Hiring and retaining qualified IT talent has become expensive and unpredictable. The median U.S. IT manager salary is $171,200. Manufacturing-specific IT roles tied to ERP, OT, and plant-floor systems often require even higher compensation.
Rising salaries, scarce talent, and expanding compliance requirements increase downtime risk and shrink operational coverage, which is why many firms now lean on manufacturing IT growth and security to close critical skill gaps.. When a small team splits its time across support, maintenance, and security, overhead rises and financial predictability drops.
This is why many manufacturers are now comparing in-house IT vs. managed IT services. Modern MSPs provide clear ROI, stable monthly costs, and 24/7 monitoring across critical systems.
Use the cost breakdown below to compare each model and identify which best protects uptime and long-term budget stability.
Key takeaways
- Evaluate the actual cost of in-house IT by uncovering hidden overhead, including training, downtime, and turnover.
- Compare internal IT limitations with MSP support, which offers predictable costs, broader expertise, and continuous coverage.
- Strengthen scalability and resilience by partnering with a managed IT provider built to support modern manufacturing demands.
Why manufacturers stick to in-house IT and why that is changing
Many manufacturers keep IT in-house because the model feels familiar. However, modern environments require constant visibility, rapid response, and specialized skills. Old assumptions now increase operational risk and make costs harder to predict.
The legacy mindset: “We need IT on-site to stay in control”
On-site support creates a sense of control, primarily when operators rely on in-person troubleshooting for ERP or OT issues. But tying every response to physical presence slows recovery and limits visibility across distributed systems.
Modern IT workloads now run across cloud platforms, remote assets, and real-time environments, and manufacturing system integration makes this interconnected ecosystem even more challenging to manage with a small internal team. Cloud systems, remote monitoring, and true 24-hour support have made the old on-site-only assumption outdated. Physical presence alone cannot maintain direct control or keep patching, monitoring, and response aligned with modern requirements.
The talent challenge in 2025
IT salaries continue rising, and specialized expertise is increasingly difficult to secure. The average tenure of IT professionals in SMBs is now under 3 years, increasing turnover risk and disrupting operational continuity. Each vacancy slows detection and remediation, increases MTTD and MTTR, and widens exposure windows.
Hiring cycles are long, and onboarding reduces momentum across ERP, MES, and OT workflows. As new technologies evolve more quickly, overextended IT professionals struggle to maintain required skills while keeping daily operations stable. The result is higher incident volume and greater budget unpredictability.
The new manufacturing IT reality
Manufacturing IT environments now include cloud services, automation tools, MES data flows, and continuously running IoT devices, all influenced by IT-OT convergence, which multiplies risk when visibility drops. These interconnected systems require real-time monitoring, reliable patch pipelines, and strong security controls.
When monitoring drops or patching falls behind, incident volume rises, which reinforces the need for network monitoring in manufacturing to keep issues visible across plants. Even brief interruptions in ERP or OT workflows can have a measurable financial impact through production delays and labor inefficiency. Risks also spread faster in connected environments, making consistency and coverage more critical.
Legacy in-house structures were not designed for this level of complexity, especially as smart factory IT support requires consistent monitoring and 24/7 responsiveness. MSPs specialize in efficiently maintaining these environments, with teams dedicated to cloud, ERP, OT, security, and real-time tracking. Manufacturers now need IT models that minimize downtime minutes, improve MTTD, and support predictable costs across both production and business systems.
The real cost breakdown: in-house IT vs managed services
The cost of an in-house IT department extends well beyond salaries. Benefits, licensing, training, after-hours coverage, and time lost to turnover all increase overhead. These variable expenses often make cost planning difficult.
Managed IT services replace this variability with predictable monthly fees and stronger operational coverage.
| Expense Category | In-House IT | Managed Services |
| Salaries & Benefits | $90K–$150K per IT manager | Included in monthly fee |
| Training & Certifications | Continuous, expensive | Included (MSP staff certified) |
| Tools & Software | Separate licensing costs | Included in service stack |
| Coverage | Business hours only | 24/7 monitoring and support |
| Expertise Range | Limited to small team | Full bench of specialists |
| Downtime Response | Slower (limited staff) | Instant escalation |
| Predictability | Variable, reactive | Fixed monthly pricing |
MSPs use integrated IT solutions and centralized monitoring tools to reduce MTTD and improve patch compliance rates, a critical step in preparing for CMMC compliance. This stabilizes production workflows and reduces incident costs. In-house support often shifts between competing IT tasks, resulting in inconsistent coverage and longer response times.
52% of cybersecurity teams reported being overworked, and job stress was driving them to consider leaving.
Burnout of this nature reduces patching consistency, slows remediation, and increases incident volume. MSPs mitigate these risks by providing team-based coverage that ensures consistent IT operations, regardless of individual availability.
Hidden costs of maintaining in-house IT teams
The salary cost of your IT staff is only the starting point. Turnover, training cycles, limited coverage, and reactive workflows all create additional cost and operational drag. These hidden factors often outweigh the cost difference between an internal model and managed IT services.
Recruitment and retention challenges
When an IT employee leaves, you lose critical system knowledge and slow down core business work. Rehiring extends exposure windows and increases incident volume until stability returns.
The global cybersecurity workforce gap hit 4.8 million in 2024. This shortage drives up hiring costs, increases salary pressure, and delays essential IT strategy work.
These delays often result in measurable downtime and unplanned expenses.
Ongoing training and certification costs
Your team must stay current on Microsoft 365, cloud platforms, security frameworks, and ERP systems. Every training cycle pulls attention away from operations, reducing coverage and increasing the chance that critical issues go unnoticed.
