IT Support Los Angeles

IT support companies in Los Angeles fall into two categories. Break/Fix and Fully Managed support models. Break/Fix is when the support team waits for something to break, then they fix it. Break-fix support is typical of how internal IT departments work and some outsourced IT companies work. The Fully Managed support model is probably the most common IT support model in the Los Angeles area.

At DCG, we take a hybrid approach. We charge $14.00 to $20.00 per workstation and $110 to $120 per server. We don’t do long-term contracts unless the client wants one. Our client engagements are month-to-month. No matter what model you prefer, we recommend you get long term and recent client reference and testimonial information. At DCG we have clients that have been with us since 1995 and all are month-to-month. We don’t rely on long term clients to keep a client captive. We think month-to-month is the fairest way to go.

IT Support Costs in Los Angeles can vary widely. When figuring out your IT support budget, a good rule of thumb is to take the number of PC’s, Servers, Firewalls, Managed Switches and multiple by .25 to .5 hours per device to arrive at your approximate monthly spend. The average hourly rate for IT Support by experienced engineers is $125 - $225 per hour. A widely accepted practice is to charge on the low side of that range for Level 1 (Least experienced) to on the high side of that range for Level 3 (Most experienced) IT support engineers.

At DCG, we have no Level 1 engineers because we prefer that our clients get help from experienced, level 3 engineers so that 98% of inbound IT support requests get resolved on the first call, and we think our clients appreciate that. DCG’s hourly rate is $175/hr if you choose to pay using old fashioned checks, but clients who are comfortable with ACH get our hourly cash discount of just $155.

An IT Support specialist takes charge and is responsible for your IT infrastructure. Clients view us as their VCIO (Virtual Chief Information Officer) and rely on us for strategy, security, IT monitoring, and management. The IT Support specialists do an inventory, disaster recovery (backup), security audit, and creates a roadmap or IT forecast that we agree on and help execute on over the next few months or years.

At DCG you will interact with our service coordinators every time an IT issue comes up so we can learn the severity and urgency of the request. All issues including site down, server down, internet down requests are hot transferred to a level 3 (most experienced IT support engineer), 100% of the time. For less urgent requests, we promise 4 hours or less, but hot transfer those requests about 65% of the time. When an engineer is not available for the low priority tickets, we respond closer to the 1-hour mark than 4.

At DCG your IT support specialist can help you when things go wrong, work with outside vendors (Equipment/Internet/Copier/Cable/Phone/software) or plan IT initiatives that move your company to the cloud for applications, or Office 365 for your Mail and Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint when the time is right.

So, you've decided that it is time to change your IT Support provider. Just as crucial is the need for the transition to be seamless as to not interrupt your business operations and income. Your current IT Support provider holds a lot of very important information, such as your admin passwords, all the locations of your vital data, and awareness of all of the little quirks in the various programs you use on a daily basis that keeps your operation running. The provider is expected to be concerned about remaining safe and secure when handing off such information.

Fortunately, we understand that moving to a new IT provider can be a little scary. DCG’s Baseline Audit is designed to first: secure your network firewalls, servers, mail, provider and other online accounts, and second: document each mission critical server and process running on your network. There are a few factors that allow us to quickly and easily become acclimated to your situation, the first being that despite the occasional exception, most of what makes a company run (from a technology standpoint) is fairly universal and can be adapted to almost any business in any industry with the right knowledge.

Most important is our experience in small business IT support; we have provided complete support and administration for hundreds of companies in nearly every industry imaginable in the Los Angeles area and can comfortably say that no specific setup is new to us. No matter what your practices are, we have either done it, done something very similar or know of a more efficient way to do it. Whether you have a well-documented list of all your IPs, devices and usernames, or have absolutely nothing to give us, we have the necessary skills to make the transition speedy, smooth and safe.