How to choose an IT company in Las Vegas

There are dozens of IT companies in the Las Vegas valley, and from the outside their websites look about the same: 24/7 support, fast response, security included. This guide is meant to help you tell them apart. It’s written for an office manager or owner who isn’t technical. It works whether you end up hiring us, someone else, or nobody.

If you run a law firm, we wrote a separate guide on the questions that matter for confidentiality and ABA duties: How law firms should evaluate an IT provider. This one covers everything else, especially the local and contract details.

Step 1: Know what you’re buying before you shop

Write down three things before you call anyone:

1. How many people and devices. Count laptops, desktops, phones that get company email, printers, and any server or network storage box in a closet.
2. What can’t go down. For a dental office it’s the imaging software. For a title company it’s email and the closing calendar. For a contractor it’s the estimating file share. Name your top two.
3. What’s actually wrong today. Slow computers? No idea whether backups work? An insurance renewal asking questions you can’t answer? Your current provider takes two days to call back?

Providers price and staff differently. A one-page summary keeps quotes comparable and keeps you from getting sold things you didn’t ask for.

Step 2: Decide what model fits

• Break/fix (hourly). You call when something breaks and pay by the hour. It costs little in a quiet year and a lot in a bad one. Nobody is watching between calls. We wrote more on this in break/fix vs. managed IT.
• Managed IT (flat monthly). Monitoring, patching, backups, and help desk for a per-user or per-device fee. Costs are predictable, but scope matters a lot (see Step 5).
• Co-managed. You have an in-house IT person and the provider covers tools, after-hours monitoring, and overflow.

None of these is right for everyone. A five-person office with simple needs may honestly be fine on a good hourly tech plus solid backups.

Step 3: Questions to ask on the first call

These are specific on purpose. Vague questions get vague answers.

About coverage in the valley

• “Where do your onsite techs drive from, and what’s a typical arrival time to my address?” Las Vegas traffic is real. A provider across town might be 45 minutes away at 8 a.m. on the 215.
• “Do you have local staff, or is onsite work subcontracted?” Some national brands dispatch freelance techs who’ve never seen your office.
• “What happens on a holiday weekend, or during a big convention week when everyone’s slammed?”

About response

• “What’s your average response time, and how do you measure it: first reply, or a person working on the issue?” An auto-reply in 30 seconds isn’t a response.
• “When I call, who picks up? Someone on your team who can see my notes, or an answering service?”

About security

• “Is security monitoring included, or is it an add-on?” Ask what happens at 2 a.m. when something suspicious shows up. Is there an alert someone reads in the morning, or a person who acts right then?
• “When did you last test restoring one of your clients’ backups? How long did it take?”
• “Can you help us answer our cyber insurance questionnaire truthfully?”

About their business

• “How many clients does each tech support?” There’s no perfect ratio, but a hesitant answer tells you something.
• “Can I talk to two current clients in a business like mine?” Ask those clients what went wrong and how it was handled, not just whether they’re happy.
• “Who owns our admin passwords and documentation?” The answer should be “you do.”

Step 4: Red flags

• They quote before asking about your environment. A real price needs a device count and a look at your setup.
• The contract auto-renews for three years with a large early-termination fee and no exit for poor performance.
• “Unlimited support” with no written definition. Unlimited usually means “unlimited remote help desk for things on our list.”
• They won’t put response times in writing.
• They want to replace everything on day one. Sometimes old equipment really is a risk. Ask them to rank what’s urgent and what can wait.
• Fear-heavy pitches. A breach statistic on every slide, but no clear plan for your office.
• They can’t explain how they’d hand you off if you leave. That’s the question that tests honesty the best.
• Reviews that all arrived in one week or don’t mention any real detail. Read the one- and two-star reviews and how the company replied.

Step 5: What the contract should include

Ask for the contract before the final proposal meeting so you can read it without someone in the room. Look for:

1. A scope list. Which devices, users, and software are covered. What’s excluded (common exclusions: new office build-outs, software you buy yourself, projects over a set number of hours).
2. Response targets by priority. For example: “office down” vs. “one user can’t print,” and whether those targets apply after hours.
3. Pricing mechanics. Per user or per device, what happens when you hire, and the hourly rate for out-of-scope work. Ask about price increases at renewal too.
4. Security duties in writing. What they monitor, how often patches go out, how often backups are tested, and who is responsible for MFA.
5. Data and credentials. You own your data, your documentation, and all admin accounts. They must hand everything over within a set number of days if you leave.
6. Exit terms. Term length, notice period, and what the transition help costs. Thirty to ninety days’ notice is common. Watch out for multi-year contracts that lock you in but let the provider walk away whenever they want.
7. Breach handling. If they find an incident, how fast do they tell you? Who pays for forensics? This matters because Nevada law (NRS 603A) says businesses holding residents’ personal information must use reasonable security and, after certain breaches, notify affected people without unreasonable delay. It also says contracts that share that data must require the other party to protect it. Your attorney should look at this clause. This isn’t legal advice.
8. Insurance. Ask whether they carry their own cyber and errors-and-omissions coverage.

Step 6: Compare two or three, not ten

Get proposals from two or three providers. More than that and every quote starts to look alike. Line them up on the same summary from Step 1. The cheapest quote often leaves out backup testing or after-hours monitoring, so compare what’s included, not only the monthly number.

Before signing, ask the provider you like best for a short written assessment of your current setup. How they explain your problems, plainly or buried in jargon, is a good preview of the next three years.

If you’re already with someone

Switching providers takes effort, so first ask your current one the Step 3 questions. If the answers are good and the frustration is about one issue, say so directly. Sometimes that fixes it. If you do switch, plan the handoff for a quiet month, not right before a deadline you can’t miss.

Questions about your own setup? You can reach us at 702-293-2864 or info@cybersmartpro.com. We’re happy to answer even if you’re not shopping.

About the author

Eric Shamo founded CyberSmart in 2001 (as EDS Networking) and has been solving technology problems since the dial-up days, when he became his college town’s go-to Mac internet guy. CyberSmart provides managed IT and cybersecurity for law firms, CPA practices and professional offices in Las Vegas, Henderson and Boulder City. Outside work he’s a private pilot, Ironman triathlete, Wasatch 100 finisher and Alcatraz swimmer, and the father of seven.

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