Managed IT Services for Dental Practices: What's Included, How It Works and How to Judge a Plan (2026)

Your front desk has the number of a computer person who comes when called. Lately the calls are more frequent: an operatory PC that freezes at 8:05, a sensor that will not capture, a backup nobody has looked at since spring. Someone has suggested "managed IT", and you want to know what you would actually be buying.

Managed IT services for dental practices are a monthly arrangement in which one provider takes ongoing responsibility for the practice's technology: watching systems before they fail, answering staff, keeping security tools and backups working, and planning replacements. You pay a predictable fee instead of an invoice per repair, and the provider is judged on how rarely a chair stops.

If you are already comparing offers, compare Legend's managed IT plans for your practice alongside this guide. The rest of this page is the explanation that comes before a quote: what managed IT covers system by system, how it runs from one month to the next, what it leaves out, how to score a plan before you sign, and what changes between a solo office and a group.

Quick Answer: What Are Managed IT Services for Dental Practices?

Managed IT services for dental practices are an outsourced, subscription-based arrangement in which a provider, often called a managed service provider (MSP), takes ongoing responsibility for monitoring, the help desk, security tools, backups, Microsoft 365 and cloud accounts, network upkeep and IT planning for a predictable monthly fee. The work is preventive: problems are fixed before they cancel appointments.

Unlike break-fix support, nobody waits for a failure to start the clock. Whether a fully outsourced, shared or in-house arrangement fits best depends on practice size, the skills already on the team, the coverage you need and the total cost of each option. The sections below show how to tell a real managed plan from a repair service with a monthly invoice.

This guide is informational. For the nationwide service overview, see Legend's dental IT support.

Why Managed IT Services Matter for Dental Practices

A dental day is a chain of systems that depend on each other. Online forms feed the practice management system (PMS), the PMS opens the chart in the operatory, the imaging bridge pulls the X-ray from the sensor, the network carries all of it to the server or cloud host, and claims, payments and reminders leave through the same connection. Scheduling, treatment planning, digital X-rays, intraoral scanners, insurance verification, payment processing and patient communication all ride on it.

When one link fails, the impact is immediate.

Appointments may need to be moved. Staff wait instead of working. Providers lose access to the chart or the image they need. Billing slows and cash flow follows, while a security incident can expose patient information and start a notification process nobody wants.

Managed IT addresses this with continuous monitoring, scheduled maintenance and a help desk that already knows the office. Instead of waiting for problems to appear, the provider looks for the warning signs: a disk filling up, a backup job that failed twice, a switch port dropping packets, a workstation that missed its updates.

The practical result is fewer interrupted mornings and a team that spends its time on patients rather than on troubleshooting. The rest of this guide is about how to check that a provider actually works this way.

What Are Managed IT Services for Dental Practices?

Managed IT services are the ongoing management, monitoring, maintenance and support of a dental practice's technology by an outside partner, usually called a managed service provider (MSP).

Unlike traditional break-fix support, where the practice calls only after something breaks, a dental MSP works on a schedule to prevent issues and owns the follow-up when they happen.

Typical managed IT services include:

• • 24/7 network monitoring
• • Help desk support for staff
• • Server management
• • Cloud services
• • Microsoft 365 management
• • Endpoint protection
• • Firewall management
• • Email security
• • Backup and disaster recovery
• • Support for HIPAA Security Rule safeguards
• • Hardware lifecycle planning
• • Software updates and patch management
• • A written rule for vendor coordination (who calls the software or imaging company, and when)
• • Strategic technology consulting

The goal is a stable, secure and scalable environment that supports clinical work and the business. For the wider picture of what dental IT support covers beyond a managed plan, see what dental IT support covers. A list like this is where most explanations stop. The next two sections go further: what each item means for the specific systems in a dental office, and what the work looks like across a normal month.

What does managed IT for a dental office include, system by system?

Managed IT for a dental office covers every system a patient visit touches: the practice management software, imaging, workstations, the server or cloud host, the network, security tools, backups, phones, Microsoft 365, the help desk and the vendor contacts. For each one the provider does recurring work and should be able to show you evidence that it happened.

