Partner-Led Managed Services Vs. OEM Support Contracts

On the topic of planned cybersecurity and IT support, organisations frequently have to choose between the OEM bronze, silver or gold ‘flavours’ of support versus partner-led fully managed service stack. Both have their uses, but knowing the differences can empower you to make informed decisions for your organization’s security and operational requirements. We are gonna give you these options in a simple and actionable way.

Support Tiers Breakdown

OEM vendors will usually sell technical support in a tiered fashion: bronze, silver, and gold. Here’s what you generally get at each tier:

• Bronze
  Bare bones support, most of the time more reactive than proactive support.
  Helpdesk is only available during restrictive hours.
  Knowledge bases and access to basic software updates.
• Silver
  Improved service levels.
  Quicker response than copper.
  Comes with less aggressive proactive like patch management reminders.
  Sometimes 24/7 support with a max limited resolution scope.
• Gold
  Premium support package.
  It is available 24/7, and it has quick response time as well as remediation time.
  Improved visibility to product specialists.
  Includes occasional elements of proactive support.

But the mouth is, OEM support will be concentrated on their products only. So, if you have multiple vendors or mixed environments, you could end up juggling different OEM contracts.

Managed Services Scope

A partner-led managed service stack is a completely different animal. Unlike a break-fix or the one-time-project kind of approach, where you only get a kind of “band-aid” fix when something goes wrong, a managed service provider (MSP) manages your entire IT environment.

Here’s typically the scope of it:

• Complete end-to-end oversight and control, which means multiple vendors and technologies.
• Proactive security protection, threat hunting, and incident response.
• Ongoing regular health testing and optimization.
• Patch management for all systems, not just a product line.
• Tailored helpdesk support which can often be provided 24/7. It’s a terrific way to resource your helpdesk.
• Backup, recovery planning and testing.
• Help you with compliance and audit for your industry’s standards.

Such an approach translates to a single service with one partner responsible for your entire IT environment, instead of a multitude of support lines.

Cost-vs-Coverage Matrix

Let’s cut to the chase: what are you paying for, and in what ways do you and do you not get what you pay for?

OEM Bronze, Silver, Gold

• Prices are typically clear and handed down.
• Only covers certain products within their ecosystem.
• Usually less up front, although it adds up if you’re buying multiple tiers for different tech.
• They lack the flexibility of tailoring support to your business needs.

Partner-Led MSP Services

• Higher monthly fees compared with most OEM gold contracts.
• Offers more comprehensive coverage of platforms and technologies.
• Flexible and customisable to suit your particular organizational requirements.
• Possible cost savings over time from outages or resource utilization.

So, it simply depends on whether you want a predictable, product-specific support model or a flexible, all-encompassing support model that will scale with your changing business.

Response time & MTTR (mean time to repair)

Here, in an area many overlook as a key factor: how fast issues are resolved.

OEM Tiers:

• The gold one from OEM may offer a 4-hour response time, but it also may only include repairs on their gear.
• Wait times for answers can be longer for bronze and silver, which is frustrating when you have an urgent problem.
• Should the problem even span multiple systems, you will be the middleman between manufacturers – and thus adding time.

Partner Services:

• MSPs look at your overall infrastructure and strive to keep downtime to a minimum.
• And, because they know your entire environment, frequently their SLAs can even trump OEM standards.
• The faster detections with the persistent monitoring drive the faster solutions.
• Single POC means you’re not chasing tickets between disparate vendors.
• The faster MTTR is, the less revenue you lose and the better reputation you preserve for your business.

Decision Framework

So how do you figure out which way to go now? Here’s a simple guide to help you determine:

• Scope
  If your IT environment consists primarily of hardware and software from a single vendors solutions, OEM support may be adequate.
  If you run across several platforms or are as security-first as possible, go with a full managed service.
• Budget
  Lower budgets trend more toward OEM bronze or silver.
  Larger IT budgets with IT objectives in alignment with the business rationalize MSP expenditure.
• Complexity
  Complexity and the need for compliance often force a more holistic approach.
  The more mission-critical your systems are, the more sense a partner stack makes.
• Control and Flexibility
  Want predictability in support but minimal control? OEM is easier.
  Need some flexibility and a proactive partnership? Hire a managed service provider.
• Growth Ambitions
  MSPs are scalable, which is critical for expanding businesses.
  OEM support may seem limiting in the long run.

Conclusion

In conclusion, proactive cybersecurity and IT support is about more than reactive troubleshooting and product fixes. OEM bronze, silver and gold support levels provide structured, tiered assistance oriented around individual products. It might work, as long as you’ve got sth simple or vendor-dependent. But then a partner-led fully managed service stack comes to the rescue with holistic care, managing security, updates, monitoring, compliance and everything else across your full technology stack.

You need to steer clear of coverage gaps, uneven response times, and the headache of a dozen support vendors. A managed service partner can work as an extension of your own staff, giving you peace.

When you consider cost along with coverage, response time and long-term business strategy, partner-led managed services are often a better value, even though the sticker price might be higher.

After all, cyber threats aren’t patient. Your support shouldn’t either.

Selecting between the OEM support and a managed services provider is a crucial decision that can make or break your security, your effectiveness, and your wallet.

That’s why as you make your next move, think about cybersecurity and IT support in advance, and choose a product that really supports your growth and security for the future.