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Solutions
Co-Managed IT
Your internal IT team knows your business better than anyone, and you want to keep them. Co-managed IT gives them a specialist partner behind the scenes, so round-the-clock monitoring and the heavy security projects stop landing on one desk.
200+
UK businesses trust us
<30 min
average response time
24/7
systems monitored
ISO 27001
certified
THE DIFFERENCE CO-MANAGED IT MAKES
The difference a second team behind yours makes
When everything sits with one or two internal people, the day fills up with tickets and the bigger work waits. Patching slips, monitoring only really runs in office hours, and a holiday or a sick day quietly turns into a single point of failure.
Co-managed IT changes the shape of the week. Your team stays on the work they do best and closest to the business, while we watch the systems around the clock and pick up the specialist and out-of-hours load. The important projects finally get done, because someone has the capacity to do them.
WHAT CO-MANAGED IT MEANS
What is co-managed IT?
Co-managed IT means your in-house IT team and an external provider run your technology together, sharing the responsibilities between you for a predictable monthly fee. Your people keep the work they own today, and we add capacity and specialist skills around them, along with cover when they're away.
The difference from fully managed IT is who keeps the internal team. With our managed IT services, we become your whole IT department and run everything. With co-managed IT, your internal team stays in place and we augment it, so the knowledge your people hold about the business stays exactly where it is.
In practice, you draw a clear line between what your team handles and what we handle, then we work to it and review it as you grow.
WHO OWNS WHAT
The split, written down
Co-managed only works when everyone knows which side of the line each job sits on. This is the split we start from, and we review it with your IT lead every quarter.
Your team keeps
The knowledge and relationships that should stay in-house
Day-to-day user support and the first response
Vendor and supplier relationships
Business and domain knowledge
Hardware and procurement decisions
Microsoft 365 day-to-day administration
First-responder incident triage
Input to the business roadmap
We take on
The round-the-clock cover and specialist depth one desk cannot carry
24/7 monitoring and security operations (SOC)
RMM and patch management
EDR / MDR / XDR threat detection and response
Microsoft 365 advanced architecture and governance
Cyber Essentials Plus / ISO 27001 framework
Disaster-recovery operations and testing
Incident-response forensics and recovery
Specialist project delivery
Technical roadmap input
WHAT'S INCLUDED
The parts most internal teams hand to us first
Co-managed IT flexes to the line you draw, and these are the responsibilities teams tend to pass over first.
Escalation and overflow support
When a ticket goes beyond your team's time or depth, it comes to our engineers, so nothing sits in a queue while your IT lead is buried in a project.
Cover for holidays and busy periods
Annual leave, sickness and month-end peaks stop being a worry, because our team keeps monitoring and support running while yours is away or stretched.
Specialist project delivery
Migrations, rollouts and office moves get delivered by a dedicated team, so your day-to-day support doesn't grind to a halt every time a big project lands.
Cyber security and compliance
We add deep security operations and can extend full cyber protection and compliance support, including round-the-clock threat monitoring and help with the Cyber Essentials Plus and ISO 27001 frameworks.
Specialist expertise on tap
Cloud architecture and Microsoft 365 governance are there when your team needs them, backed by our IT consultancy team, without you hiring for skills you'd only use now and then.
Shared tooling and 24/7 monitoring
Your team logs into the same monitoring and ticketing platforms we run for more than 200 UK clients, so both sides work from one view rather than two disconnected setups.
CHALLENGES WE HELP SOLVE
Common challenges we help solve
Most internal IT teams we meet are carrying more than one person reasonably can. Support tickets fill the day, so patching and monitoring slip down the list and security never gets the attention it deserves. A single holiday or resignation can leave the whole business exposed.
Growth makes it harder. New sites, new staff and tighter compliance demands arrive faster than you can hire, and recruiting good IT people is slow and expensive. Co-managed IT gives your team the depth and the cover they're missing, so the business stays protected whoever is in that day.
SIGNS IT IS TIME
When should you consider co-managed IT?
Most businesses look at co-managed IT when the internal team is doing well but starting to creak. A few signs it's time:
If any of that rings true, co-managed IT usually adds what's missing without you losing the team you already trust.
- Your IT team is good, but everything depends on one or two people
- Holidays and sick days leave gaps in your cover and monitoring
- Patching, security and documentation keep slipping behind day-to-day tickets
- You need specialist skills, like cloud or cyber security, that you can't justify hiring for
- Clients or regulators are asking harder security and compliance questions
- You're growing faster than you can recruit IT staff
- Big projects keep stalling because there's no capacity to run them
THE COMMERCIAL CASE
Why businesses choose co-managed IT
Co-managed IT is usually a commercial decision as much as a technical one. Adding a second experienced IT hire is expensive and slow, and even then you're back to relying on a small number of people. Co-managed gives you a whole team's worth of cover and specialism for less than the loaded cost of that hire.
