Dell Launches ProManage Services

Dell recently launched its first foray into the managed services space for small business. They are calling it ProManage Services. On the surface, the program looks pretty compelling for a small business; however, after looking under the hood it may only make sense for the smallest of organizations.

The base service plan is only $9 per month per user. This comes with basic remote monitoring and alerting. Sounds reasonable enough. The next level up is $39 per month per user and includes helpdesk services and onsite support. Still sounds compelling, but when you read the fine print the onsite support is only up to 2 hours per month. I don't know about you, but 2 hours is not going to be enough time to do much of anything onsite. The next plan is even more comprehensive and adds 24/7 support, patch management, vulnerability scanning, and support for exchange and SQL all for $59 per month per user.

This sounds to me that Dell is offering a lot of systems, but offering little in the way of IT strategy and "true" consulting. I think if you are a company that is looking to "keep the lights on" this service could be something to look at. On the other hand, if you see IT as a strategic asset and have application development, business reporting, project implementation, accounting system support requirements Dell is going to fall far short.

I would recommend a provider that can cover the "commodity" services that Dell is offering with its ProManage services while offering you the higher value services that are more strategically aligned with your business.