CO-MANAGED IT

Co-managed IT for businesses with internal IT.

For 50-200 user businesses with an in-house IT person or team that needs senior expertise, after-hours coverage, project capacity, and cybersecurity tooling. We don't replace your team. We make them better.

Talk With A Local IT Expert

What co-managed IT is.

Co-managed IT is an arrangement where you’ve got someone (or a small team) running IT internally, and we plug in alongside them to handle specific functions they can’t carry alone. Your internal IT owns the relationship with your team and the day-to-day work. We bring senior expertise, escalation depth, after-hours coverage, project capacity, and the tooling that doesn’t make sense for an in-house team to build and maintain.

It works because most internal IT staff are skilled and stretched thin. They didn’t sign up to be a one-person security team, a 24/7 helpdesk, a project manager, and a vendor relationship coordinator at the same time. Co-managed IT lets them focus on the work that benefits from being in-house and offloads the rest.

What we typically handle.

Tier 2 and 3 escalations. Your internal IT handles Tier 1 (the work that’s faster when someone’s in the building). We handle the harder problems: server issues, network design questions, M365 deep configuration, security incidents, anything that benefits from senior expertise.

After-hours and weekend coverage. Your internal team gets to go home. We watch the environment overnight and on weekends and respond when something needs attention.

Cybersecurity tooling and monitoring. Endpoint detection and response (EDR), email security, multi-factor authentication management, security awareness training, identity monitoring. The tooling layer is expensive and complicated to run in-house. We deploy and operate it.

Projects. Server refreshes, M365 migrations, Remote Desktop Services (RDS) and FSLogix deployments, network builds, datacenter consolidation. Projects that take your internal IT off their day job for weeks at a time get done by us in parallel.

Vendor management. Internet provider issues, line-of-business application vendors, phone system vendors. We coordinate so your internal IT isn’t on hold with three different companies.

Strategic planning. Quarterly business reviews with you and your internal IT lead. Roadmap, lifecycle planning, budget conversations.

Documentation. We maintain documentation of your environment so it’s not all in your IT person’s head.

Why co-managed beats hiring more in-house.

Three reasons we hear most often.

Hiring senior IT in Middle Georgia is hard. The market for senior systems engineers in our region is tight. Co-managed gives you senior-level expertise without the recruiting burden or the salary bracket. There’s no bench-of-one risk either.

24/7 coverage isn’t a one-person job. Asking one internal IT person to be on call nights and weekends is a recipe for burnout. Two-person shops aren’t much better. Co-managed fills the after-hours gap without forcing your team into rotations they didn’t sign up for.

Tooling costs are easier to share. EDR, email security, remote monitoring tools, documentation platforms. The toolkit a modern IT operation needs is expensive at small scale. We carry that cost across many clients and pass through the per-user pricing more efficiently than you can build it yourself.

Who this is for.

Owner-led businesses with 50 to 200 users, with an internal IT person who’s competent and overworked. The owner has usually seen the gap (whether through an incident, a near-miss, a cyber insurance question, or watching their IT person stay late three nights running) and knows that adding a person isn’t the right answer.

We’re not the right fit if you don’t have internal IT. That’s a Managed IT engagement. We’re also not the right fit if your internal IT is hostile to outside help. Co-managed only works when the internal team is part of the conversation and trusts us to do the work we own.

How a co-managed engagement starts.

The first conversation is with you and ideally with your internal IT lead. We want to understand what’s working in-house and what’s overflowing. Where the gaps are usually becomes clear in that conversation. From there we propose a scope: which functions we own and which they own, with explicit coordination between us.

The first 30-60 days are documentation and tooling deployment. We learn the environment alongside your team, deploy the cybersecurity stack, set up our ticketing and escalation paths, and get the documentation current. After that we move into a steady-state co-managed relationship with the quarterly review cadence baked in.

The 60-Day Guarantee covers the early window. If we’re not delivering the value we promised in the first 60 days, you can cancel without penalty.

Co-managed engagements run an average of $10,000/month. See our pricing page.

See pricing →

Frequently asked questions.

What is co-managed IT?

Co-managed IT is an arrangement where an outside MSP works alongside a business's internal IT staff to handle specific functions, typically including senior escalations, after-hours coverage, projects, cybersecurity tooling, and vendor management.

How is co-managed IT different from fully managed IT?

Fully managed means the outside provider runs IT end to end. Co-managed means the business has an internal IT person or team and the outside provider plugs in to fill specific gaps.

What size businesses use co-managed IT?

Typically 50 to 200 users with at least one full-time internal IT person.

Do you require a long-term contract?

Our fixed-fee managed engagements run on a 12-month term. Most MSPs in our market lock clients into 36-month initial agreements, which we think is a high bar to ask someone to clear before they've worked with you. The 60-Day Guarantee covers the start of any engagement, so you can see how we work before you're committed.

Will my internal IT person feel threatened by you?

Sometimes, briefly. The pattern we see most often: internal IT is initially cautious, becomes a strong advocate within 60-90 days, and ends up wondering how they ever did the job without us.

Do we still control our IT environment?

Yes. Your internal IT remains responsible for the strategic direction and the team relationship. We work alongside them, with clear lanes for what we own and what they own.

Can you handle after-hours emergencies?

Yes. After-hours and weekend coverage is one of the most common reasons businesses bring us in for co-managed engagements.

Do you bring your own tools, or use ours?

Mostly ours, configured to your environment. Remote monitoring, EDR, ticketing, documentation. We bring a mature toolset that would be impractical to build in-house at your scale.

Can co-managed evolve into fully managed?

Yes. Some businesses start co-managed and transition to fully managed when their internal IT leaves or the workload shifts.

What if my IT person leaves?

We help you bridge the gap. We've covered short-term transitions before.