the cloud in a timely manner. We were under the gun. They came up with a great solution, quickly."

— James Yount, President and Senior Managing Director at Destra Capital

2. Advanced Antivirus Software and Phishing Prevention Training

Many MSPs will only help you install and maintain a few basic security features such as antivirus software, perimeter-based detection, or multi-factor authentication, leaving huge gaps in your cybersecurity. For example:

Most antivirus software is definition-based, meaning you enter descriptions of the type of viruses that should be blocked and all other activity is let through. Experienced hackers can usually find a way to work around these descriptions and infiltrate your software.
Most data breaches occur because an employee accidentally opens or downloads a malicious link sent via email. Ongoing experiential training is the best way to help your employees recognize warning signs and prevent cyberattacks.
Without adequate backup and disaster recovery services, you may not be able to recover your data after a cyberattack or natural disaster. This could mean the difference between recovery or failure as a company.
It’s difficult to comply with various regulations such as HIPAA, CIPA, or CMMC unless you have a full team of security experts working 24/7 to scan for vulnerabilities, prevent breaches, and respond to attacks.

Ntiva provides enhanced 24/7 cybersecurity services, including:

Managed endpoint detection and response (EDR) backed by 24/7 SOC: Rather than use description-based logic to fend off viruses, Ntiva’s EDR uses AI to recognize activity that could be a virus even when your devices are outside the office firewall. If anything suspicious is found, our Security Operations Center is immediately notified. Our experts then analyze the activity and look further for undetected attacks.
Phishing prevention training and tracking: There are many phishing prevention trainings available, however, the day-to-day process of implementing these programs is a lot of work. It typically involves creating fake emails and sending them as tests, instructing employees when they fail, developing performance reports, and much more. Many businesses have difficulty maintaining proper phishing training. Not only does this make you more vulnerable to cyberattacks, but insurance companies also ask for detailed proof that you kept up with proper phishing prevention training before paying your claim. Ntiva takes on this responsibility from start to finish so your employees will be better able to spot and stop cyberattacks. Plus, we document everything so that it’s easy to back up your insurance claim.
Virtual chief information security officer (vCISO): This service makes top-tier security experts available to you on an as-needed basis. They help you develop and implement strategies to align IT with long-term business goals, customer expectations, and security regulations.
Cloud backup and disaster recovery plan: We help you build a business continuity and disaster recovery (BC/DR) plan and provide off-site digital storage space for all of your company data. This helps ensure the future of your business in the event of a security breach or natural disaster.

Case Study: Private School Gains Strategic IT Planning After Outage

An independent school in Maryland experienced an emergency outage that caused their core network switching to fail. This left them without access to both internal servers and hosted applications, and it caused all devices to execute a factory reset.

They reached out to Ntiva, and we sent an on-site technician to restore the outage right away. Then, we helped them build a BC/DR plan which included backing up their data on the cloud and forming a long-term partnership with our team.

3. Microsoft and Apple Product Security and Optimization

When comparing different MSPs to determine who will be able to provide the best support, most companies consider how many years of experience the technicians have. Although this is a great place to start, you’ll also want to consider the size of their support teams and the tools they have on hand.

The size of the MSP is important for two reasons:

To ensure quality support as you evolve: Most companies have plans to expand or invest in more technology to keep up with industry demands. In either case, you’ll eventually need more tech support than you do now—you’ll need an MSP with enough staff to scale with you.
To ensure you have the support you need when you need it: For example, some MSPs advertise that they have a department of Apple-certified technicians, however, the entire department will only consist of 1-2 staff members. If they’re unavailable, you’ll probably have to wait to solve the problem no matter how critical the issue is.

Businesses often overlook what types of tools their MSPs can use for diagnosing and fixing technical issues, but the tools they use will affect the quality and type of service they can provide. For example, many MSPs advertise that they can support both Microsoft and Apple systems, when in reality they only use Microsoft-native tools and security software internally. You can solve some issues by using Microsoft tools on Apple products, but these solutions are more likely to fail. Eventually, most companies experience an issue that can’t be solved without certain native tools.

Ntiva has a department of more than a dozen Apple-certified technicians with over 20 years of experience. Our staff utilizes Apple-native tools to ensure your Apple products are fully supported and secure.

Case Study: Expertise on Both Windows and Apple Technology a Game-Changer

PMMI, the Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, was working with a mix of Microsoft and Apple products and needed an MSP with expertise in both areas. For many years, they worked with two separate vendors—one with expertise in Microsoft products and one to support their Apple products.

When they found Ntiva, they were impressed by the support they received for both Microsoft and Apple devices, and they were pleased to be working with just one provider that could manage diverse IT needs.

4. Professional Dark Web Monitoring

Ntiva’s dark web monitoring solutions offer human and AI-powered monitoring that protects your organization’s sensitive and personal information. Ntiva searches far and wide to discover compromised data in every corner of the dark web, including private chat rooms.

If and when we find compromised information, we notify you immediately so you can better defend your information, including:

Driver's license or ID numbers
Insurance ID numbers
Contact information and addresses
IP addresses
Account and card numbers
Usernames and passwords
Date of birth
Mother's maiden name
And more

As long as the dark web exists, it will be a threat to your business and any private data you may have. We ensure our approach to dark web monitoring remains as strategic and efficient as possible to protect your business against attacks and leaks.

