What is managed IT and how is it different from break-fix?
Managed IT is a proactive, all-inclusive monthly subscription that covers everything from helpdesk to security to strategic planning. Break-fix charges you hourly only when something breaks — which means your IT company makes more money when things go wrong. Managed IT flips that incentive: we get paid the same whether you have problems or not, so we work hard to make sure you don't.
What's included in your managed IT plan?
Every plan covers six service areas: helpdesk & user support, 24/7 monitoring & maintenance, endpoint protection, email security, identity & user security, and strategic IT leadership. What's in each area scales with your tier — SafeStart locks in the cybersecurity baseline (EDR, antivirus, ransomware detection, patching, file backup, spam filtering, web filtering). Fundamental adds remote support, faster response, M365 account monitoring, and dark-web reporting. Vigilance Pro layers in included remote and on-site support, MDR/SOC, MFA, training, phishing simulation, disk encryption, and a dedicated account manager. Companion services — Firewall & Networking, Data Backup & Recovery, Microsoft 365 Administration — are scoped separately so you only pay for what you actually need.
How fast is your response time?
Real Arkansas technicians answer the phone in three rings during business hours — no offshore queue. Emergency response time scales with your tier: SafeStart guarantees a 1-hour emergency remote response with on-site coverage as available. Fundamental tightens that to a 30-minute emergency remote response and next-business-day on-site. Vigilance Pro keeps the 30-minute remote response and adds same-calendar-day on-site coverage. Standard ticket response is faster than the emergency SLA in practice — most tickets get a real person inside the hour.
How do you protect clients from price hikes and vendor lock-in?
Your rate is locked at signing — no silent increases. The service agreement spells out exactly what's included (helpdesk, monitoring, on-site, M365, Free Technology Business Reviews — all of it), and your data, passwords, and accounts stay in your name from day one. If you ever leave, we hand over admin credentials, documentation, and the runbook in full. We've kept clients for 15+ years because they re-sign by choice, not by trap. Term length and other specifics are tailored to your business and walked through on the free 10-minute call.
What does managed IT typically cost for an Arkansas business?
Pricing depends on which plan you land on (SafeStart, Fundamental, or Vigilance Pro), how many workstations and servers you have, and whether you go full-outsource or co-managed. We don't publish per-device rates because the right plan for a 5-person CPA firm is genuinely different from the right plan for a 50-person regional bank, and a rate sheet just produces sticker shock without context. Co-managed IT is à la carte — you pick which pieces of our Vigilance Pro stack you want us to cover, and we scope from there. Industry compliance work (HIPAA, FFIEC, FTC Safeguards, IRS 4557, ABA 1.6, CJIS, PCI-DSS, DFARS/CMMC) is a separate monthly service priced per framework. You'll see your exact number on the 10-minute discovery call — no commitment, no pitch.
Can you support our existing technology stack?
Yes. We adopt your existing Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, line-of-business software, and hardware as-is. No forced migrations. We harden security, document admin handoff, and take over administration without disrupting your users.
What happens during onboarding?
Real help starts day one — your phone gets answered in three rings, your network gets watched 24/7, and your team stops losing hours to broken tech. The full handoff (documentation, every device, every account, every backup) runs methodically in the background over the following months. We don't rush onboarding, because rushed onboarding is exactly how things break later.
Are you really local?
Yes. Mansour's is family-owned and based in Arkansas. Every technician who answers your call lives and works in Arkansas — no overseas call centers, no script readers, no time-zone delays. You can walk into our office and shake their hand.
Do you replace our IT person, or work with them?
Either, depending on what you need. Most of our co-managed clients keep their internal IT lead and bring us in to cover what their lead doesn't specialize in — security stack, after-hours coverage, compliance scoping, vCIO strategy. We make their job saner, not redundant. Their institutional knowledge of your business stays where it belongs — with them. If you don't have an IT person and don't want to hire one, we become your IT department instead. We'll figure out which fit makes sense on the 10-minute call.
How do we keep our IT person and your team from stepping on each other?
Documented role boundaries from day one. During onboarding we build a simple RACI (Responsible / Accountable / Consulted / Informed) mapping with your IT lead — exactly which categories of work they own, which we own, and which we share. Tickets route accordingly. Your lead gets a real teammate, not a turf war. We've run co-managed engagements for over a decade and the only failure mode is when nobody documents the boundaries — so that's the first thing we do.
What if we want to leave after the first year? Who owns the documentation and accounts?
You do. Always. Your Microsoft 365 tenant, Google Workspace, line-of-business software accounts, domain registrar, network documentation, password vault — all in your name from day one. If you ever leave, we hand over admin credentials, documentation, and the runbook in full. No vendor lock-in, no data hostage, no "we'll get it to you in 60 days." We've kept clients for 15+ years because they re-sign by choice, not by trap.