The table below describes the category in general terms. Providers package these items differently, so use it to ask where each row sits in a proposal, not to assume every plan includes every row. To line two written quotes up against each other, the companion guide on how to read a dental IT quote layer by layer goes line by line through the fee.

Two cautions when reading any version of this table. First, "monitoring" only helps if someone acts on the alert, so ask what happens after one fires. Second, "supported" can mean the provider keeps the computer running while the software company owns the software itself; the row on vendors is where that boundary gets written down.

How does managed IT work month to month?

Managed IT works on a rhythm. Monitoring and security tools run continuously, the help desk answers staff as requests come in, patches and backups follow a weekly and monthly cycle, and the owner gets a quarterly review and a yearly plan. If a provider cannot describe this calendar for your office, you are buying repairs, not management.

Here is what that rhythm usually looks like in a dental practice. Use it as a reference when a provider describes its service, and ask which column each of their activities sits in.

What should a monthly managed IT report show?

A useful monthly report fits on one page and answers five questions: how many requests staff raised and which ones repeat; which devices are missing patches or protection; whether every backup job succeeded and when the last test restore happened; what alerts fired and what was done; and what the provider recommends before next month. A report that only shows green ticks without these numbers is not evidence.

What happens when something breaks under a managed plan?

When something breaks, the request goes to the help desk, is logged with the room or person affected, and is prioritised by clinical impact: a down operatory or a stopped front desk comes before a slow printer. The provider fixes it remotely where it can, arranges an onsite visit where hardware or cabling is involved, and opens a case with the software or imaging company when the fault sits inside their product. Ask each provider to walk you through this path for your own office, and see what a dental IT support SLA should say for how priorities and escalation are written into an agreement.

Signs Your Dental Practice Needs Managed IT Services

Many practices don't realise they need structured IT support until a major disruption occurs.

If your practice sees any of the following regularly, it may be time to look at managed dental IT.

Frequent Downtime

If computers, servers or internet connections interrupt appointments more than occasionally, production suffers and patients notice. A pattern of the same failure, such as the same operatory PC every Monday, is the clearest sign that nobody is looking at causes.

Slow Computer Performance

Outdated hardware, a poorly configured network and skipped maintenance cause small delays all day: the chart that takes 20 seconds to open, the X-ray that appears after the patient has asked twice. Those minutes add up across a schedule.

Increasing Cybersecurity Threats

Healthcare remains one of the most targeted sectors for ransomware and phishing. Without continuous monitoring and a person who acts on alerts, a practice relies on luck.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) both publish guidance for healthcare organisations on these threats, and CISA has a specific advisory for organisations that use managed service providers (covered later in this guide).

Compliance Concerns

The HIPAA Security Rule requires dental practices to put administrative, physical and technical safeguards around electronic protected health information (ePHI).

An experienced dental IT provider helps implement and document the technical controls, while the practice keeps responsibility for its policies and its risk analysis.

Unpredictable IT Expenses

Emergency repairs often cost more than the maintenance that would have prevented them, and they arrive at the worst time.

Managed IT replaces unplanned repair bills with a predictable monthly fee and a replacement plan you can budget for.

Break-Fix IT vs Managed IT Services

Break-fix means you pay by the hour after something fails, and nobody watches the systems in between. Managed IT means a monthly fee for agreed monitoring, upkeep and support, so problems can be caught early. Break-fix can suit a very small, stable office; growing practices usually find the gaps expensive. The full comparison, with a worked scenario and the costs beyond the invoice, is in managed IT vs break-fix for dental practices.

Essential Components of Managed IT Services for Dental Practices

A complete managed IT agreement covers every critical part of the technology environment, not only the help desk. Some providers fix computers; others take long-term responsibility for security, reliability and planning. The difference shows in the components below and in the evidence each one produces.

These are the core services a dental practice should expect to discuss with any provider.

1. 24/7 Network Monitoring

Your dental office network carries nearly every business function, from opening patient records to submitting insurance claims. A professionally designed dental office network setup is the foundation for reliable connections, good performance and secure communication across the practice.