You keep the internal knowledge that makes your IT work, and you add round-the-clock monitoring and specialist skills on top. It usually works out cheaper than the true cost of downtime and gaps in cover, and it scales with you as the business grows.
WHY BUSINESSES STAY WITH US
Good service is a choice we make every day
The technical side is the easy part. What keeps internal teams working with us is how we work alongside them.
People come first, yours and ours, so we treat your IT team as colleagues rather than a queue of tickets to clear. You'll always get a straight answer, even when it isn't the easy one, and we stay restless about making your systems better before anyone has to ask. Get that right and the outcome takes care of itself, which is why so much of our growth still comes through referral.
HOW IT WORKS
How our co-managed IT works
Bringing in a co-managed partner shouldn't unsettle the team you have, so we build the whole thing around them.
1
Discovery
We sit down with your IT lead to understand what your team does well, what they enjoy, and where they're stretched.
2
Mapping the split
We agree in writing who owns what, so there's no confusion later about where a job sits.
3
Onboarding alongside your team
We connect our tooling, layer monitoring and security in behind the scenes, and introduce a named technical account manager as your IT lead's peer.
4
Quarterly reviews
We meet regularly to review how the split is working and plan the roadmap, adjusting as you grow.
BUILT TO SCALE
Co-managed IT that grows with your business
One worry with any IT partner is outgrowing them. Co-managed is built to flex. Hand us more when your team is stretched, and take work back as you hire, without re-procuring or starting again with someone new.
If the balance shifts far enough that you'd rather we ran everything, moving to our managed IT services is straightforward, because we already know your systems inside out. If you build out your internal team instead, we simply step back to the parts you still want covered. For bigger decisions, our IT consultancy team can help you plan the next phase.
CLIENT STORY
How Momenta Group scaled its small IT team without growing it
Momenta Group provides global workforce solutions, with a two-person in-house IT team in London looking after around 500 PCs and offices in Australia and the US. Head of IT Peter Longley wasn’t looking to hand IT over. He wanted expert capacity alongside his own team to navigate a post-COVID shift to remote working.
Working co-managed, we migrated their files, Active Directory and remote agents to the cloud across 12 months, entirely remotely, while his team kept the business running day to day. When his assistant left just before Christmas and recruiting a replacement quickly proved impossible, we stepped onto the helpdesk to plug the gap until the right person was in place.
That’s the point of co-managed IT. Your team keeps the business knowledge and the day-to-day relationships, and we add the extra capacity and specialist expertise they need when the work spikes or a project gets big.
“For the costs incurred, I would go as far as to say that it is a no-brainer for companies like ours to adopt a co-managed IT strategy.”
- Facilitating a month-by-month service model that suits how their contractors work
- Migrating files, Active Directory and remote agents to the cloud
- Standing in on the helpdesk during a staff shortage
- Remaining an overflow resource during busy periods
- Consulting on future projects, including Cyber Essentials Plus
- Using our supplier network to beat waiting lists on key IT kit
IN THEIR WORDS
What clients say
PROOF YOU CAN TRUST
Credentials that do the talking
We hold the standards that show we handle your systems and data properly: We're trusted by more than 200 UK businesses, with 24/7 monitoring and an average response time under 30 minutes. South West HQ, UK-wide reach.
B Corp CertifiedISO/IEC 27001:2022, certified by UKASCyber Essentials PlusMicrosoft Solutions Partner
200+
UK businesses trust us
<30 min
average response time
24/7
systems monitoring
SECTOR EXPERIENCE
Industries we support
We support businesses across legal, fintech, construction, renewables, charities and professional services. Each sector brings its own pressures, and co-managed IT lets us match that expertise to the team you already have.
That might be the safeguarding and data rules a charity works under, the security questionnaires a fintech has to pass, or the specialist software a construction firm relies on. Your team knows the business, and we bring the technical depth around it.
WHERE WE WORK
Supporting businesses across the UK
We're based in the South West and work with businesses right across the UK. Co-managed IT runs mostly remotely, alongside your team and their tools, so where you're based makes no difference to the service, and we come to you onsite when a project or a planning session calls for it.
We work with organisations from teams of ten to companies of several hundred. Co-managed IT sits alongside our managed IT services and cyber protection and compliance work, so your internal team has the right backup whatever comes up.
WHEN FULL OUTSOURCING FITS BETTER
When fully managed IT is the better fit
Co-managed IT only makes sense if you've got an internal IT team to build around. If you have no in-house IT at all, or you'd rather hand the whole function to one accountable partner, fully managed is the better route. Our managed IT services give you a complete IT department for a predictable monthly fee, with the same round-the-clock monitoring and security, and the strategic planning to match, without the internal team to share it with. If you're not sure which model fits, a short call will point you the right way.
EXPLORE MORE
Explore our other services
Managed IT Services
Technology should power your ambition, not drain your energy. We keep your IT running and secure, then we keep making it better, so your people can focus on the work that grows the business.
