April 2026
Co-managed IT: when you have one IT person and need a team behind them
For the larger business with an internal IT person who cannot be in two places or on vacation.
By Ryan Sanders, Partnership Director
Some of our clients have their own IT person. They are not looking to replace them; they are looking to stop them being a single point of failure. That arrangement is usually called co-managed IT, and it is a large part of what our brochure for bigger environments describes.
What the internal person keeps: the relationships, the day-to-day, the projects they want. They know the business better than we ever will.What we add: monitoring and patching tooling they would otherwise have to buy and run alone, a helpdesk that takes the overflow and the after-hours calls, backup and security expertise for the questions that come up twice a year, project capacity for the office move or the migration, and cover for vacations and the day they resign.How it is scoped: in writing, with the internal person in the room. Who owns what, who is called for what, how tickets flow. The worst version of this is two teams pointing at each other; the written split prevents it.If your IT person is good and tired, this is the conversation to have with them before they are gone.
If a vendor tells you your setup is fine, ask them to put it in writing. The answer changes once it has to be written.
The ERP under a desk Small businessSunk cost is real. A backup server you bought last year deserves a plan before it goes in a dumpster because a move made it convenient.
Server or cloud, honestly
"Jamie did a spectacular job!"
Anne, insurance companyMeet Jamie- A technician who knows your setup takes every request. Not a dispatcher, not a queue.
- Every closed ticket is surveyed and a partner reads every response.
- 99.5% of surveys come back positive.
- Family-owned since 2005. 21 years in the same corner of Wisconsin, not going anywhere.
"Tyler got to my request very quickly and resolved the issue within minutes."
Nichole, insurance brokerageTalk to a partner, not a sales script.
Tell us what is going on. A partner will call you back the same business day, look at what you have, and tell you honestly whether we are the right fit. No pricing pressure, no pitch deck.