Continuous monitoring helps detect problems before they affect the day, including:

• • Server failures
• • Internet outages
• • Storage capacity issues
• • Network congestion
• • Suspicious sign-in attempts
• • Hardware failures

Monitoring is only half the job. The other half is the person who reads the alert and acts on it, so ask who that is and what they do at 2 a.m. when a backup job fails.

2. Help Desk & Remote Support

Technology issues are inevitable, and in a dental office an hour of waiting can mean a rescheduled patient.

A dental MSP's help desk handles requests such as:

• • Password resets
• • Printer issues
• • Practice management software access and performance
• • Email problems
• • Microsoft 365
• • Digital imaging software and capture stations
• • User account management
• • Hardware troubleshooting

Good help desk work keeps appointments on schedule and records each request, so repeat problems are spotted and fixed at the cause. For what a staffed helpdesk covers and how it differs from monitoring, see what a staffed dental IT helpdesk covers.

3. Cybersecurity Protection

Healthcare organisations remain attractive targets because they hold patient and financial information in one place.

A layered security approach usually includes:

• • Endpoint Detection & Response (EDR)
• • Managed antivirus
• • Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
• • DNS filtering
• • Email security
• • Firewall management
• • Security awareness training
• • Vulnerability assessments
• • Continuous threat monitoring

Layers reduce risk more than any single tool does; no set of tools removes it. For the detail behind each control, see Legend's dental cybersecurity services, and for a self-check, the 25-point dental cybersecurity risk assessment.

4. Backup & Disaster Recovery

Every dental practice needs a plan for ransomware, hardware failure, accidental deletion and severe weather.

Dependable backup arrangements include:

• • Automated backups
• • Encrypted storage
• • Cloud replication
• • Local backup copies
• • Disaster recovery planning
• • Regular restoration testing

The widely used 3-2-1 approach keeps three copies of data on two different types of media, with one copy off-site. A backup only counts once it has been restored successfully, so ask for the date of the last test restore. Recovery objectives and restore testing are covered on Legend's backup and disaster recovery page and in the dental backup and disaster recovery checklist.

5. Cloud Services

Cloud tools let dental teams work more flexibly and recover faster when a single machine fails.

Common cloud services include:

• • Microsoft 365
• • Secure file sharing
• • Cloud backup
• • Virtual desktops
• • Cloud-hosted servers
• • Email hosting
• • Remote access solutions

Cloud services also make it simpler to open an additional location, because accounts and files are not tied to one closet. For practices upgrading conference rooms, training spaces or patient education areas, audio video system integration connects those rooms to the same network.

6. HIPAA Compliance Support

Meeting the HIPAA Security Rule takes more than installing antivirus software.

A knowledgeable dental IT provider helps the practice put technical safeguards in place and keep records of them, including:

• • Encryption
• • Access controls
• • Audit logging
• • Backup management
• • Device security
• • Input to risk assessments
• • User authentication
• • Security policies the practice adopts

No IT provider can certify a practice under HIPAA, and the practice remains responsible for its own risk analysis and policies. The provider's role is to make the technical side real and documented. Legend's HIPAA compliance support page covers the safeguards in more depth.

What does managed IT not include?

Managed IT usually does not include new hardware, cabling projects, software licences, problems inside a vendor's own product, internet circuits, office build-outs or the practice's legal and compliance decisions. Those are bought, quoted or owned separately. The monthly fee pays for looking after what you have, not for everything you will buy.

Knowing the edges of a plan matters as much as knowing what is inside it. "All-inclusive" in a proposal often means "all the routine work", and the surprises arrive with the first project. The table below lists the items most often outside a monthly fee and what to ask about each.

On Legend's own plans, hardware procurement, major cabling projects and software licensing are quoted separately. Everything else in this table is general guidance; confirm each line with whichever provider you are considering. The dental IT support cost guide covers how these separate items show up on a quote.

Why Dental Practices Choose Outsourced IT

Hiring an internal IT employee is expensive for most small and mid-sized dental practices, and one person cannot cover every skill or every day of the year.

Outsourced dental IT gives a practice access to a team without the overhead of recruiting, training, salaries and certifications.

