Subscription IT Support, an In-House IT Staff, or Call When Something Breaks?

Short answer: choose subscription IT support when users and devices are already numerous, or when your IT staff is overwhelmed by daily requests. Choose an in-house IT staff when you need someone on site every day. Call when something breaks still makes sense for a small office with few devices and rare problems. All three can run at the same time.

Office IT usually grows quietly. At first one person who “knows computers” helps colleagues, then the number of laptops, accounts, and applications grows, and one day the server goes down while that person is on leave. At that point the company starts weighing three ways of handling IT. This article compares them on the points that most affect how smoothly work runs.

Comparing three ways to handle office IT

Aspect	Subscription IT support	In-house IT staff	Call when something breaks
How it works	One team handles daily requests through a ticketed channel, with monitoring running	A permanent employee who is present in the office	A technician is called for each breakdown
Cost pattern	Fixed per month, based on the number of devices and users	Salary, benefits, and training, regardless of workload	Per incident, hard to predict
When the person is unavailable	Handled by the team	Work is delayed	Depends on the technician’s availability
Record keeping	Tickets, asset list, monthly report	Depends on the person’s habits	Usually none
Prevention	Regular monitoring and updates	Yes, as long as time is not consumed by daily requests	None

When is calling when something breaks still enough?

For a small office with a few devices and rare problems, paying per incident can be cheaper. The weakness shows up as the office grows: there are no records of devices and accounts, the same problems keep recurring because no one prevents them, and costs are hard to budget. One clear sign: if a technician is called for the same problem more than once in a month, the pattern is no longer efficient.

When is an in-house IT staff the right fit?

An in-house IT staff is stronger when some work must be done on site every day: production equipment, many branches that need someone on location, or systems that are very specific to the company. They also know the people and processes from the inside.

There are two risks. The first is dependence on one person: leave, illness, or resignation delays work and takes the knowledge away. The second is that time is consumed by daily requests (forgotten passwords, a jammed printer, new accounts), so preventive work such as updates and backups falls behind.

When does subscription IT support make more sense?

A subscription fits when the number of users and devices is already large, or when the existing IT staff is overwhelmed. Requests come in through a ticketed channel so nothing gets lost, devices are monitored, and every month there is a report on what was done. The cost is fixed per month, so it can be budgeted.

This model is also often used as a complement to an IT staff: the internal staff handles what is specific to the company, while the subscription team handles daily requests, monitoring, and updates.

Costs that often go uncounted

Comparing the subscription price with the salary of one IT staff member is often misleading, because the two figures do not cover the same things. Also include the following:

• Employee time spent waiting. One hour of an unusable laptop means one hour of lost work. Multiply by the number of issues per month.
• Preventive work that never gets done. System updates, backups, and access reviews are often postponed when time is consumed by daily requests. The cost is only felt when an incident happens.
• Knowledge that leaves with the person. If an IT staff member leaves without notes, the replacement needs weeks to understand the current state.
• Unused accounts and licenses. Without an asset list, licenses for employees who have left are often still paid for, and their accounts stay active.
• Per-call costs that are not tracked. On-call technicians are paid per incident, and the yearly total is rarely ever added up.

Once these items are counted, the right choice is often not one of the three but a combination: an IT staff for what is specific to the company, a subscription for daily requests and prevention.

Questions to decide with

1. How many users and devices must be handled, and is the number growing?
2. Is there work that truly must be done on site every day?
3. What happens if your only IT person goes on leave for a week?
4. Do you know the list of devices, licenses, and accounts the company owns today?
5. Is the access of departing employees revoked on their last day?

If the last two questions are hard to answer, the problem is not who fixes the computers but the lack of record keeping.

How Legia handles it

In the IT Support & Infrastructure Management service, Legia handles daily requests through a ticketed channel, records assets and licenses, manages access for employees joining and leaving, and sends a monthly report. The contract has a 12-month minimum, and response times and visit areas are set in the contract according to your office’s needs.

Frequently asked questions

Need a team that looks after devices, accounts, and the office network without hiring your own IT staff? See Legia IT support and consulting services, or schedule a consultation through the contact page.