Managed IT
Managed IT support where you deal directly with the person fixing it.
Managed IT support for Brisbane small businesses with 5 to 40 staff, on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace. Ongoing monitoring, maintenance and responsive support for the whole business, so most issues are sorted before they become interruptions, and when you need help you get Ewan, not a ticket queue.
Who it is for
Most of my managed clients run 5 to 40 staff on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, have no internal IT leadership, and want someone who understands their whole environment rather than a call centre that starts from scratch every time.
The businesses I look after today include electrical contractors, tiling and retail showrooms, a financial services firm and professional practices, across Brisbane, Ipswich and Logan. Trades with staff in the field, offices that live in email and shared files, and businesses that handle other people’s money or records are where managed IT earns its fee fastest.
The Standard
The baseline every managed client runs on.
Every plan enforces a written set of controls. These are six of them; the full list, by plan, is published as The Standard v1.2.
Identity
MFA on every account
A stolen password on its own does not get anyone into your email or files.
Multi-factor authentication enforced for all users and admins in Microsoft 365 (Entra ID) or Google Workspace. Refusing MFA makes a business unsuitable for a managed plan.
Devices
Managed devices
A lost or stolen laptop is locked or wiped rather than becoming a data leak.
Staff Windows devices enrolled in Microsoft Intune (or Google endpoint management), kept encrypted and compliant, with remote lock and wipe.
Email
Email authentication at enforcement
Receiving mail servers reject email that pretends to be your business, and your real mail keeps landing.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC configured and held at enforcement (p=reject), checked for drift.
Patching
Managed patching
Known holes in Windows and the apps you rely on are closed before they are used against you.
Operating systems and key applications patched on a managed schedule, with monitoring so failures are caught.
Support
One support door
Every request is recorded and prioritised, so nothing is lost in a text message.
Support email or portal creates a ticket. Phone is for genuinely urgent incidents via the published urgent pathway. No support via personal SMS, WhatsApp or social media.
Documentation
Documentation your business owns
If I disappeared tomorrow, a competent stranger could pick up your IT from the notes.
Per-client handover pack: tenant, vendors, network and escalation contacts, kept current and owned by you, not held hostage.
What’s included
In the monthly fee
- Monitoring and maintenance of managed systems
- Patching of operating systems and key apps
- Business-hours helpdesk support, dealt with directly by Ewan
- Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace administration
- Security management: MFA, conditional access and email authentication kept in good shape
- Monthly plain-English reporting
- Licensing support and review as the team changes
- Standard user onboarding and offboarding
- Minor configuration changes and routine admin
- On-site and remote support
Device management is part of managed IT: staff laptops and phones kept patched, encrypted and compliant with Microsoft Intune, with lost or stolen devices remotely locked or wiped.
Quoted separately
So there are no surprises on an invoice, these sit outside the monthly fee and are always quoted first:
- Projects: migrations, new sites, major tenant redesign, bulk device rollouts
- Remediation of pre-existing problems found at onboarding
- Unsupported or legacy applications, and app-specific consulting
- After-hours and urgent work (published urgent rates)
- Training sessions, cabling and electrical work
- Software licences and vendor costs (billed at cost)
- Data recovery beyond ordinary restores
“We’ve worked with Ewan for a couple of years now and honestly he’s a machine. There’s never been a tech problem he can’t solve and he somehow explains everything in plain English while fixing it at light speed. … ASA Tiles wouldn’t run half as smoothly without him.”
Response and continuity
What happens when you need me on a Monday at 8:30
I am one person, so this is a fair question and you should ask it of any small provider. Here is what actually happens, with the targets I publish rather than the ones I would like to hit.
- 8:30
You call or email
Email or the portal creates a ticket. If it is genuinely urgent, call. Either way it is recorded, not lost in someone's text messages.
- Within 2 business hours
I call you back
That is the callback target for urgent requests during service hours. Managed clients on Business+ and above have a four-business-hour response target on everything else. A callback target is not a guaranteed resolution time.
- Same day
Fixed, or a plan in writing
Most fixes are done the same day. If it needs a vendor, replacement hardware or external access, it may take longer, and you get that in writing with what happens next.
- If I am away
You already knew
Planned leave is communicated in advance and routine work is scheduled around it. Monitoring keeps running, urgent requests are triaged, and I remain contactable for critical escalations where practical.
