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What Is an IT Project Engagement (and How Is It Different From Managed IT)?

Scoped, one-time work in five phases, and why projects fail without them.

An IT project engagement is scoped, one-time work with a defined outcome, timeline and budget: a server implementation, a cloud migration, an office move, a network build, a security implementation. It differs from managed IT, which is ongoing operation of your environment, though the same team usually does both.

How Mentis Group runs a project

  1. Discovery. We discuss the project scope, goals, constraints and timeline with you.
  2. Infrastructure assessment. We evaluate the systems the project will touch, including dependencies nobody wrote down.
  3. Solution architecture. We design the solution, document it and agree on the plan, cutover windows and rollback steps.
  4. Implementation. We execute in stages, with testing at each one and communication to your users.
  5. Training and next steps. We train users and administrators, hand over documentation, and fold the result into ongoing support.

Why IT projects fail without specialized project services

  • Nobody owns the outcome; the internal IT person is doing it between tickets.
  • Dependencies were never mapped, so one change breaks three other things.
  • There is no cutover plan or rollback, so a bad weekend becomes a bad week.
  • The project is done by someone who has done it once, instead of by a team that has done it fifty times.
  • Users were not told what would change.
  • The old system is never decommissioned, so you pay for both.

Projects and managed IT together

For managed clients, projects come out of the vCIO roadmap, so they are planned and budgeted rather than urgent. The same engineers who run the environment build the next piece of it, which removes the handoff problems that come with a third-party integrator.

Common project types

Server implementations, network, firewall and wireless builds, office and data center moves, disaster recovery solutions, breach remediation, cybersecurity testing and implementation, SharePoint and cloud file migrations, and email migrations. See which IT projects need a specialist, what is cloud migration and planning IT for an office move.

Details and case examples are on the IT Project Services page.

Have a question about your own environment? Schedule a consultation with Mentis Group or call (866) 901-7808.