Wichita IT Support vs. In-House: Break-Fix Costs Benchmarked for 2025

TL;DR

• Break-fix (pay per incident) looks cheapest on paper for very small teams with rare issues, but it’s the most volatile and slowest to scale.
• Managed IT (MSP) gives consistent cost, coverage, and security baselines for most Wichita SMBs up to ~200 users.
• In-house IT makes sense when you need full-time onsite support or heavy line-of-business app ownership—and you can fund the fully-loaded headcount.

The three Wichita IT models—what you’re actually buying

1) Break-fix (ad hoc)

• How it works: You call when something breaks; you’re billed by the hour (onsite or remote).
• Best for: Very small teams with tech-light operations.
• 2025 Wichita benchmarks:
  • Hourly rate: $125–$200/hr
  • After-hours/emergency: 1.5× typical hourly
  • Trip fees: $0–$75 (varies)

Reality check: Costs spike during incidents. No continuous monitoring, patching, or security stack unless you separately buy them.

2) Managed IT (MSP)

• How it works: Fixed per-user or per-device monthly fee covering help desk, patching, monitoring, security suite, backups, vendor liaison, and vCIO planning.
• Best for: 10–200 users who need predictable costs, cybersecurity hygiene, and SLAs without hiring internally.
• 2025 Wichita benchmarks:
  • Per-user/month: $100–$150 for a standard stack (help desk + endpoint security + patching + backup basics)
  • Add-ons: Advanced EDR/XDR, 24×7 SOC, compliance tooling (HIPAA/CMMC), and DR testing usually bump you into $125–$200/user/mo.
  • Projects: One-time migrations, email security hardening, server refreshes billed separately or via scoped bundles.

Reality check: The best value comes from fewer “mystery add-ons,” published SLAs, and clear scope for projects.

3) In-house IT (hired staff)

• How it works: You hire an IT generalist or team. Highest control and onsite presence; you still buy tools, training, and coverage for PTO.
• Best for: App-heavy operations, custom workflows, or when on-prem/OT gear needs hands-on stewardship.
• 2025 Wichita benchmarks:
  • IT Support/Systems Generalist salary: commonly $65k–$85k in the region
  • Fully-loaded (benefits, taxes, PTO, training @ ~30%): $84.5k–$110.5k
  • Tooling & subscriptions (RMM/AV/EDR/backup, ticketing, MDM, SaaS): $10k–$25k/yr per 50–100 users
  • Coverage gaps: After-hours, projects, security engineering often still require outside help

Reality check: One person can’t be a help desk, cloud architect, and security engineer all at once. Many Wichita firms end up with a hybrid (1 internal lead + MSP for coverage and security stack).

What changes in Wichita specifically?

• Aerospace & manufacturing suppliers: growing customer-driven requirements (CMMC/NIST, vendor security questionnaires).
• Healthcare & clinics: HIPAA expectations for M365/Google hardening, audit trails, and backup/restore testing.
• Weather & continuity: Tornado season makes tested backup/DR (including internet and power redundancy) more than a checkbox.
• Connectivity mix: East vs. West Wichita sites see different primary/backup ISP options; SD-WAN or LTE/5G failover prevents ticket spikes during local outages.

Sample budgets (2025) for common team sizes

Below are illustrative numbers to help you sanity-check your path. Swap in your actual user count and stack.

A) 10 users (tech-light office)

• Break-fix: Assume 2 incidents/month × 2 hrs × $175 = $8,400/yr
  But: No monitoring, backup checks, or patching. One ransomware event can dwarf that number.
• MSP (standard stack @ $100/user/mo): 10 × 100 × 12 = $12,000/yr (help desk, AV/EDR, patching, basic backup)
• In-house: Even a junior full-time hire fully-loaded + tools often exceeds $95k/yr.

✔ Call: For most 10-seat Wichita teams, MSP beats break-fix on risk and beats in-house on cost.

B) 35 users (multi-app office, light compliance)

• Break-fix: Volatile; a mail migration or outage week can blow past a year’s budget. Not recommended at this scale.
• MSP (standard stack @ $100/user/mo): 35 × 100 × 12 = $42,000/yr (+ scoped projects)
• In-house (1 generalist): $75k salary ≈ $112.5k fully-loaded + $15k tools ≈ $127,500/yr

✔ Call: MSP typically wins on cost and provides broader coverage than a single hire.

C) 75 users (mix of office + shop floor)

• MSP (enhanced security @ $120/user/mo): 75 × 120 × 12 = $108,000/yr (+ projects)
• In-house (1–2 FTE likely needed): One generalist can’t sustainably cover 75; plan ~1.5–2 roles over the year with coverage/backup—commonly $200k–$240k all-in including tools.

✔ Call: Two viable paths:

1. MSP-first for breadth and 24×7, with a business analyst internally for apps/process.
2. Hybrid: 1 internal IT lead + Co-Managed MSP for Backups, Remediation, help desk overflow, security stack, and after-hours.

Beyond the dollars: coverage & risk

Hidden costs to watch (in any model)

• Unverified backups: Until you test restores on a schedule, assume risk.
• License sprawl: Security tools bought twice (vendor + MSP) or bought but not enforced.
• Shadow IT: Unmanaged cloud apps create audit & eDiscovery holes.
• People coverage: PTO, holidays, and sick time—who answers the phone?
• Projects vs. support: Migrations and rollouts are not “tickets.” Scope them explicitly.

A quick decision framework

• < 15 users, low-risk: MSP (basic or standard). Break-fix only if truly minimal tech footprint.
• 15–150 users, growing: MSP or hybrid (internal coordinator + MSP).
• > 150 users, regulated or app-heavy: Hybrid or in-house core team + specialized MSP for security/24×7.

How Enegren Technology can help

• Clear, Wichita-ready bundles (help desk, patching, EDR/MDR, M365 hardening, tested backups/DR).
• Real SLAs with local context (coverage during weather events, vendor liaison for Cox/AT&T, and 24×7 options).
• Compliance enablement for clinics and manufacturers (HIPAA, NIST/CMMC readiness, policy packs, audit evidence).
• Project delivery (email security, cloud migrations, network refresh, Wi-Fi for warehouse/shop floors).

Want a precise number for your team? We’ll map your user count, risk profile, and roadmap to a line-item quote, and we can benchmark it against an in-house scenario so you can see both sides.

FAQs

Ready to compare apples to apples? 

Tell us your user count, app stack (M365/Google, EMR/ERP), and sites. We’ll send back a detailed plan to protect and support your organization so you can focus on what you do best!