Benefits include:

• • Lower operating costs than a full-time hire for most small practices
• • Access to several specialists rather than one generalist
• • Cover when one person is on leave
• • Proactive maintenance
• • Predictable monthly pricing
• • Strategic technology planning
• • Security handled as part of the routine
• • Known contacts for the practice's vendors
• • Support that scales as the practice grows

Many practices find that outsourcing gives them broader experience than a single in-house technician can, especially with imaging and security. The comparison below shows where the difference usually lies.

In-House IT vs Outsourced Dental IT

For most single-location and small multi-location practices, outsourced IT gives more flexibility for the money. Larger groups often keep someone inside and share the work, which the next section covers.

How MSPs and In-House IT Teams Work Together

Working with an MSP does not always mean replacing internal staff. Practices with an internal IT person, or an office manager who handles technology, sometimes share the work with an outside provider. This is often called co-managed IT.

The internal person typically handles first-line troubleshooting, devices, staff questions, vendor contacts and workflow support, and knows the practice's habits and goals better than any outside provider.

The outside provider adds the layers that are hard for one person to cover: security tooling and monitoring, cloud infrastructure, advanced networking, disaster recovery planning, multi-location standards and 24/7 monitoring.

Splitting routine work such as patch management, network monitoring, security updates, backup verification, remote support and system maintenance reduces burnout and delays, and frees the internal person for projects. If you share the work, write down who owns each task; the managed IT vs break-fix guide has a section on where in-house and shared models fit.

Ready to compare providers? Use the scorecard later in this guide, then see how Legend's managed IT plans are structured. Day-to-day support is described on the 24/7 helpdesk page.

Managed IT for a solo practice vs a multi-location group: what changes?

A solo practice needs the basics done well: monitoring, patching, backups that restore, security tools on every machine and a help desk that knows the software. A multi-location group needs the same basics plus standards: one way of building each office, shared sign-in and security rules, central backups and reporting by location.

Size changes the shape of managed IT more than its list of services. The table shows what usually changes as a practice grows.

If you run a single office, a well-run plan with clear exclusions is usually enough; do not pay for group features you will not use. If you run several offices or are adding one, ask how the provider builds a new site and how long it takes to bring it to the same standard. Groups can read more on DSO IT support.

Several Legend guides look at managed IT for a specific area, for example how to judge a managed IT provider at renewal in Orlando, choosing between dental-specific and general IT in Raleigh–Durham, and managed IT for Miami dental practices.

How to Choose the Right Dental IT Provider

Choosing a provider on price alone usually costs more later. The right partner understands both the technology and the way a dental day runs.

If you are still building a shortlist, Legend's comparison of dental IT companies in America summarises how the main providers describe their own services publicly. For the full decision process, see how to choose a dental IT provider.

When evaluating providers, ask the following questions.

Do they specialize in dental practices?

Dental offices rely on technologies a general IT company may never have touched, including:

• • Dentrix
• • Eaglesoft
• • Open Dental
• • Carestream
• • Dexis
• • CBCT systems
• • Digital imaging platforms
• • Intraoral scanners

Experience with these products shortens set-up and diagnosis. Ask for examples of recent work on your specific PMS and imaging set-up rather than a logo list.

Do they offer proactive monitoring?

A good provider monitors the environment continuously and acts on what it finds, rather than waiting for a failure call. Ask to see a sample alert and what was done about it.

What cybersecurity services are included?

Look for a written list of which of these are in the base fee and which are add-ons:

• • Email protection
• • Endpoint security
• • Multi-Factor Authentication
• • Backup monitoring
• • Security awareness training
• • Vulnerability management

Do they provide strategic IT planning?

Technology should support the practice's growth plans.

An experienced MSP helps plan:

• • Hardware upgrades
• • Office expansions
• • Cloud migrations
• • Budget forecasting
• • Network modernisation

Are response times guaranteed?

Treat any promise of a fixed response time with care and ask what it is measured against. What matters is a written service level agreement (SLA) that defines:

• • How requests are prioritised
• • Target times for each priority and how they are measured
• • Escalation steps
• • How after-hours and urgent issues are handled

The dental IT SLA guide explains what each of these should say and how to check performance against it.

