Prices for the support of business computer networks vary greatly across the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is important to know what you get when you pay for the different flavors of support available. Is one type of support really better than another – and why?
This is a very important question – and one that is not asked often enough by business owners. At the end of each fiscal year business owners look at their financials and see an amount that they have spent over the past 12 months for their IT Support. Unfortunately, this is only part of the cost of supporting the computer network … possibly the biggest real cost of supporting your computer network is downtime.
在双城明尼阿波利斯和圣保罗，商业网络的维护费用是很不一样的。当你在为不同的支出服务时你想到得到什么是很重要的。确实是这一种比另一种要好吗？为什么呢？
这其实是一个非常重要的问题，但是却经常没有被企业老板足够的重视。在每年的年会上，企业老板查看他们的财务状况的时候只看在过去的12个月里他们花费在IT维护上的金额。不幸的是，这只是电脑网络维护的一部分开支，真正最大的维护费用是downtime .
What is the cost of downtime? 什么是停机时间？
It is amazing how many small and mid-sized businesses do not have a solid plan for preventing “bad things” from happening on their computer networks. Some of these “bad things” (server/desktop crashes, firewall crashes, router/switch malfunctions) can take down an entire network for many, many hours. Hopefully, these major issues don’t happen frequently, and most business owners do not think that they will happen to them at all. They categorize these rare instances as downtime, but downtime has another hidden component that is possibly even more costly than when the server crashes.
令人吃惊的是，很多小型和中型的公司没有一个固定的计划应对电脑网络上的突发事件。这些突发事件包括（服务器，电脑死机，防火墙死机，路由器/交换机故障）可以使整个网路瘫痪好多个小时。欣慰的是，这些问题不会经常发生。大部分企业老板认为这些事不会发生在自己的公司里。但是，停机时间有一个隐藏的隐患可能比服务器崩溃更严重。
Does “downtime” occur only when you are down?
Not really, in fact, this is only a small part of downtime. When talking about your computer network, downtime is anytime when your employees’ performance is negatively affected by your technology. When your employees wait for applications to load on their desktops … this is downtime. When employees wait for slow web pages to load on their workstations … this is downtime. When employees wait for pages to print on the printer … this is downtime. When employees recreate deleted and missing documents … this is downtime.
实际上如下的场景仅仅是停机时间的一小部分演绎，当谈及到你的电脑网络，停机时间就是任何一个时间因为IT系统的故障导致员工绩效下降；停机时间就是当你的员工花费很长时间等待软件系统的加载……；停机时间就是员工在等待打印机缓慢的将打印稿输出；停机时间就是电脑死机导致写好的文档丢失….
When businesses actually start to track how much of this “hidden downtime” actually occurs in a week/month/year … they begin to truly understand the real costs of downtime.
当企业真正的追究起一周，一个月或者一年有多少隐藏的停机时间的时候，他们才开始真正理解他的实际花费 。
So, what is the cost of this “hidden downtime”? Let’s begin with an average employee wage of $35,000 / year. Assuming this employee takes two weeks of vacation in a year, they make $17.50 per hour. If during a typical hour at work their workstation is a little slow (causing them to “wait” a couple of minutes) this translates to 16 minutes each day or 1 hour and 20 minutes over the course of the week. The weekly cost of these little minutes would be $23.28 and over the course of a year this would be $1,210.56.
所以，什么是隐藏时间的花费呢，让我们算算一个平均薪资在35000美元每年的员工吧。假设这个员工每年花费2周的时间在度假上，他将每小时花费17.5美元。如果在正常的工作时间，他们的工作效率有点低（导致他们“等”几分钟）这些转换成每天16分钟或者每星期1小时20分钟。这样每个星期的花费就是就是$23.28,每年的花费就会是$1210.56。
A company of 10 employees could lose over $12,000
or more due to these little “wasted” minutes each year – OUCH!
10个人的公司就会损失$12,000。更多的是因为这些每年浪费的分钟数。
Obviously, this does not include those times when there is actually down-and-out time when the server or other network resources have actually crashed and are not usable.
当服务器或者其他网络设备死机了或其他原因导致不可用，很明显的，这些重启时间是不包括在内的 。
3 employees @ $20,000 / yr = $ 60,000 3个员工 $20,000 / 年=60000
4 employees @ $35,000 / yr = $140,000 4个员工$35,000 /年= $140,000
2 employees @ $50,000 / yr = $100,000 2个员工$50,000 /年= $100,000
1 owner @ $80,000 / yr = $ 80,000 1 个员工$80,000 / 年 = $ 80,000
** Total payroll of $380,000 / year. 每年总共$380000
This breaks down to nearly $183 / hr. When the server goes down for a couple of hours and none of the employees can access network resources, this costs $366 plus the cost of the computer guys scrambling to fix the issue. If the business is down for an entire day, the cost is over $1,460 plus, plus, plus. If there is even one of these short outages each month, the business loses another $4,400 over the course of a year plus all of the added fees.
