On a fairly regular basis, users will post to Reddit or Spiceworks or another IT forum to ask about the best support staff ratio of techs to users, and what other companies are finding sustainable. The question usually comes from an overworked tech who’s drowning in tickets and trying to understand what’s considered.
The answers can get interesting.
On Spiceworks, many people responded with details about the environments they support—and the range was notable.
On the low end, a few lucky techs were each supporting about a dozen users. On the high end was one company with one tech for every 3,400 users.
To be fair, nearly all of the respondents with more than 700 users per tech were supporting schools. Their numbers included both staff and students.
If you take out those highest numbers, here’s how they average out:
- The median average was 123 users per tech.
- The mode average was 150 users per tech.
- And the mean average was about 161 users per tech.
This is the distribution with the numbers over 700 taken out.
Chart by Auvik / Data from Spiceworks
The Spiceworks thread had quite a few corporate IT responses so may be a bit skewed. Yet the averages aren’t too far off what a number of MSPs on Reddit have said is the magic number of about 200 to 250 users per tech.
Source: Reddit
Of course, your mileage may vary greatly depending on everything from the type of clients you have, the tools you’re using, how much you’ve been able to automate, and even how well your team is structured, as this MSP points out.
Source: Spiceworks
What’s the ideal ratio support staff ratio in your MSP? Has it changed over time as you’ve brought on new clients or systems? Leave a comment and let us know.
You should look at Humana Insurance.
The Corporate Campus in Louisville KY.
We are 20 techs to approximately 8000, not counting our off-shore numbers, that are near 3000
Great article, but something I want to know is whether these techs are also supporting anything else (IE infrastructure, or are they purely user support?
We’re in the region of 350:1 (500:1.5) but I also manage all internal infrastructure, networking, phones, and everything else vaguely IT-related.
We are a international Bank with a ratio of 67:1 for the complete IT team, not only the support group!. Managing everything what looks like IT (incl. Phones, ATMs, etc) in 12 countries. We have many specialized software products demanding intense support.
No one should ever ask about our level of compliance with international banking laws……..