How do you evaluate a managed IT plan? A weighted scorecard

Evaluate a managed IT plan by scoring it against weighted criteria and asking for evidence on each one: dental software experience, monitoring that leads to action, security tools in the base fee, backups with test restores, written scope and exclusions, help desk process, onsite arrangements, reporting, documentation the practice owns, and exit terms. Score every provider on the same sheet.

Most comparisons stop at a feature checklist, where every provider ticks every box. A scorecard works better because it forces two things: a weight for what matters most to your practice, and evidence for every score. Use the sheet below for each provider on your shortlist. Score each criterion 0, 1 or 2, multiply by the weight, and add up.

Reading the result. The maximum is 40. A provider scoring 32 or more has shown evidence on the things that stop chairs. Between 22 and 31, the gaps are usually in evidence rather than service: ask again in writing. Below 22, the plan is mostly a help desk with a monthly invoice. Change the weights to suit your practice; a group might give documentation and reporting a weight of 3, a solo office might give onsite arrangements a 2.

The scorecard does not replace price; it tells you what the price buys. Once two providers score similarly, compare their written quotes line by line.

Dental Managed IT Buyer’s Checklist

Use this checklist alongside the scorecard when comparing providers.

Experience

✔ Healthcare IT experience

✔ Dental software knowledge

✔ Familiarity with the HIPAA Security Rule

✔ Client references

Security

✔ Managed firewall

✔ Endpoint protection

✔ Email filtering

✔ MFA implementation

✔ Security monitoring

✔ Vulnerability scanning

Business Continuity

✔ Cloud backup

✔ Local backup

✔ Disaster recovery planning

✔ Backup testing

✔ Business continuity strategy

Support

✔ Help desk terms in writing (unlimited or metered)

✔ Remote support

✔ On-site support arrangements

✔ 24/7 monitoring

✔ A written rule for vendor coordination

Strategy

✔ Technology roadmap

✔ Budget planning

✔ Hardware lifecycle management

✔ Cloud consulting

✔ Compliance guidance

Practical Example

A Growing Multi-Location Practice

Illustrative scenario (a composite to show the pattern, not a Legend client story).

A practice grows from one office to three in under two years.

At first, each office runs its own computers, internet provider, backups and security software. As the business grows, staff see inconsistent performance, duplicate software licences, slower help and more security gaps, and nobody can say which office's backups were last tested.

With a managed IT provider, the practice centralises network management, standardises hardware, moves to encrypted cloud backups with scheduled test restores, applies the same security tools everywhere, and gets one monitoring view across all locations.

The result is a more predictable environment, easier collaboration between offices, fewer interruptions and clearer evidence that patient information is protected. The same pattern is why the solo-versus-group table above puts standards first for groups.

What do CISA, HHS and NIST ask of a practice that uses a managed IT provider?

CISA's advisory for customers of managed service providers asks them to state in the contract who owns hardening, detection and incident response, how incidents are reported, and to require multi-factor sign-in and least-privilege access for the provider's accounts. The HIPAA Security Rule text requires a risk analysis, a data backup plan and business associate contracts.

None of this is legal advice; it is what the primary documents say, so you can ask a provider about each item. Your compliance adviser decides how the rules apply to your practice.

The common thread is ownership. A managed IT provider can do much of the work, but the practice should know in writing which tasks the provider owns, which it shares and which stay in-house.

How Much Do Managed IT Services for Dental Practices Cost?

Managed IT for a dental practice is usually billed as a monthly fee. Legend Networking's pricing: Starting at $360 per month. What any practice pays depends on its size, the number of users and devices, the number of locations, the complexity of its network, its security requirements and the support it chooses.

Most managed service providers charge a predictable monthly fee, which makes IT easier to budget than break-fix invoices.

Factors that influence pricing include:

• • Number of employees and workstations
• • Number of office locations
• • Server infrastructure
• • Cloud services
• • Cybersecurity requirements
• • Backup and disaster recovery
• • After-hours coverage
• • Compliance monitoring
• • Onsite service requirements

Instead of comparing only the monthly figure, compare what each fee covers and what each one leaves out, using the exclusions table above.

