Managed IT service tips and planning guidance for small businesses, from tax-season readiness to day-to-day IT operations.
Microsoft 365 costs $7 to $22 per user per month on an annual commitment in 2026, from Business Basic at $7 to Business Premium at $22, and paying month to month adds 20% to every seat. Those are Microsoft’s own list prices for its Business plans, which are built for organizations of up to 300 … Read more
For most professional services firms, secure file sharing means sending sensitive client files through a SharePoint link restricted to named people, or through encrypted email, and keeping plain attachments for documents that wouldn’t matter if they went astray. A client portal earns its cost when the same exchange repeats with dozens of clients every season. … Read more
A help desk ticket gets fixed on the first call when it says who you are, what you were doing, the exact error, when it started, and who’s affected, plus the one detail your problem type needs. That is most of how to submit an IT ticket well. Most tickets my team gets turn into … Read more
An IT roadmap for a 20-person business starts with a security baseline, then endpoint security, MFA on internet-facing accounts, locked-down admin accounts with a break-glass backup, and staff training. Hardware, licensing, backups, end-of-support dates, and the budget come after that. Most roadmaps start with a purchase. A new server. A laptop refresh. A move to … Read more
Remote support fixes most problems faster than an on-site visit, because a technician can be working on your screen minutes after the callback. A visit wins when something physical has failed, such as hardware, cabling or a printer’s paper path. People tend to frame this as remote IT support vs onsite service, as if a … Read more
When a firewall’s security subscription expires, what stops depends on the vendor and the license model. Some firewalls keep passing traffic and only lose threat updates and filtering. Others, once a grace period ends, can stop passing traffic entirely until they’re relicensed. Ask me what stops working and the first answer I give is the … Read more
In 2026 a virtual CIO costs a small business about $1,500 to $3,000 a month as an MSP retainer, $8,800 to $13,000 for a part-time fractional CIO, or nothing extra when strategy and roadmapping sit inside a managed IT agreement. At VJNetworks it sits inside the agreement, and larger companies that need dedicated vCIO work … Read more
A managed service provider (MSP) is an outside IT company that takes ongoing, contracted responsibility for a business’s technology, supporting its people and maintaining and securing its systems for a recurring monthly fee rather than a bill per repair. VJNetworks is one, for businesses with 5 to 60 employees across the Tri-State area. The label … Read more
What a professional services firm pays for managed IT depends less on its profession than on what it already has in place, where its systems run, and whether it holds regulated client data. VJNetworks plans start at $995 a month. Accounting practices, engineering offices, consultancies, insurance agencies. They get grouped together as “professional services” because … Read more
For a Westchester, NY business, managed IT cost priced per user most often lands between $50 and $150 a person each month, the band where more than half of per-user providers sit in a 2024 industry survey. VJNetworks plans start at $995 a month. That range is a reference point. It is not a quote. … Read more