Testimonial from Bryles Research

“[We have] been working with Ntiva for more than 11 years. They’ve been proactive. Anytime I’ve had any kind of issue, they’ve been very good about addressing it. We are very happy with Ntiva's ability to provide strategic advice beyond tactical break-fix service." — Scott Bryles, CEO at Bryles Research

5. Comprehensive Onboarding and Ongoing Training

Onboarding a new vendor is a big investment of time and effort, and it can take several weeks (or months) before you’re able to take full advantage of the services they provide. We’ve taken special care to get you up and running quickly and ensure as smooth of an onboarding process as possible.

Ntiva onboarding has four stages:

Service definition: During this phase, we go over all the details of our service level agreement (SLA) and gather details about your business and expectations.
Data collection: In this stage, our IT professionals go on-site to evaluate and document all of your IT infrastructure and software.
Internal review and planning: This stage happens internally on our side. We take the information gathered in the previous stages and develop strategies to fill gaps in your IT and security. We also take note of any areas where we can suggest more cost-effective ways to achieve the same or better results as what you already have in place.
Orientation and service handoff: This transition stage is when we present our findings and solutions, schedule recurring strategy sessions, and begin the service.

Onboarding typically takes 45-60 days to complete, but you won’t be charged during this time.

Case Study: What a Hand-in-Glove IT Partnership Looks Like

Industrial Magnetics Inc. (IMI) hired Ntiva to co-manage its IT services alongside its in-house team. During the preliminary stages of the onboarding process, Ntiva took inventory of all software and hardware to assess current cybersecurity efforts by identifying any vulnerabilities they had in place.

Close collaboration with the IMI team allowed Ntiva to provide the client's IT team with access to enterprise-level management tools, including networking management software, inventory management, and ticket management. Additionally, the IMI and Ntiva teams put together a schedule for meeting regularly to discuss IT strategy, budgeting, and short and long-term recommendations.

6. On-Site Support Where and When You Need It

Many MSPs charge a recurring fee for access to on-site help. However, nearly all technical issues can be resolved remotely, which means you’ll be paying for a service that you may or may not use.

At Ntiva, we believe you should only be charged for services that you actually use, which is why we offer on-site support on an as-needed basis. This keeps your monthly rate down while ensuring you always have the help you need. Additionally, we have a physical presence across the U.S. and partner with many local IT providers to ensure you get fast on-site support whenever you need it.

Testimonial from SNAC International

“We have an on-site field operations technician from Ntiva who comes in once a month. He solves any direct issues we are having, and I like being able to have face-to-face conversation with a consistent resource.” — Paul Downey, Director of Finance and Administration at SNAC International

View Ntiva’s other case studies.

Four Additional MSP Options

Even knowing Ntiva’s wide service range and level of expertise, your search for an MSP should include other options for outsourced IT service providers. We’re here to help you streamline the process by offering a list of four additional top managed service providers to choose from.

Option 2: Dataprise

Dataprise homepage: Technology Should Enable You to Be the Best at What You Do

Dataprise is headquartered in Maryland, but it also has a physical presence in several major cities including New York City and Dallas, TX. They are an MSP with a focus on IT infrastructure and cybersecurity. Their main services include:

IT infrastructure management
Managed cybersecurity services
Disaster recovery planning and assessment
Communication technology solutions
IT service desk (with separate lines for end user, global service, and line of business application support)
On-premises support
Cloud migration, integration, and data center
IT professional services to align technology and business goals

Browse Dataprise case studies and resources.

Option 3: Burwood Group

Burwood Group homepage Ignite Your Transformation

Burwood Group has locations in Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, and Southern California. They also offer remote support across the nation. They are an IT consulting and integration firm whose main services include:

IT strategy consultations
24/7 IT support services for troubleshooting IT issues
Cloud services, including support for Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud solutions
Application development and modernization
Cybersecurity consulting services
DevOps support

Browse Burwood Group case studies and resources.

Option 4: Electric

Electric homepage All of your IT managed in One Place

Electric is an IT services company that focuses on day-to-day IT needs for small and medium-sized businesses. Their main services include:

24/7 IT support via Slack and Microsoft Teams (with 6-minute response times on average)
Employee onboarding and offboarding
Cloud environment licensing management
Security guidance and breach prevention
Security policy tracking
Device management dashboard
Network monitoring

Browse Electric case studies and resources.

Option 5: All Covered

Konica Minolta homepage IT Services by All Covered

All Covered is the nationwide technology services division of Konica Minolta. Their main services include:

Cloud-based solutions (including bandwidth and connectivity control)
Print management (with an emphasis on reducing downtime)
End-to-end device lifecycle management
Network infrastructure monitoring
Information and IT systems security
Application development
Information management (powered by AI and robotic process automation)

Browse All Covered case studies and resources.

Narrowing Down Your Managed IT Service Provider Options

Whichever MSP you ultimately choose, it’s important to ensure they’re willing to work with you to find ideal solutions for your business and goals. One-size-fits-all and break-fix methods for managing modern IT systems are no longer sufficient. A top managed IT service provider will not only keep you in the loop but also find ways to advance your organization through the power of technology.

See how Ntiva can help you save on costs, increase productivity, and get the most out of your technology with our managed IT services and solutions.

Ntiva provides fast, 24/7 IT support, advanced cybersecurity solutions, and expert consulting to help you align your IT environment with your business goals. To learn more about how Ntiva can help you save costs, increase productivity, and get the most out of your technology, book a consultation today .