这个故障的花费接近每小时183美元，当服务器停机几小时并且没有员工可以联网，这个花费366美元加上找人维修故障的钱。如果公司瘫痪一整天，这个话费远远超过了$1,460
There are certainly additional fees and concerns with these “downtime” problems, but if you take just these two specific instances, the company will lose over $16,000 – which is likely twice what they would have paid an IT Support company to help them with the network over the course of the year.
当然了，这里还有一些因为停机问题导致的的其他额外费用和问题。但是如果你只是举这两个特别的例子，公司会损失--这很可能是支付给IT服务公司费用的两倍，而解决的问题是帮助企业管理好IT系统以减少停机时间。
What about hiring a full-time IT person? 如果雇佣一个全职的IT工程师？
Some small and mid sized businesses hire an IT technician as a full time employee of the company. These techs usually make between $40,000 – $60,000 with benefits, bonuses and vacation on top of the salary. Compared to the $8,000 – $15,000 that companies will pay to outsource their IT Support … this is a very, very expensive way to support a small and mid-sized business network. In some cases where a business grows to 100 employees or greater it might start to make sense to look at hiring a full time IT guy, but until then it is very expensive.
一些小型和中型企业雇佣一个全职的IT技术人员。这个技术人员的费用包括$40,000 – $60,000的工资，还要有培训、奖金、年假以及因为员工离职和招聘产生的管理费用。相比较之下，把IT运维工作外包出去，只需要支付$8,000 – $15,000。这个对于中小型起来来讲是非常昂贵的。在一种情况下，企业成长为拥有100人或100人以上，可能会考虑一下雇佣一个全职IT技术，即使这样，这也是非常昂贵的。
If you do pay your computer guys an hourly rate, what are the going rates in Minneapolis and St Paul?
如果你确实按照小时（TOKEN）的方式支付IT运维服务的费用，那么在圣保罗和明里阿拨里斯市是什么样的标准呢？
Business networks that are still supported by companies who use a break-fix methodology will generally pay the following hourly rates for services provided by these types/sizes of companies:
那些IT管理外包服务的公司，一般情况下要按小时付费,不同类型和规模的公司付费标准如下.
Individual (maybe part-time) tech: $60-$100 per hour, 私人的(可能是兼职)工程师: 每小时$60-$100
1-2 person IT firm: $75-$125 per hour, 1-2人的公司：每小时$75-$125
Mid-sized IT Support Company (5-10 techs): $90-$150 per hour and some may offer a flat monthly fee for services (see below), 中型的IT公司（5-10人）每小时$90-$150，有的可能还要提供月租费。
Larger IT Support Company (10+ techs): $100-$225 per hour and may offer a flat monthly fee for services (see below), 大型的IT公司（10个人以上）每小时$100-$225，可能还要提供月租费。
In the past, some firms allowed their customers to purchase blocks of time. Basically, the customer would pre-pay for 30-40 hours of time at a slightly discounted rate. Although this method of billing was easy for the IT Company, most customers did not feel that this method of paying for services was in their best interest. Few businesses use this method of paying for their IT Services.
在过去，有些公司允许他们的客户购买时间段。这些事基于客户提前支付30-40个小时的时间。虽然这个付款方式对于企业来说是非常容易的，但是大多数顾客觉得这种方式不是他们喜欢的，很少有企业使用这种方式来支付IT服务费。
The Last Thing You Want Is A Flat Monthly Fee – Right? 你是否想要一个包月的IT服务？
There are quite a few companies who are offering flat monthly fees for their services. Most of these companies are referred to as Managed Service Providersand offer some sort of monitoring along with remote and on-site visits as part of the monthly fee.
Of course the main disadvantage of the flat monthly fee is the fact that it is a flat monthly fee. If your computer network is completely healthy and does not need any maintenance or support, then you still pay the flat monthly fee – and this is not well-received by most business owners. I mean really, why pay for service and maintenance when there was none … it fundamentally does not make sense.
有一些公司提供按月付费的的IT服务方式。这些公司被称为管理服务提供商。有的会提供一些远程服务，现场服务都是每个月服务费的组成部分。当然了，按月付费最大的缺点就是他是按月的，如果你的电脑网络是正常的不需要任何的维修，但是你还是要付这个月的费用，大部分企业老板是不喜欢的这种方式。
In fact, it doesn’t make any sense if the IT Support company is charging a flat monthly fee and is still operating in a break-fix mode. This means that they literally are doing nothing until the computer network breaks – and once this happens the employees are very inefficient until the issue is resolved. If nothing breaks, the company actually does no work for the business, but expects to be paid the monthly fee anyway … not good.
