The 10 questions every Columbus business should ask any managed services provider before signing. Red flags to watch for. Contract traps to avoid. A fair pricing benchmark. Written by a 23-year MSP — including the parts that work against us.
Tenure matters because the technology decisions that age well come from people who have seen multiple full hardware refresh cycles, multiple compliance changes, and multiple economic downturns. New MSPs can be excellent — but they have not seen a 7-year contract come up for renewal yet, and that is when most decisions actually pay out.
Many MSPs are deeply tied to one vendor — Cisco, Microsoft, Fortinet, a specific carrier — through partner programs, kickbacks, or volume rebates. That is not necessarily bad, but you need to know about it. The best answer to this question is a direct yes or no, followed by an explanation of how the MSP discloses conflicts of interest.
If clients stay for 7+ years on average, the MSP is probably good and the relationship is probably honest. If clients churn every 18-24 months, something is wrong — either pricing creep at renewal, service quality drops once the ink is dry, or both.
Flat-rate or per-user is the modern standard and gives you predictable costs. Hourly billing on top of a monthly retainer is a yellow flag — it creates an incentive for the MSP to be slow. Per-incident charges on top of a managed contract are a red flag.
Real SLAs have two parts: a target response time and a financial remedy if it is missed. “We strive to respond within 4 hours” is not an SLA. “Critical incidents responded to within 1 hour, with a 5% monthly credit per missed hour” is an SLA. Ask to see the contract clause.
Some MSPs are purely operational — they keep the lights on, but they do not help you plan three years out. Others provide strategic advisory baked into the engagement or as a separate vCIO offering. For mid-market companies, strategic advisory is where most of the value is. Tactical IT is a commodity. Strategy is not.
Look for: a named account manager, a primary engineer, and a backup engineer who already knows your environment. Avoid: ticket queues where you get whoever is available, or a one-person shop where you are dependent on a single individual.
The contract should specify: notice period required (30-60 days is fair, 90+ is aggressive), data return procedure, transition assistance to your next provider, and any final-month fee schedule. Fair MSPs make leaving easy because they expect to keep you on quality, not on contract terms.
For healthcare, ask about HIPAA experience and BAA willingness. For finance, ask about SOC 2 experience and FINRA understanding. For DoD supply chain, ask about CMMC. The MSP does not need to be SOC 2 certified themselves — they need to be able to credibly stand up the controls for you.
If the answer is “you will get whoever is on call,” that is a tactical answer. The strategic answer is: there is a defined backup engineer for your account, they have read your environment documentation, and there is a handoff process. Ask the question. The answer is revealing.
Any MSP that wants you to commit before they have audited your current environment is selling, not advising.
The standard fair term is 1-2 years with month-to-month renewal. 3+ years should come with a major reason — typically upfront capital investment that justifies the lock-in.
If the contract uses words like “reasonable efforts” or “commercially reasonable” without specific times and remedies, you do not have an SLA.
If they cannot put you on the phone with three current clients in your industry, they either do not have those clients or they do not have a relationship strong enough to make the call.
Ask: who will be my primary engineer, how long have they been with the company, and what is the average engineer tenure? If you cannot get a clear answer, expect to re-explain your environment frequently.
30-60 days notice to terminate is fair. 90-180 days is aggressive. Anything longer is a contract trap.
Contract should have mutual indemnification or favor the customer. If the MSP has limited liability for their own mistakes, you are signing a one-way risk transfer.
For a 50–500 employee Columbus business in 2026, expect roughly:
| Service | Per User / Per Month | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full Managed IT | $75–$200 | Helpdesk, monitoring, M365, basic security |
| Add: 24/7 SOC + MDR | $25–$50 | On top of managed IT base |
| Co-Managed IT | $2,000–$8,000/mo total | For companies with internal IT staff |
| vCIO Services | $2,000–$8,000/mo total | Strategic only, not operational |
| One-time onboarding | 2–4x first month | Should be transparent up front |
| Compliance program (HIPAA, SOC 2, CMMC) | $1,000–$5,000/mo | Depends on framework and audit cycle |
Numbers above are based on what we and similar Columbus MSPs charge in 2026. If a quote is significantly higher with no clear justification, ask why. If it is significantly lower, ask what is missing.
Most reference calls are useless because the questions are too soft. Ask three references in your industry and your size range, and ask each of them these specific questions:
Get a number. “They’re responsive” is not a number. “Under an hour for critical, under four hours for everything else” is.
If the reference has had three engineers in two years, the MSP has a turnover problem.
Ask if they have seen pricing creep. Some increase is normal; double-digit annual increases are not.
This is the most useful question. Every long-term relationship has one. The reference’s answer tells you about both the MSP’s mistakes and how they handle them.
Most Columbus MSPs claim to be vendor-neutral. Far fewer actually are. Here are three direct questions that separate the two:
The honest answer is usually “some,” with disclosure. The dishonest answer is “no” followed by hesitation. Press the question. Vendor partnership programs that pay back rebates count.
A real vendor-neutral MSP will agree to a written conflict-of-interest clause that requires disclosure when they have a financial relationship with any recommended vendor. If they will not put it in writing, the marketing claim is meaningless.
The answer needs to be an immediate, clear yes. Hesitation here is the test failing.
Use this guide on us first. Bring the 10 questions to a 30-minute call with our team. We will answer each one directly, in writing if you want, and you can use those answers to compare against any other Columbus MSP you are talking to. If we are the right fit, you will know. If we are not, we will tell you and point you to a partner who is.
30-minute call. We will answer all 10 of these in writing. Forward the answers to whoever else you are evaluating and compare. No deck. No pressure. If we are not the right partner for your business, we will tell you.
1 Miranova Pl, Suite 1610
Columbus, OH 43215
614-224-2003