What co-managed IT means for your IT team

Why internal IT teams need help

A business with one or two IT people asks them to be the help desk, the network engineer, the security team, the Microsoft 365 administrator and the person who is never on vacation. Nobody can be all of those well.

How co-managed IT works

The business and the provider agree who does what. Common splits:

• The provider handles the help desk, and the internal team focuses on business applications and larger work.
• The provider runs security and monitoring, including watching critical alerts around the clock, while the internal team runs day-to-day IT.
• The provider covers specialties such as networks, servers or Microsoft 365, and backs up the team during vacations and busy periods.

Both sides usually share the same ticketing, monitoring and documentation tools, so nothing falls between them.

What it is not

Co-managed IT is not a first step toward replacing your IT staff. It works because the internal team knows the business in a way no outside provider can.

Questions to settle first

• Who does what, written down?
• Who has administrator access to which systems?
• How are requests passed between the two teams?
• Who makes decisions about security and changes?