Service hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm Brisbane time, excluding Queensland public holidays. Support requests go through one door (email or the support portal) so they are recorded and prioritised; the phone is for genuinely urgent incidents.
Planned leave does not mean your business is abandoned. Planned absences are told to you in advance and routine work is scheduled around them. Monitoring and automated systems keep running while I am away, urgent requests are triaged, and I remain contactable for critical escalations where practical. Where trusted technical cover is needed for urgent requests, it is arranged deliberately rather than sending your request to a random queue.
- Response target, Business+ and above
- 4 business hours
- Callback target for urgent requests
- 2 business hours
These are targets, not guarantees:
- Business customers only.
- The free 15-minute triage call is for scoping new work - it does not apply to urgent or after-hours support.
- Work needing third-party vendors, hardware replacement or external access may take longer.
- A callback target is not a guaranteed resolution time.
- No 24/7 service guarantee applies unless separately contracted.
Moving from another IT provider?
I handle the handover, document what you have, secure the admin accounts and prioritise the risky gaps first. Your previous provider does not need to disappear overnight, and the change does not need to disrupt your staff.
How switching works →- 1
Discovery
Before anything changes I map what you have: users, devices, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace setup, domains, licences, backups. This is where the surprises surface.
- 2
Access and documentation handover
Your old provider hands over admin access, and everything is documented as we go, so the knowledge of how it all works lives with your business this time.
- 3
Security baseline
Old-provider access is closed off, admin accounts are secured with MFA, and the risky gaps found in discovery are prioritised.
- 4
Device and user onboarding
Your team's laptops and accounts come under proper management. For most staff this is invisible: they log in like they always did.
- 5
Support commencement
The number changes, and the list of problems nobody bothered reporting finally gets worked through.
Questions
Managed IT support, answered straight
- How much does managed IT support cost for a Brisbane small business?
- Business+ is $89 per user per month and Secure+ is $129, both plus GST, with a minimum of 5 users and billed monthly. There is no lock-in and no minimum term. Projects, after-hours work and software licences are quoted or billed separately, so the monthly figure is the monthly figure.
- What is included in the monthly fee?
- Monitoring and maintenance of your managed systems, patching, business-hours helpdesk support dealt with directly by Ewan, Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace administration, security management (MFA, conditional access and email authentication kept in good shape), device management with Intune, monthly plain-English reporting, licensing review, and standard onboarding and offboarding of staff.
- What size of business is managed IT support right for?
- Most of my managed clients run 5 to 40 staff on Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace and have nobody internal whose job is IT. The minimum is 5 users. Below that, one-off consulting usually makes more sense than a plan.
- Do you support Google Workspace as well as Microsoft 365?
- Yes. The plans and The Standard apply to either. Most of the security controls (MFA, email authentication, managed devices) have direct equivalents on both platforms.
- How quickly do you respond?
- Managed clients on Business+ and above have a four-business-hour response target. Urgent requests have a two-business-hour callback target during service hours, Monday to Friday 8am to 5pm Brisbane time. These are published targets, not guarantees, and I do not offer a 24/7 guarantee unless it is separately contracted.
- What happens when you are on leave?
- Planned absences are told to you in advance and routine work is scheduled around them. Monitoring and automated systems keep running, urgent requests are triaged, and I remain contactable for critical escalations where practical. Your handover pack is kept current and owned by you, so nothing depends on my memory.
- Can you take over from our current IT provider?
- Yes. The handover runs as a fixed sequence: discovery, access and documentation handover, a security baseline, device and user onboarding, then support commencement. Your previous provider does not need to disappear overnight and your staff should not notice the change beyond a new number to call.
Two plans, priced per user.
Pick a plan and a headcount to see the monthly figure. Minimum 5 users, billed monthly. The full comparison of what each plan includes is on the pricing page.
No lock-in and no minimum term. Your handover pack is kept current and owned by you, and you hold the admin access to your own tenancy throughout.
Want IT taken off your plate for good?
Book a free 15-minute chat and I will tell you straight what managed IT would look like for your business. Rather talk now? Call 0491 054 503, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm. Or send a quick enquiry instead.
Calendar not showing? Open the booking page.
Rather not pick a time? Send a quick enquiry
Tell me a little about your business and what you need. I’ll reply by email or phone within 2 business hours (Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm), with a straight answer on what it would cost.
Not ready to talk yet? Take the free IT Health Check: 11 plain-English questions, a few minutes, and your results on screen before I ask for anything.