all-in-one it support.
for small businesses

We have three different levels of levels of all-in-one support that are tailored for businesses of different sizes and security requirements.

View the full Service Description here: All-in-one IT support Features 

All-in-one Business Basic is designed for micro businesses of no more than 6 people that have very basic IT requirements.

If your organisation has any of the following then Business Essentials or Secure is the correct support for you:

• require on-site support
• have 7 or more staff
• one or more servers (physical or virtual)
• frontline workers (see faq)
  

For security conscious organisations with very sensitive data or intellectual property then our all-in-one Business Secure option is the most fitting.  However, we require all clients to be compliant with our it baseline standard on Business Essential first before upgrading to Secure.

Despite the gradual move to cloud and SaaS solutions, servers remain an important part of many businesses technology setup.

If you dont have servers then you don't need server support.  If you do, then in the first instance we count the number of physical and virtual servers that you have. 

The purpose of the support is to make sure your business systems are operational when you need them.  Server failures can significantly impact that and therefore care and attention is required to monitor and maintain the servers in an optimum working capacity. Our server support includes:

• 24/7 monitoring through a dedicated Network Operations centre (NOC).
• management of operating system updates and security patches.
• 24/7 managed threat detection and response through a dedicated Security Operations Centre (SOC).
• 3-2-1 backup with local, cloud and disaster recovery backup elements (backup costs are itemised separately).
• reactive support when you need it.
• Liaison with 3rd party application and hardware maintenance providers.

We count anyone who uses a device that we manage to access your data as a fully supported member of your staff. We look after both their accounts and their devices.

Frontline workers are people you work with who only access your data from devices we do not manage such as mobile phones, tablets or personal laptops.

As we do not manage the devices of frontline workers, we can charge less to support them.

There is still a cost associated with frontline workers because we still look after their Microsoft accounts, provide cyber awareness training, backup their Microsoft accounts daily and we're on hand to help them if they have issues accessing your data. 

This keeps them working and keeps your data safe and secure.

We calculate monthly support based on the number of fully supported people in your business.

If you have more devices than people, that incurs a small charge to cover the cost of the licences that those devices consume: endpoint protection, the remote control tool we use to update and maintain the computer and the time needed to administer the device each month.

Support per network location allows us to help you with network connectivity issues. 

If you have multiple offices at different sites these will each count as separate locations.

If you have different buildings all at the one site (e.g. warehouses or workshops beside your main office), these all count as a single location.

We maintain all aspects of your server, whether that is a physical server, virtual on-premise server or a cloud hosted server.

Our server support ensures that:

• it is always up to date with the latest updates and patches
• is monitored 24/7 by our Network Operations Centre (NOC).
• it is protected 24/7 with Managed Detection and Response (MDR) and our Security Operations Centre (SOC).
• nightly backups are monitored and managed (requires a separate backup licence and per GB data storage cost)
• on-premise servers are configured to also back up to a NAS (sold separately) for rapid recover.
  
  

We can also offer advanced disaster recovery options for servers including transfer to a virtual server in the cloud within minutes of an issue with your on-premise server.

As more applications have moved to cloud solutions that are accessed through your browser the need for on-premise servers has greatly reduced.

Very few of our customers have servers these days so we don't include server support in our all-in-one support solution to keep the cost down for everyone.

If you no longer need a server we can help you migrate to the cloud and reduce your monthly costs. 

If you still need your own physical server then we can still help you maintain it, keeping your operations and data secure.

We charge to add and replace staff.

To onboard people from all your systems takes time to do properly and we consider it an essential part of your own induction processes.

We not only enrol your staff into all the tools needed to manage you but we spend time with each and every person who joins your organisation. This one-to-one meeting forms part of all our customers' new start inductions. We make sure that they're set up correctly, with access to all the systems they need, and we make sure they know how to use their new computer and all the tools we provide including your password manager.

We do not believe that clients with a very low turnover of staff should subsidise those with high turnover and so we don’t roll the cost of onboarding staff into our support fee.

We charge 1 hour of labour to onboard new members of staff.

We don't charge anything for removing people from support.

All fully supported staff need a Microsoft Business Premium licence to allow the full range of security measures to be turned on. This helps protect your devices and your data.

We wrote a blog about why Business Premium is so important.

There are several opportunities for non-profit organisations to obtain cost benefits when compared with traditional businesses. 

Microsoft offer non-profit status which includes 10 free Business Premium licences and heavily discounted prices for additional licences.

Through the Charity Digital Exchange non-profits can also get access to a vast range of heavily discounted software solutions.

We are confident that you'll love our all-in-one IT support and what it can do for your business.

That's why we offer our 90 day guarantee. If, within the first 90 days of your support starting, you feel that we're not a good fit for you then you can walk away from your contract and we'll even refund you the cost of your support to date.

