What does managed IT support actually include?
What a managed IT agreement covers, what it usually leaves out, and the questions worth asking before you sign.
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Managed IT Services - your IT department, without the payroll
Somebody has to own your IT. Right now that’s probably you, or whoever in the office is best with computers – fitted around a day job that was already full.
We take that job off you. One monthly agreement covering the lot: the monitoring that catches things early, the helpdesk your team rings, the protection sitting behind it, and an engineer who already knows how your business is put together.
One fixed monthly figure per user, from £35. No surprise invoices.
The trouble with only fixing things
Reactive IT has one setting: wait. Something breaks, someone rings, someone comes out. Meanwhile the disk that had been filling up for three months, the licence about to lapse, the backup that quietly stopped running – nobody was looking at any of it.
Being managed means somebody is looking. Our systems run 150+ automated checks every hour, round the clock, across the machines and servers your business runs on. Most of what they turn up gets fixed before anyone notices there was anything to find.
That’s the whole difference. Not faster firefighting. Fewer fires.
If you are moving from a provider who only ever fixed things, switching without downtime covers how we handle the changeover.
Managed IT or just the helpdesk?
Both exist here, and people mix them up. Worth being clear before you go any further.
IT Support → is the helpdesk. The number your team rings when Outlook won’t open or the printer has gone rogue. Someone answers, someone fixes it, everyone gets on with their day.
Managed IT is the whole contract. The helpdesk sits inside it – but so does the monitoring, the patching, the cyber security, the backups, and a regular sit-down about where the business is heading. Someone owns your IT rather than answering questions about it.
If you already have a technical person internally and just want cover when it gets busy, the helpdesk on its own may be plenty. If nobody in your business wakes up thinking about IT, you want it managed.
Our guide to what managed IT support actually includes goes further into what sits in each.
What's covered
Monitoring and maintenance
Every device and server watched round the clock, whether or not anyone’s in the office – performance, security, and the small faults that grow.
Helpdesk support
One number, one email address, real engineers. Your team gets unstuck quickly instead of building a workaround and living with it.
Cyber security
Layered protection against malware, phishing and ransomware, with the depth stepping up by package. Covered properly on the Cyber Security → page.
Patching and updates
Windows, Microsoft 365 and your business software kept current – so the known holes get closed before anybody goes looking for them.
Backup and disaster recovery
Your data copied, checked and genuinely recoverable. The point was never the backup; it’s how quickly you’re working again afterwards.
Microsoft 365
Every package includes a Microsoft 365 Business Premium licence. Proper email protection, device control and safe file sharing aren’t optional extras.
Three packages
Same foundation, different depth. Most businesses start in the middle and step up when they’re ready.
Essentials
Proactive monitoring, business antivirus, daily vulnerability scanning, a Microsoft 365 Business Premium licence and a quarterly IT review.
See EssentialsAdvanced
Everything in Essentials, plus Microsoft 365 security monitoring and backup, security awareness training with phishing simulations, monthly reviews.
See AdvancedComplete
Everything in Advanced, plus a virtual IT director, security log management (SIEM), automatic email signatures and Cyber Essentials Plus readiness.
See CompleteNot sure which one you’re looking at? Tell us how many people you have and what you couldn’t afford to lose. We’ll point you at the smallest package that covers it.
Where it all joins up
Managed IT is the agreement. These are the pieces inside it, if you want to read about one on its own.
IT Support & Helpdesk
The day-to-day. Someone answers, quickly.
IT Consultancy
The longer view. What to invest in next, and what to leave alone.
Cloud Services
Hosted desktops, servers and applications, looked after alongside everything else.
Microsoft 365
Licences, migration and day-to-day management.
Cyber Security
Threat detection, vulnerability scanning, training and certification.
Backup & Disaster Recovery
Copies you can actually restore from, tested rather than assumed.
Working with us
We’re built for ambitious businesses that have had enough of patchy support and a contract clearly written for somebody else. Small enough to care. Built to do more.
Our engineers are based in Bournemouth. Most work gets done remotely, but when something needs a person in the room, someone gets in a van – across Bournemouth, Poole, Christchurch, Blandford, Ringwood, Southampton and the wider Dorset area.
You get a fixed monthly figure, which makes IT something you budget for rather than something that arrives as a shock. And you get people who know your setup, so you’re not explaining your own network every time you ring.
Getting started
1. A free review
We look at what you’re running, what’s protected, what isn’t and where the risk sits – no obligation, and if it’s all working we’ll say so.
2. We agree the package
Essentials, Advanced or Complete, sized to your team and what you can’t be without. You’ll know exactly what’s included and exactly what it costs.
3. We take it on
Monitoring goes live, your team gets the number, and the maintenance starts happening without you asking. Sorted.
Book your free IT review
Free, no obligation, and you’ll get a straight answer.
Or call 01202 237 273, or email [email protected].
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Common questions
The things businesses ask before they hand their IT over – what’s included, what it costs, and whether anyone ever actually turns up.
Still weighing it up? Ask us the awkward questions. Better now than in month three.
What's actually included?
Monitoring and maintenance, helpdesk support, cyber security, patching, backup and recovery, a Microsoft 365 Business Premium licence, and regular reviews. How deep each one goes depends on whether you’re on Essentials, Advanced or Complete.
Do you come out to us, or is it all remote?
Both. Most things get sorted remotely because that’s quicker for you. When a job needs someone on site, we come out – across Dorset and the South Coast.
How much does it cost?
It depends on how many people you have and which package fits. It’s a fixed monthly figure per user, so you can budget it – and for most businesses of this size it works out at less than employing someone in-house.
How quickly do you respond?
Our average response time is 15 minutes, and that’s the same whichever package you’re on. The better answer, though, is that most issues never reach you – the checks find them first. On Complete, a virtual IT director keeps the plan far enough ahead that fewer of them come up at all.
Is this worth it for a small business?
Usually more so, because there’s nobody internal to absorb it. You get proper protection, someone to ring, and a technical opinion in the room when you’re making a decision – without carrying a salary for it.
Can you support a remote or hybrid team?
Yes. Laptops at home, devices in the office, Microsoft 365 in the middle – that’s the normal shape of it now, and it’s what the monitoring and protection are built around.
Do we have to move everything at once?
No. Plenty of businesses start with one part – the helpdesk, or the cyber security – and bring the rest across when the timing suits. We’d rather you moved at a pace that doesn’t disrupt anything.
How it works out in practice
Every business we take on arrives with something specific – an old server nobody trusts, a team losing an hour a week to the same fault, a contract that needed better security than they had.
Here’s how a few of them turned out.
Before you sign anything with anybody, it is worth reading the twelve questions we would ask.
Worth reading before you decide
Twelve questions to ask before signing an IT support contract
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