Managed IT covers your network, your servers, your workstations, and the standard business software running on them — things like Microsoft 365, your firewall, your backups, your printers. It doesn't automatically cover your POS system, your accounting software's vendor-side issues, or a custom shop-floor app built by someone who isn't us. Those often need a separate conversation. Have it before you sign, not after something breaks.
What's actually included when you sign a managed IT contract?
At C3, every managed tier covers the infrastructure your business runs on: the network, the servers, the endpoints (laptops, desktops, mobile devices tied to the business), monitoring for outages and failing hardware, patching, and a help desk for when something stops working. Our services page breaks down what's in each tier. The short version:
- Essential ($95/user/month): monitoring, business-hours support, next-business-day response, optional backup.
- Professional ($155/user/month): full-stack monitoring, AI-assisted troubleshooting, 1-hour response target for critical issues, backup included.
- Enterprise ($205/user/month): everything in Professional, plus strategic advisory and an annual penetration test, with a 30-minute critical-response target.
Those response numbers measure how fast we respond, not how fast every issue resolves. A server replacement still takes however long a server replacement takes. But the clock on "someone is looking at this" starts fast.
Every tier bundles the stuff that's generic across businesses: Windows updates, firewall rules, email, file servers, backup jobs. What's not bundled is anything specific to your industry's software stack. That's where the surprises happen.
Will managed IT support my POS system, accounting software, or shop-floor app?
Usually, not fully. You should know that going in.
POS systems (Square, Toast, Lightspeed, Clover) are built and controlled by their own vendors. We can make sure the network, internet connection, and hardware around your POS stay up, that's infrastructure, and it's ours. But if the POS software itself throws an error, locks up at checkout, or needs a configuration change inside the vendor's platform, that's a call to the POS vendor, not to us. If you're running a retail storefront in Clemson or Anderson and a register goes down on a Saturday, the fastest fix is often calling the POS vendor's support line while we work the network side in parallel. See our Clemson and Anderson pages for how we handle that split in practice, including PCI-related network requirements, which are ours to manage even when the software isn't.
Accounting software like QuickBooks or Sage works similarly. We'll keep the server it runs on patched, backed up, and online. If the software itself corrupts a file or needs a license reactivated, that's typically the software vendor's job. We'll often help diagnose whether the problem is the app or the infrastructure under it, that diagnosis is part of what you're paying for.
Custom shop-floor apps, CAM software, and ERP systems are the trickiest. If a local developer or machine tool vendor built or installed it, they usually hold the keys, licensing, configuration, version control. We can network it, back up its data, and keep the PC running it healthy. We generally can't fix bugs in code we didn't write and don't have access to. If you're a manufacturer in Anderson County running machines off a shop floor network, this is worth mapping out explicitly. Our Anderson page and services page cover where that networking responsibility starts and stops.
Why won't my provider touch my CAM software or POS system?
Three reasons. They're not excuses, they're real constraints.
First, licensing. Most vendor software agreements restrict who can access, modify, or troubleshoot the system. We'd be in breach of someone else's contract by poking around uninvited.
Second, liability. If we make a change inside your POS system and a transaction fails during a PCI audit, or we touch your CAM software and a part comes out wrong, the vendor can (rightly) say "that wasn't us" and walk away from support. Staying in our lane keeps your vendor relationships intact.
Third, expertise. A managed IT provider is good at networks, servers, security, and infrastructure. We are not Toast's engineering team, and we're not going to pretend to be. A provider who says "sure, we'll support anything" either hasn't thought it through, or is hoping you won't ask.
What to do about it
Before you sign anything, list every piece of software your business depends on to make money, POS, accounting, CAM, ERP, scheduling, whatever runs the floor or the register. Next to each one, write down who built it and who you'd call if it broke tomorrow. Then ask your managed IT provider, line by line: "Is this covered, partially covered, or not covered?" Get the answer in writing, not in a sales call.
A few things you can do without hiring anyone:
- Call your POS and ERP vendors now and ask what their support hours and response times actually are. You want this answer before an outage, not during one.
- Ask your current or prospective IT provider for a written boundary list. What they'll touch, what they won't, and what the break-fix rate is for anything outside the contract. At C3, out-of-scope work bills at $150/hour with a one-hour minimum, standard for this kind of project work. Know that number for any provider you're evaluating.
- Check who owns your shop-floor network. If your CAM machines, PLCs, or custom industrial software ride on the same network as your office computers, that's infrastructure, ours to secure and monitor, even if the software running on top of it isn't.
If you're not sure where the line falls on your current setup, that's a conversation worth having before you're staring at a dead register or a stalled production line. Reach out and we'll walk through what's covered, what isn't, and what it would cost to close the gap.