CMIT SOLUTIONS
2026 Managed IT Services
Evaluation Guide
Your Complete Checklist for Choosing the Right IT Partner
How to Use This Guide
This comprehensive evaluation guide will help you:
- Compare multiple managed IT service providers using standardized criteria
- Ask the right questions during consultations and demos
- Calculate ROI and make data-driven decisions
- Avoid common pitfalls that businesses make when choosing an MSP
- Plan your implementation for a smooth transition
💡 Pro Tip: Print this guide and bring it to every provider meeting. Use the checkboxes to track which providers meet each criterion. By the end, you’ll have a clear comparison.
1. Know Your Business Needs (Complete This First)
Before evaluating providers, understand what you actually need:
Business Profile
Current IT Situation
Must-Have Requirements
2. Provider Evaluation Checklist
Use this for each provider you evaluate. Make copies of this section for each candidate.
Provider Name: ________________________________
Website: ________________________________
Contact Person: ________________________________
Date Evaluated: ________________________________
Website: ________________________________
Contact Person: ________________________________
Date Evaluated: ________________________________
Company Credentials
Service Offering
Pricing & Contract
Communication & Support
🚩 Red Flags – Automatic Disqualification:
- Won’t provide references from similar businesses
- Refuses to share SLA in writing before signing
- Requires multi-year contract with huge cancellation penalty
- Terrible online reviews (under 3 stars or fraud complaints)
- Can’t explain pricing clearly or keeps changing it
- Doesn’t ask about your business goals (only talks tech)
- Promises “unlimited everything” at suspiciously low prices
Provider Score
___
Total Score: _____ out of 29
20+ = Excellent | 15-19 = Good | 10-14 = Fair | Under 10 = Look elsewhere
20+ = Excellent | 15-19 = Good | 10-14 = Fair | Under 10 = Look elsewhere
3. Critical Questions to Ask During Consultations
About Their Service
- What exactly is included in your base package? (Get detailed list)
- What’s your average response time for urgent issues?
- What is NOT included in your standard package?
- How many clients does each technician support? (Under 150:1 is ideal)
- Do you provide after-hours support? At what cost?
About Security
- What cybersecurity measures do you implement by default?
- How often do you perform security assessments?
- What’s your incident response process if we’re breached?
- Have any of your clients been successfully breached? What happened?
- Do you provide security awareness training for employees?
About Experience & Expertise
- Do you work with other businesses in our industry? Can we speak with them?
- What certifications do your technicians hold?
- How do you stay current with new technologies and threats?
- What’s your onboarding process like? How long does it take?
- How do you handle vendor relationships (Microsoft, Adobe, etc.)?
About the Relationship
- Who will be our main point of contact?
- How often will we have business reviews?
- What happens if we’re unhappy with the service?
- What’s your client retention rate?
- Can we see a sample SLA before signing?
4. Cost Comparison Worksheet
Compare the total cost of ownership across different options:
| Cost Item | In-House IT | Break/Fix | Provider 1 | Provider 2 | Provider 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly Base Cost | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ |
| Setup/Onboarding | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ |
| Hardware Costs | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ |
| Software Licenses | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ |
| Extras/Add-ons | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ |
| Year 1 Total Cost | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ |
| 3-Year Total Cost | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ | $_______ |
💡 Don’t Forget Hidden Costs:
- Downtime: Average cost is $5,600 per minute for small businesses
- Lost productivity: How many hours do employees waste on IT issues?
- Security breaches: Average breach costs $4.5M in 2026
- Owner/manager time: Your time spent dealing with IT has value
- Opportunity cost: What could you accomplish if IT just worked?
5. Simple ROI Calculator
| Current annual IT costs (all sources) | $_____________ |
| Estimated downtime cost per year (Hours down × $5,600/hr) |
$_____________ |
| Lost productivity costs (Employee hrs waiting on IT × avg hourly rate) |
$_____________ |
| Owner/manager time on IT issues (Hours × your hourly value) |
$_____________ |
| TOTAL CURRENT COST | $_____________ |
| Managed IT annual cost | $_____________ |
| Estimated downtime reduction (90%) (Take 90% of current downtime cost) |
– $_____________ |
| Productivity improvement (Conservative: 75% of lost productivity cost) |
– $_____________ |
| Time saved (Conservative: 80% of owner/manager time) |
– $_____________ |
| NET ANNUAL COST | $_____________ |
Your Annual Savings with Managed IT
$_____________
(Total Current Cost – Net Annual Cost = Your Savings)
6. Implementation Timeline Checklist
Once you’ve chosen a provider, here’s your 60-day onboarding plan:
Week 1: Kickoff
Week 2-3: Discovery & Planning
Week 4-5: Implementation
Week 6-8: Optimization & Handoff
✅ Success Metrics to Track:
- Response time to support tickets (should be under 15 minutes)
- System uptime (should be 99.9%+)
- Number of incidents per month (should decrease by 60%+)
- Employee satisfaction with IT support (survey after 30 days)
- Time saved by not dealing with IT issues (track for first 90 days)
7. Final Decision Matrix
Rate each provider on these critical factors (1-10 scale):
| Factor | Weight | Provider 1 | Provider 2 | Provider 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Service offering matches needs | 10% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Cybersecurity capabilities | 20% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Industry experience | 10% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Response time & support quality | 15% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Pricing & value | 15% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Communication & relationship | 10% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| References & reputation | 10% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| Contract terms & flexibility | 10% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
| TOTAL WEIGHTED SCORE | 100% | ____ | ____ | ____ |
Our Recommendation:
Based on our evaluation, we recommend: ___________________________
Key reasons:
- ___________________________________________
- ___________________________________________
- ___________________________________________
Decision date: _______________