Please note that this does not include the cost of consumables such as licences and backup storage that may have been incurred during this time.

If you have started a new 12 month term for Microsoft licences under their NCE agreement within the 90 days, these cannot be terminated meaning that we cannot release you from that contract until the 12 month term has completed.

Managed IT Services (delivered by a Managed Service Provider or MSP) allow you to offload responsibility for managing, maintaining, and upgrading your IT to a third-party partner, allowing you to focus on what you do best.

This service differs from the traditional model of pay-per-use when you'd pay your provider in arrears for whatever time they'd spent each month working for you.

Managed IT support uses a subscription model where you normally pay a flat fee each month for support.

MSPs can manage everything from Microsoft accounts to data backups, cyber security, and simple support calls when you have an IT problem.

The main benefits of managed IT services are:

• Security: The risk of a cyber incident occurring increases every day and criminals target SMEs as low-hanging fruit. MSPs can make you unattractive to attackers and minimise the damage if they do decide to target you.
• Cost reduction: You can save money by paying a fixed monthly fee to an MSP instead of hiring and training IT staff
• Service quality improvement: MSPs have the expertise, experience, and resources to provide high-quality IT services, ensuring that the IT systems are always up and running, secure, and compliant with the latest standards and regulations.
• Focus on core business: You can free up staff to focus on the strategic and innovative aspects of the business, instead of spending time and energy on routine and mundane IT tasks.
  

If you want to know more about what managed IT service providers do we have a detailed blog diving into the subject.

What is included in managed IT support can vary greatly from provider to provider.

At the basic level, managed IT support from any partner includes a proactive service that maintains your devices and accounts to reduce the likelihood of you experiencing issues, and reactive support for when something goes wrong.

Additional services may be included in a simple bundle (like our all-in-one IT Support) or they may be chargeable add-ons depending on the provider.

These services can include:

• backup
• security measures like endpoint protection
• cyber security training
• Microsoft training
• Access to self-help guides
• Documentation such as IT policy templates

When you are looking for managed IT support consider what's important to your business and what the risks are.  Look for providers that mitigate as many of these risks as possible at a price you can afford.

Save money

Managed IT support allows you to offload the time and cost associated with managing your IT.

Don't underestimate how much time your business spends (or should be spending) on maintaining your IT. In almost every business your systems form the backbone of what you do. Without your computers, you probably couldn't work. Protecting and maintaining that platform and your data is vital to your success.

Reduce risk

Partnering with a managed service provider also adds significant piece of mind, knowing that your cyber security is being taken care of by professionals.

Improve cash flow

Known monthly payments mean that you can budget for your IT expenditure much more easily. A good MSP will also help you identify larger capital investment that needs to be planned for well in advance (device replacements) to help you be less reactive and more proactive with your budgeting.

Yes. The main alternatives are to employ your own IT Team (its not really a one person job anymore), or use traditional break/fix IT support.

Employing your own team is expensive and break fix is totally reactive.  There are no proactive elements to avoid those issues occurring in the first place.

The cost of your computers being unavailable, losing your data or becoming the victim of a cyber attack can be very high. You have to balance that cost against the cost of managed IT support.  That's not to say that problems don't happen but you'll be in a much better place to minimise them or recover from them.

Prices for services will vary from provider to provider based on what they include. Not all IT support is created equal and so prices are not always easily comparable.

The following are some of the top things you should look for:

• Support hours - do they match you business needs?
• Service Level Agreement - how quickly will the provider respond?
• Proactive management - what monitoring and remediation takes place to prevent issues?
• Strategic alignment - how closely do the aims and objectives of the business align with you needs?
• Quarterly business reviews - how often do they meet with you to understand your technology requirements and is it backwards or forward-looking?
• Cyber awareness - do they promote good cyber security with you and your team?
• Cyber security - is this included as standard or do you have to choose from one or more add-ons? (Do you know what you need?!)
• Backup and recovery - what are they backing up and how often?  How long would it take to get back up and running from a backup?
• Microsoft 365 - what configuration and management is included as standard? Would your licenses give you the security and compliance that you need?
• Remote support - what provision is made for remote working? 
• Extras - are there extra costs for password managers, training, it policies, security audits, etc.?

If you'd like to learn more about how much you should spend on IT then take a look at our blog on the subject.

To get an onscreen estimate of how much our all-in-one IT support would be use our pricing calculator above. Complete the form to receive a detailed quote automatically based on the information you've provided. This will help you when making your comparisons.

There is no easy way to compare providers as most MSPs offer different services. Some will offer different tiers, and others offer add-ons.

Feel free to use our pricing calculator to send yourself a detailed quote that you can then use as the basis for comparing other services against.

We include everything that we believe you need to work efficiently, safely and legally so it's a solid place to start when comparing services.

We also have a blog that discusses how to compare different MSP support providers.