What’s the difference between managed services and a professional services engagement?

A managed service is a pre-defined support agreement with agreed service levels and a professional services engagement is specialist consultancy to deliver a specific technology outcome. Our portfolio is structured to give you clarity and choice. 

Understanding the difference ensures you know what’s included in your ongoing contract and when you’re commissioning additional project-based work.

Managed Services

A managed service is a recurring, SLA-backed capability delivered by Espria to support your day-to-day operations. It is designed to be predictable, proactive and continuously improved.

Managed Services can be made up from a packaged offering together with individual support services to meet your needs and give you additional flexibility.

Examples:

• Espria packaged standard End User Support together with Managed Network and Managed Security device contract.
• Managed Infrastructure consisting of Managed Server, Managed Security Device and Managed Network with no end-user support
• Both the above options come with defined response and resolution times
• Managed Microsoft 365 Data Backups
• Vulnerability Management with scheduled scanning and remediation

Characteristics:

• Fixed monthly per-user or per-device cost
• Covered by published SLAs and service reviews
• Regular reporting (e.g. usage, incidents, performance)
• Ongoing governance 

Espria services are designed around structured standards but can be configured to suit each client’s operational context. Response targets, governance cadence, reporting depth and integration methods may all be tailored to reflect industry requirements, geographic coverage or internal IT maturity, ensuring consistent quality while enabling bespoke outcomes.

Professional Services Engagement

A professional services engagement is a defined, one-off project, usually time-limited and scoped to achieve a transformation or defined  goal. Unlike managed services, it does not carry ongoing SLAs, instead, it is delivered to agreed project milestones and acceptance criteria and billed accordingly.

Examples:

• Cloud migration or infrastructure refresh
• Stand-alone service, setup and configuration
• ISO 27001 enablement or Cyber Essentials certification projects

Characteristics:

• One-off or phased project with a start and end point
• Delivered against a Statement of Work (SoW)
• May include workshops, documentation and handover
• Often used to prepare an environment for managed service take-on

Key Takeaway

Each service maintains clear governance and accountability, while allowing for adaptation to client-specific needs. Each service operates within structured, transparent frameworks that can be flexibly configured to match each client’s operational, compliance and governance requirements.

• Managed services = ongoing, SLA-backed, consistent IT operational support.
• Professional services =Expert consultants who deliver real technical benefits. .

Together, they give you the flexibility to solve today’s problems while building the foundations for tomorrow.