Not sure how much IT support your SME really needs? Learn how to size IT support for 50–200 users, including response times, security and budget.
How Much IT Support Do We Actually Need? A Guide for 50–200 User SMEs
One of the most common questions we hear from growing SMEs is:
“How much IT support do we actually need?”
Too little support and your team is constantly stuck, security falls behind and projects stall. Too much, and you’re paying for capacity you never use.
This guide is written for 50–200 user SMEs in London, Greater London and Manchester. It will help you work out what level of IT support you really need – and what a realistic model looks like.
1. Start with your user profile and risk
The right level of IT support depends on:
- User count: 50, 100, 200+
- Type of work: knowledge workers vs operational roles
- Risk profile: regulated sectors (law, finance, charities) vs lower‑risk industries
- Working pattern: office, hybrid, fully remote, multi‑site
For example:
- A 60‑user London law firm with demanding clients and regulatory pressure needs stronger, faster IT support than a 60‑user light‑manufacturing firm with fewer compliance obligations.
- A London‑headquartered business with a Manchester office and hybrid staff needs joined‑up IT support across locations and devices.
2. Day‑to‑day helpdesk support
For 50–200 users, you should expect:
- Unlimited remote helpdesk support during business hours
- Clear SLAs for critical, high, medium and low‑priority tickets
- Phone, email and portal options for logging issues
As a rough guide, most 50–200 user SMEs will generate enough tickets that:
- A single “IT person” is quickly overwhelmed
- Ad‑hoc, pay‑when‑it‑breaks support becomes too slow and unpredictable
This is where a managed IT support model makes sense – with a team behind you rather than a single individual.
3. Proactive monitoring and maintenance
For this size of organisation, proactive work is not a “nice to have” – it’s essential.
You should have:
- Monitoring on servers, key cloud services and endpoints
- Regular patching of operating systems and key applications
- Health checks on backups, storage and performance
- Trend analysis of recurring issues
If your current IT support is mostly firefighting, you probably don’t have enough proactive capacity in place.
4. Security and compliance
As you grow, your attack surface grows too: more users, more devices, more data.
At 50–200 users, you should expect your IT support provider to:
- Implement and manage:
- Multi‑factor authentication (MFA)
- Endpoint protection (modern antivirus/EDR)
- Email filtering and phishing protection
- Backups for Microsoft 365 and key systems
- Help you work towards or maintain:
- Cyber Essentials / Cyber Essentials Plus
- Sector‑specific expectations (e.g. SRA, FCA, ISO partners)
If security is mostly left to “best efforts” or individual users, you almost certainly don’t have enough IT support in place.
5. Projects and change
Growing SMEs rarely stand still. You’ll likely have:
- Office moves or refits
- New sites (e.g. adding a Manchester office to a London HQ)
- Cloud migrations (to Microsoft 365, Azure or other platforms)
- New line‑of‑business systems
You need enough IT support capacity to:
- Plan and deliver these projects without derailing day‑to‑day support
- Provide realistic timelines and budgets
- Coordinate with vendors and stakeholders
If every project feels chaotic and “last minute”, your IT support provider may not have the project bandwidth you now require.
6. What does this look like in a managed IT support agreement?
For a 50–200 user SME, a typical managed IT support agreement with a multi‑award‑winning, Microsoft Partner and Cyber Essentials certified provider like Amazing Support will include:
- Unlimited remote helpdesk support during business hours
- Proactive monitoring, patching and maintenance
- Security tools and management baked into the service
- Regular reviews and reporting
- On‑site support in London and Manchester when needed
Pricing is usually per user, per month, with separate project fees for major changes and migrations.
7. How to tell if you don’t have enough IT support today
Common warning signs:
- Users avoid logging tickets because “it takes too long”
- The same issues keep coming back
- Security feels like an afterthought
- Projects regularly overrun or stall
- Leadership spends too much time chasing IT issues
If this sounds familiar, your business has probably outgrown its current IT support model.
Find out how much IT support your business really needs
We can review your current setup, ticket volumes, risks and growth plans, then recommend a realistic
IT support model for your 50–200 user organisation – including costs and a roadmap.