For pricing models, the variables that move a quote and a worksheet for comparing two proposals, see the dental IT support cost guide.

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing a Dental MSP

The wrong provider creates long-term operational and security problems. Before signing, watch for these common mistakes.

Choosing Based Only on Price

The cheapest plan may leave out monitoring, security tools, compliance documentation or planning. A lower monthly fee can lead to higher costs later through downtime, incidents and emergency repairs.

Hiring a General IT Company

Dental practices run specialised software, imaging systems and clinical workflows that a general IT company may not know.

A provider experienced with dental technology usually diagnoses faster and handles integrations more smoothly.

Ignoring Cybersecurity

Security belongs in the core of a managed IT agreement, not as an optional extra.

Without layered security, practices carry more risk from ransomware, phishing and unauthorised access.

Not Reviewing Service Level Agreements (SLAs)

Your agreement should clearly define:

• • How priorities are set and the target times for each
• • Resolution targets and how they are measured
• • How urgent and after-hours issues are handled
• • Onsite support arrangements
• • Escalation procedures
• • Included and excluded services

Knowing these in advance avoids surprises in a crisis.

Overlooking Scalability

Technology needs change as practices grow. Choose a provider that can support:

• • New office locations
• • Additional employees
• • Cloud migrations
• • Equipment upgrades
• • New dental technologies

A provider that scales with you saves a second switch later.

Managed IT Evaluation Framework

When comparing providers, review them across these areas. The weighted scorecard earlier turns this framework into numbers.

A structured process helps you choose a long-term technology partner rather than simply a vendor.

Future Trends in Dental Managed IT

Technology keeps moving, and managed IT providers help practices adopt new tools safely.

Key trends include:

• • Cloud-first infrastructure, including cloud-hosted PMS
• • Zero Trust security models
• • Advanced endpoint protection
• • Automated patch management
• • Secure remote work
• • Microsoft 365 collaboration tools
• • Business continuity planning
• • Compliance-focused cybersecurity
• • Centralised management for multi-location practices
• • Careful use of AI tools with patient data

Practices that modernise now are better placed for growth and for the threats that come with it. The end of Windows 10 support on 14 October 2025 is a current example: machines still running it need a replacement or upgrade plan.

What Onboarding With a Dental MSP Looks Like

Switching providers is the part most practices worry about. Onboarding time depends on practice size, the number of locations, the quality of existing documentation, the remediation needed and the vendors involved. A structured transition follows a predictable sequence:

• • Discovery and audit. An inventory of workstations, servers, imaging hardware, network equipment, software licences and vendor contacts.
• • Security and backup baseline. Monitoring agents, endpoint protection, MFA and verified backups go in before anything else changes.
• • Remediation. Out-of-support operating systems, unpatched firmware, weak firewall rules and unmonitored backups are fixed in priority order.
• • Documentation and handoff. Credentials, network diagrams, escalation paths and the SLA are documented and shared with the practice.
• • Staff introduction. The team learns how to raise a request, how after-hours requests are handled and how priorities are set.

Ask any prospective provider to walk you through its onboarding plan and what your team needs to do at each stage.

How do you switch to managed IT without losing a clinic day?

You switch to managed IT without losing a clinic day by collecting credentials and documentation first, proving a backup restores before any tools change, overlapping the old and new providers briefly, scheduling changes outside patient hours, and removing the old provider's access only after the new set-up is checked.

The order matters more than the speed. The most common problems in a switch are lost administrator passwords, two sets of remote tools fighting on the same machine, and a backup nobody tested before the old provider left. A short sequence avoids them:

1. 1. Before giving notice, read your current agreement's exit terms and list every account that matters: Microsoft 365, domain and DNS, firewall, backup portal, PMS server, imaging, phones.
2. 1. Confirm who holds the administrator credentials for each, and get them transferred to accounts the practice owns.
3. 1. Run a test restore of a real file and the PMS database, so you know your data is recoverable before tools change.
4. 1. Plan a short overlap so the old provider is still reachable while the new one installs its tools.
5. 1. Schedule material changes for evenings or days the office is closed.
6. 1. Remove the former provider's access only after the new environment has been checked.
7. 1. Watch the first 30 days closely: repeat tickets, missed backups and devices without protection.

