What is managed IT support?

Managed IT support is an arrangement where an outside company looks after all the day-to-day technology in your business under a single agreement. That covers your computers, your internet, your email, your cloud accounts, your backups and — depending on the contract — your phones too. The point is that one team owns the lot, so when something breaks you don't have to work out who to ring.

It's different from the old "call them when it breaks" model (sometimes called break-fix). With break-fix you only get help when there's a problem, which sounds simpler until you have a bad month. With managed IT the provider is incentivised to stop things breaking in the first place — every hour they save on emergencies is an hour they don't have to staff.

What's normally included

• Unlimited remote support during business hours, and an on-site engineer when remote won't cut it.
• Monitoring of servers, laptops and backups, with alerts going to the provider rather than you.
• Patching — Windows updates, third-party app updates, firmware on routers and switches.
• Antivirus, endpoint protection and basic email security.
• User onboarding and offboarding when staff join or leave.
• A quarterly review where someone sits down with you and plans the next three months.

When does it make sense?

If you've got more than five or six employees, rely on email and cloud apps to get work done, and you can't afford to lose a day to a broken server, managed IT pays for itself. Below that, you can often get by with ad-hoc support and good cloud hygiene. Above twenty staff you'll want to make sure your provider can actually scale with you — ask how many engineers they have, not just how slick the website looks.

What to look for in a provider

• A written response-time SLA, not a vague "we respond quickly".
• A rolling contract or a sensible exit clause. 12 and 36-month lock-ins are common and rarely in your favour.
• Local engineers — useful when remote support genuinely isn't enough.
• Cyber Essentials at a minimum, and a clear answer when you ask how they handle backups.
• References from businesses your size, not their biggest customer.

If you're weighing up options and want a second opinion, we'll happily look over it — no obligation.