事实上， 一个IT公司采用按月付费的方式提供服务，而同时在提供的是报修的服务模式，这是不合理的。也就是说只要网络没有问题他们就没有活干，但是只要网络出现问题了，那么员工的工作效率就非常低。如果没有问题，那么IT公司对企业就没有任何价值。但是还是要按月付给他们费用。
Fortunately, real managed services providers do not operate using this model. What this means is that a true managed service provider is continually monitoring your business network to prevent downtime issues from occurring.
If there are no problems with your network during a month, or over the course of several months – that is awesome. This is the ultimate goal, right? You want to walk into your office and have your technology available to help you meet your business goals. You want your employees to do the same thing. Your computer network and surrounding technology should be like lights, water and heat – they should just work when you turn them on. Of course this is a little over-simplified, but this is the ultimate goal.
幸运的是，真正的管理服务提供商根本不是运用这种模式。一个真正的管理服务提供商会持续的监控客户公司的网络来预防停机事件的发生。如果客户的IT系统一个月都没有出现问题，或者几个月维持这样的状态，只是最佳的IT系统运行状态。客户希望获取的是按需服务的方式，任何时候、任何地点都可以快速获取所需服务来满足他们业务发展的需求。信息化的技术和服务就应该像使用电、水和供热一样，只要我需要就自然而然可以获取。当然了，这显得有些简单。但是这是一个终极的目标。
Simply, There Will Be A Cost For IT Support, But At What Cost? IT技术支持需要产生费用，这些费用包括什么？
Whether these funds are divided into consistent, predictable monthly fees that you can count on to budget monthly expenses – or whether you pay nothing for a few months and then pay thousands the next month … you will end up paying for your IT Support. It is simply an expense of doing business.
预算每月的IT服务费—不论你几个月没有付任何费用还是下个月支付几千块钱的费用，你都不要再为你的IT服务费付钱了，这简直是你做生意的一个多余的开支。
The real concern is that you don’t want to pay too much for the support and maintenance of your technology … and as described above, you really don’t want your employee’s time to be stifled because they are constantly dealing with computer or networking issues – small or large. All of these instances of productivity not being 100% because of computer or network issues are like money falling out of the business’s pockets – they are costly and preventable. Saving a penny while a dollar runs out the back door is a poor way to manage your IT expenses.
真正关心的是你不想为维修服务花太多的钱，就像上面所述的，你不想你的员工时间变得拥挤因为他们时常需要处理一些电脑和网络的问题—或小或大。所有这些生产力都不是100%，因为所有的网络问题都像钱从口袋里滑落，这些都是昂贵的和可预测的。节约一分钱的同时却导致几美元从你口袋里流出，这是不明智的，
What can you expect to pay for Managed Services Support?你希望怎样支付一个管理服务提供商呢？
As you might imagine, the flat monthly costs for managed services range from one company to the next. Most of these companies charge per device and include 24/7 remote monitoring, remote maintenance when applicable and on-site maintenance and support when necessary.
你可能想象过，IT服务提供商通过包月的服务方式为若干客户提供服务。这些公司大多数按照每台设备灵活的选择（1）全天候远程维护服务（2）远程监控服务（3）现场维护、支持。
In Minneapolis, St Paul and the surrounding Twin Cities suburbs you can expect the per device costs to fall within these ranges (these are not Imagine IT prices):
明尼阿波利斯，圣保罗及周边双城郊区，你可以期望每个设备的成本下降，这些范围内（这些都是无法想象的价格）
Network Management = $299 / month per company， 网络管理=每个公司每个月要支付 $299
Server Management = $249 / month per server， 服务管理费=每台服务器每个月$249
Desktop Management = $49/ month per desktop， 桌面管理=每台电脑每个月$49
So annual costs might look something like this:
所以，每年的花费就像这些。
Company 1 – 1 server, 5 workstations = $793 / month or $9,500 annually， 第一类公司：1台服务器，5台工作站=每个月$793或者 每年$9,500
Company 2 – 2 servers, 12 workstations = $1,385 / month or $16,620 annually， 第二类公司：2台服务器，12个工作站=每个月$1,385或者每年 $16,620
Company 3 – 4 servers, 25 workstations = $2,520 / month or $30,240，Typically managed services companies will give small discounts in the monthly fees for larger organizations. These discounts range from 5% – 15%.， 第三类公司：4台服务器，25个工作站=每个月$2,520 或者每年30,240。一般情况下典型的服务管理公司每月的服务费会给个小折扣，这个折扣一般在5%-15%之间。