When staffing thins, remediation slows, visibility gaps widen, and incident risk grows, especially across ERP, MES, and OT environments. MSPs absorb these certification requirements with role-based teams that keep systems stable while ongoing training continues behind the scenes.
Reactive rather than proactive approach
Reactive models uncover issues only after they cause disruptions. When patching falls behind or real-time monitoring is limited, MTTD increases. This results in more disruptions and unexpected IT spending spikes.
A proactive model requires coordinated workflows, continuous monitoring, and automation. Most in-house setups cannot maintain this level of coverage without a significant financial investment.
Limited scalability
Growth brings more IT needs. As production scales, new devices, shifts, and sites increase monitoring demands. If your IT department cannot keep pace with this growth, support queues increase, and maintenance slows.
Managing upgrades, workflow improvements, and incident response at scale becomes more costly and unpredictable. Managed IT services align capacity with demand, stabilizing both performance and budget.
How managed services deliver better ROI
Managed IT services deliver a measurable return by reducing downtime, shortening MTTR, and stabilizing monthly costs. They also provide deeper expertise than a small IT department can cover alone.
This alignment improves operational reliability and financial predictability.
Proactive monitoring and maintenance
Proactive monitoring uses automated alerts to detect failures, misconfigurations, and performance issues before they disrupt production, reducing MTTD and preventing costly downtime.
With continuous oversight from an MSP, issues surface earlier and remediation happens faster, avoiding the long diagnostic delays that occur when internal teams juggle support and project work.
Access to a full IT department for less than one salary
A managed IT services model replaces the cost of a single full-time employee with an entire team. You gain access to a cybersecurity analyst, network engineer, systems administrator, and help desk support without adding payroll, benefits, or training overhead.
This depth of expertise strengthens coverage across ERP systems, OT networks, and plant automation. Instead of depending on one or two overextended staff members, you rely on a full, role-based team that provides stable, scalable support at a lower total cost.
Predictable budgeting
Managed IT services use a monthly fee structure that stabilizes budgeting for maintenance, monitoring, patching, and routine IT management.
This prevents unexpected expenses associated with ERP upgrades, hardware failures, remediation, or cyber incidents.
For CFOs, this predictability is a direct ROI benefit. Avoiding unplanned IT costs creates a more stable financial runway.
Business continuity is built in
Managed IT services encompass backup routines, resilience planning, and disaster recovery workflows that many in-house teams struggle to implement and maintain.
Encrypted backup processes, redundancy checks, and failover tests protect production systems from prolonged outages.
These protections reduce downtime minutes and preserve throughput during failures.
MSPs maintain real-time monitoring of IT infrastructure and cloud services, enabling critical systems to recover more quickly when issues arise.
5 Metrics to Compare In-House IT vs MSP Performance
These metrics reveal which model delivers stronger operational performance and clarity in manufacturing environments. Starting with outcomes helps highlight what matters most to plant leaders.
| Metric | In-House IT | Managed IT |
| Mean Time to Detect (MTTD) | Hours | Minutes |
| Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR) | Days | Hours |
| % of Systems Fully Patched | ~70% | 95%+ |
| Annual IT Spend Variance | High | Predictable |
| Security Incident Volume | Higher | Lower (via proactive prevention) |
Why manufacturers choose Keystone for managed IT
Manufacturers choose Keystone because the team delivers measurable improvements across the same five metrics used to compare in-house IT and MSPs.
- 25+ years supporting U.S. manufacturers
- Long-standing experience with plant-floor environments
- Deep understanding of production constraints, uptime requirements, and safety-critical operations
- Expertise in ERP, MES, and industrial IoT
- Specialists who support complex workflows across ERP, MES, and industrial IoT
- Alignment between IT performance and real manufacturing output
- Proven record in compliance, uptime, and cybersecurity
- Established success meeting NIST, CMMC, and industry audit requirements
- Strong uptime performance supported by hardened security controls and continuous monitoring
- Flexible co-managed and fully managed options
- Support models that match your staffing structure and internal capabilities
- Ability to scale coverage without replacing your existing team
- Transparent reporting and measurable ROI
- Clear visibility into system performance, ticket trends, patch compliance, and cost efficiency
- Reporting that shows the financial and operational impact of managed IT services
You gain a partnership focused on optimization and scalability, not reactive firefighting.
Final thoughts: rethink “control” and gain partnership
Proper control is not about keeping everything internal. It is about choosing an IT model that protects uptime, stabilizes costs, and supports long-term business goals.
When you compare in-house IT versus managed services in manufacturing, the differences in coverage, performance, and cost predictability become clear. A managed services model strengthens resilience, reduces operational friction, and allows your in-house team to focus on work that supports core operations.
If you want a partnership designed around your specific manufacturing needs, now is the time to make an informed decision.
Talk to Keystone about comparing your in-house IT costs to a managed services model.
FAQs
Is in-house IT or managed services more cost-effective for manufacturers?
Managed services are more cost-effective for most manufacturers. They replace unpredictable expenses with a fixed monthly fee, which helps eliminate overtime, emergency repair costs, and tool redundancy. You can compare last year’s unplanned labor and break-fix spending with a fixed-fee MSP model to clearly see the difference.
How do managed services support manufacturers with unique needs in OT and ERP systems?
Managed services support OT and ERP environments by applying specialists who improve stability, reduce MTTR, and increase uptime. Their expertise ensures updates, monitoring, and security align with production workflows. This delivers measurable ROI by reducing disruptions and improving system performance.
How does a managed service provider reduce dependency on a small internal IT team?
A managed service provider reduces dependency by handling monitoring, patching, and incident response. This keeps production moving even when internal staff are unavailable. Your in-house team can focus on improvements and strategic work instead of constant firefighting.