Cyber Protection & Compliance
Technology should power your ambition, not put it at risk. We protect your business from attack and give you the documented compliance your clients and regulators now expect, so you can grow with confidence.
IT Consultancy
Technology should power your ambition, not leave you guessing which investment to make next. We give you a clear, independent view of your technology, so every decision moves your business forward.
IT Helpdesk Services
Your team should get unstuck in minutes, not lose half a morning to a laptop that won't connect. Our UK-based IT helpdesk gives them real engineers who answer fast, take ownership of the problem and keep it moving until it's properly fixed.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
What is co-managed IT?
Co-managed IT means your in-house IT team and an external provider run your technology together, splitting the responsibilities between you for a predictable monthly fee. Your team keeps the work they own, and we add capacity and specialist skills around them, along with cover when they're away.
How is co-managed IT different from fully managed IT?
Co-managed IT keeps your internal team in place and adds us alongside them. Fully managed IT replaces the internal function entirely, so we run everything. Co-managed suits businesses that want to keep their internal IT knowledge but need extra capacity and specialist skills they can't sustain alone.
Do you replace our internal IT team?
No. Co-managed IT is built around keeping your team, not replacing it. We work alongside them, take on the parts they hand over, and leave the business knowledge and day-to-day relationships with the people who hold them.
What does co-managed IT include?
It flexes to the line you draw, but most teams hand us 24/7 monitoring and security operations, patching, escalation and out-of-hours support, cover for holidays and busy periods, specialist project delivery, and deep cyber security and cloud expertise. Your team keeps first-line support, vendor relationships and business knowledge.
How is the responsibility split decided?
We start with a short discovery to map what your internal team does well and where they're stretched. Your team usually keeps day-to-day support, vendor relationships and business knowledge, while we take monitoring, security operations, patching, disaster recovery and specialist projects. We write the split down, review it every quarter, and flex it as your needs change.
Can we move between models over time?
Yes. Many clients start co-managed and shift the balance as they grow, handing us more when the internal team is stretched, or taking work back as they hire. Some move from co-managed to fully managed when an IT person leaves, and others go the other way as they build an internal team. The model flexes without re-procuring.
What happens if our internal IT person leaves?
Because we already run your monitoring, security, documentation and tooling, a departure doesn't leave you exposed. We can hold the fort, brief a replacement, or move to fully managed while you re-hire, without the knowledge walking out of the door. That continuity is one of the main reasons SMEs choose co-managed.
How much does co-managed IT cost?
For a 20 to 100 user UK SME, co-managed typically runs £1,000 to £4,000 a month depending on how you split the work, plus a project budget for larger pieces. That usually sits below the loaded cost of a second in-house hire, and below full outsourcing at our benchmark of around £39 per user a month, because you only pay us for the parts your team hands over. A short discovery call is the quickest way to get an accurate figure.
How do you onboard alongside an existing IT team?
Onboarding is built around your existing team, not around replacing it. We document the current setup with your IT lead, agree the split, connect our tooling so both sides share one view, and introduce a named technical account manager as your IT lead's peer. Day to day carries on while we layer monitoring and security in behind the scenes.
What size of business do you work with?
We mainly support organisations from around 10 to 500 staff, across sectors including legal, fintech, construction, renewables, charities and professional services.
How quickly will we get help when something goes wrong?
Our average response time is under 30 minutes, and your systems are monitored 24/7, so we often fix issues before you even report them.
Do you provide remote and onsite support?
Both. Most issues are resolved remotely in minutes, and we send an engineer onsite whenever a job needs someone in the room.
Do you provide cyber security and compliance support?
Yes. Security is built into everything we do. We hold ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and Cyber Essentials Plus ourselves, and we can extend dedicated cyber security and compliance support alongside your team.
Will you understand our industry software?
Yes. We take the time to learn the specialist tools you depend on, so support solves the real problem rather than passing you back to the vendor.
Do you share your tools with our team?
Yes. Your team logs into the same monitoring and ticketing platforms we run for more than 200 UK clients, so both sides work from one view rather than two disconnected setups.
What if we have no in-house IT team at all?
Then co-managed probably isn't the right fit, and fully managed IT is likely better. Our managed IT services give you a complete IT department for a predictable monthly fee. Co-managed only makes sense when there's an internal team to build around.
How do you work with our IT lead day to day?
Your IT lead gets a named technical account manager as a peer, not a ticket queue. They know your environment, join your planning, and act as the single point of accountability on our side.
What does getting started look like?
It begins with a review of where you are now and where you want to go, exactly how our relationship with Snape Group started.
Give your IT team the reach it needs
Technology should power your ambition, not rest on one or two pairs of hands. A 30-minute discovery call is all it takes to map the split and see what co-managed IT would look like for your business. We'll look at what your team owns today and where they're stretched, then show how we'd fill the gaps, with no obligation.
Map your co-managed split