When Does an Internal IT Team Need Outside Help?
The signs a one- or two-person IT team is stretched too thin, and what a partner takes on.
An internal IT team needs outside help when it can no longer cover help desk, projects, security and maintenance at the same time, which for a one- or two-person team happens quickly. The signs are predictable, and so is the fix.
The signs
- Maintenance is slipping. Patching is behind, backups are unverified, and documentation is out of date because user tickets always come first.
- Security is reactive. No one is watching alerts after hours. MFA is partly rolled out. The cyber insurance questionnaire took weeks.
- Projects stall. The Azure migration or the office move has been "next quarter" for a year.
- No coverage. When your IT person is out, nobody is.
- Skill gaps. Cloud, security, compliance and networking each need expertise your generalist cannot maintain alone. See can co-managed IT fill skill gaps.
- Burnout. Your IT person is on call permanently and the turnover risk is real.
What a co-managed partner takes off their plate
Monitoring and alert response, patch management, backup verification, security tooling and operations, network and firewall standards, documentation, recurring alignment audits, escalation engineering, and strategic planning with a vCIO. Your team keeps end-user support and the business applications they know best. What is co-managed IT explains the model.
What it does not mean
It does not mean replacing your team. A good co-managed arrangement makes the internal person more effective and more valuable, not less. If the goal is to replace the function entirely, that is a different conversation, covered in co-managed vs fully managed IT.
Mentis Group's Co-Managed IT program is designed for exactly this situation: internal IT focuses on the users, Mentis handles the proactive, centralized and security-critical work.
Have a question about your own environment? Schedule a consultation with Mentis Group or call (866) 901-7808.