The full ten-phase plan, including what to do if the outgoing provider is uncooperative, is in how to switch dental IT providers without downtime.

Why Partner with Legend Networking?

Technology should support your dental practice, not slow it down.

Legend Networking is headquartered in Dallas, Texas, with 22+ years in dental IT (since 2004), and has served over 3,500 practices since 2004. This is how its service is described:

• • Monitoring: 24/7 monitoring.
• • Helpdesk: helpdesk staffed 24/7 at 1-800-794-1588 (one general number).
• • Engineers: in-house engineers; no outsourced first-level triage.
• • Onsite: onsite dispatch by appointment across served dental markets; remote-first nationwide.
• • Practice software: Dentrix, Eaglesoft, Open Dental, Archy.
• • Imaging systems: DEXIS, Vatech, Carestream, Planmeca/Romexis, Dolphin Imaging.
• • Reviews: 4.8 rating · 173 Google reviews.
• • Pricing: Starting at $360 per month; hardware procurement, major cabling projects and software licensing are quoted separately.

Legend's operations are led by Ian Lynch: 22 years in dental IT; oversees the NOC, onsite dispatch and client technology roadmaps.

Whether you need day-to-day support, a cloud migration, disaster recovery planning, Microsoft 365 management or security improvements, use the scorecard above on Legend as you would on anyone else.

What to ask your managed IT provider

Bring these questions to every first call, and ask for the answers in writing. They are grouped by what they reveal.

Scope

1. 1. Which systems in our office do you look after each month, and which are projects or separate vendors?
2. 1. Which security tools are in the base fee, and which are optional?
3. 1. What is outside the monthly fee, and how are projects quoted and approved?

How the work happens

1. 1. What happens after a monitoring alert fires at night: who sees it and what do they do?
2. 1. How do staff reach the help desk, and how are requests prioritised when a chair is down?
3. 1. How are onsite visits arranged at our address, and how does replacement hardware arrive?
4. 1. When a problem sits inside our PMS or imaging software, who opens the case with the vendor and who follows it up?

Evidence

1. 1. Can we see a sample monthly report and a redacted alert with its ticket?
2. 1. When was the last test restore for a practice like ours, and how long did it take?
3. 1. Which of hardening, detection and incident response do you own, and how will you tell us about an incident?

Ownership and exit

1. 1. Will the practice hold the administrator credentials, the network diagram and the vendor sheet?
2. 1. What do we receive, and what do you remove, if we leave?

A provider that answers these clearly and in writing is easier to work with for years. One that answers in generalities is telling you something too.

Managed IT Readiness Checklist

Use this checklist to review your current IT environment before you talk to providers.

Infrastructure

☐ Network professionally managed

☐ Servers monitored

☐ Wi-Fi secured and guest network separated

☐ Hardware lifecycle documented

Cybersecurity

☐ Multi-Factor Authentication enabled

☐ Endpoint Detection & Response deployed

☐ Email security implemented

☐ Firewall monitored

☐ Security awareness training completed

Backup & Recovery

☐ Daily automated backups

☐ Cloud backup configured

☐ Local backup available

☐ Recovery testing completed and dated

☐ Disaster recovery plan documented

Compliance

☐ User access controls reviewed

☐ Encryption enabled

☐ Audit logs maintained

☐ Risk analysis performed

☐ Policies updated regularly

Support

☐ Help desk terms agreed in writing

☐ Vendor contacts and rule for who calls whom

☐ Strategic IT planning

☐ Quarterly technology reviews

Ready to Strengthen Your Practice’s IT?

Technology problems should not interfere with patient care. If the checklist above left several boxes empty, that list is the starting point for any conversation with a provider, including Legend.

Legend Networking holds a 4.8 rating · 173 Google reviews. The assessment offer at the end of this guide is one way to fill those boxes in before you decide on any plan.