Orillia
Co-Managed IT in Orillia for the Person Who Already Runs Your Systems
Co-managed IT in Orillia means ACT360 works beside the person or small team already running your technology. They keep control of the systems. We add security depth, project capacity and cover for the days they can’t be there.
Our office is at 24 Maple Ave in Barrie, about half an hour south of Orillia on Highway 11. The co-managed model itself is explained on our co-managed IT services page. This page covers how it plays out for Orillia employers.
FREE · 30 MIN · NO OBLIGATION
What a 30-Minute Co-Managed IT Review Looks At
A call with an ACT360 partner, ideally with your IT person on the line too. You come away knowing where ACT360 would fit around them, and where it wouldn’t.
- What your IT lead handles well today and wants to keep
- The jobs that stall when they’re on holidays or buried in a project
- A rough shape for the arrangement, priced once we’ve seen your setup
Why Do Orillia Employers With In-House IT Look at Co-Managed IT?
Because one or two IT people can’t cover security, big projects and every absence by themselves, and another full-time hire is a large fixed cost. Co-managed IT adds that depth without another salary.
West Orillia has also become home to some large technical employers. Hydro One opened its $150 million provincial grid control centre there in 2021, then built a regional operations centre and a 120,000-square-foot provincial warehouse in the Horne Business Park. The utility has said the three facilities will hold up to 250 employees. Nearby, Lakehead University’s Orillia campus has more than 2,100 students, and the County of Simcoe has pledged $15 million over ten years to help it grow toward roughly 3,500.
Most Orillia employers are much smaller. At a manufacturer in one of the city’s industrial parks, a clinic, or a professional office downtown, the person who looks after your network, Microsoft 365 accounts and line-of-business software is often the only one who can. When they book a week at the cottage, get pulled into a server replacement, or hand in their notice, nobody else knows where things are.
That isn’t a criticism of them. Statistics Canada found that half of Canadian businesses had employees responsible for cyber security in 2023, down from 61% in 2021, and the most common reason given by businesses without them was that they relied on consultants or contractors instead. Co-managed IT is the version of that where your own person stays in charge.
What ACT360 Takes On in an Orillia Co-Managed Arrangement
Security Depth Your IT Person Can Use
Security hardening planned and carried out with your IT lead, so the next insurance or customer security questionnaire has real answers behind it.
Cover for Holidays and Sick Days
When your IT person is at the cottage in July or home with the flu in February, staff still have a named ACT360 contact to call.
Project Capacity
Server replacements, Microsoft 365 or Azure migrations and network upgrades run alongside your team instead of waiting for a quiet month that never arrives.
Vendor and Renewal Conversations
Licensing renewals, internet contracts and software vendors handled by ACT360, so they don’t all land on one desk.
Planning Time With a vCIO
Budget and roadmap sessions with ACT360’s vCIO side, so your IT lead isn’t writing next year’s technology plan alone after hours.
Room to Change the Split Later
If your IT person retires or moves on, the arrangement can shift toward full Managed IT without rebuilding the documentation from nothing.
What Keeps a Co-Managed Setup in Orillia Low-Risk
Financial
Co-managed work is scoped and quoted on its own terms after the assessment, based on exactly which jobs your IT person hands over. The 90-day exit clause applies to Managed IT agreements only.
Switching
Nothing moves until your IT lead agrees to it. Responsibilities shift one at a time, and the first job is learning what’s already there, not changing it.
Political
Your IT person is part of the first conversation, not the subject of it. The assessment gives them a written summary to take to the owner.
Operational
Your IT lead calls one named ACT360 contact rather than a general support line.
Ownership
Admin accounts, documentation and licences are registered to your business. Anything ACT360 builds for you belongs to you.
A Second IT Hire, Full Outsourcing or Co-Managed IT, Compared for Orillia
Salary figure based on the Job Bank median of $47.00 an hour for information systems specialists (NOC 21222) in the Kitchener-Waterloo-Barrie region, which includes Orillia, multiplied by 2,080 hours.
Your IT person already knows which shop-floor PC can’t be restarted mid-shift and which vendor never answers email.
That knowledge is hard to replace and easy to lose. Co-managed IT keeps it inside your business and puts a team behind it.
Our Approach
A.C.T.I.O.N.
ACTION is how ACT360 runs every engagement. In an Orillia co-managed arrangement it starts with your IT lead, before anyone writes a proposal.
Assess
We sit down with your IT person and go through what’s running today, including servers, the Microsoft 365 tenant, the firewall and the software the plant or office depends on.
Comprehend
We find out which jobs keep slipping and why. Usually it’s time. Sometimes it’s a specialty, and now and then it’s a vendor nobody wants to call.
Tailor
A written split of who does what and the reasoning behind it, including the work we suggest your IT lead keeps.
Implement
Handover goes one responsibility at a time, planned around shift schedules and your busy season rather than one big weekend change.
Optimize
Quarterly reviews check whether the split still fits, especially after a new hire, a second site or a new piece of equipment.
Nurture
Your IT lead builds a working relationship with ACT360’s senior people and picks up skills along the way, so they get stronger, not more dependent.
Who Your Orillia IT Lead Will Work With
Two partners your IT person can reach directly, with no ticket queue between them and the people making decisions.
Adam Bowles
Partner & CEO15+ years helping Ontario businesses close the gap between the technology they bought and the technology they actually need. Adam won’t recommend anything until he understands how your business actually runs.
Jeffrey Bowles
Partner & Director of IT ServicesA founding ACT360 team member with computer science training from Georgian College. Jeffrey runs helpdesk, networking, cybersecurity and cabling work at ACT360, and leads the vCIO and DEEP MSP programs.
The Values Behind How We Share Your IT
Six team values, from Be the Client to Treating Employees Like Experts, guide how ACT360 works inside an environment your own staff look after. You can read all six on our About page.
See where ACT360 would fit around your IT person, in a 30-minute review
Get an IT Readiness AssessmentWhat Orillia Employers Ask Before Bringing In Co-Managed IT
Being good at the job doesn’t make one person available every day of the year or an expert in every area. ACT360 gives your IT lead a second layer for security, larger projects and absences, so the business isn’t exposed when they’re away.
Not if they help design the arrangement, and we ask them to from the first call. They decide what to hand over and keep admin control, and staff and vendors still go to them first. ACT360 is there to make their job manageable.
ACT360 doesn’t publish a flat co-managed rate, because the price depends on which jobs your IT person hands over, and it’s set after the free assessment. For context, full-service Managed IT runs $80 to $150 CAD per user per month, where ACT360 owns the whole job. A second information systems specialist in this region earns a median of $47.00 an hour on Job Bank figures, close to $98,000 a year before benefits.
Handover and project work are timed around your production schedule, because the Implement step in ACTION is phased rather than a single cutover. Your IT lead knows which machines and shop-floor PCs can’t go down mid-shift, and that drives the plan. Anything that needs a maintenance window is agreed with them ahead of time.
It can be either, and the split can change as your team changes. One business wants permanent depth behind a single IT person, while another only needs cover while it hires or while a long-serving IT person plans retirement. If the role stays vacant for good, the arrangement can move toward full Managed IT with the documentation already in place.
Co-managed IT works around whoever handles technology today, including an office manager who took it on because nobody else would. In that case ACT360 carries more of the load, and the assessment may point you to IT support in Orillia or full Managed IT instead. We’d rather say so than sell the wrong thing.
The first step is a free 30-minute review, and the timeline after that depends on what your IT lead wants to hand over first. A single urgent job can be scoped on its own. Book the review and you’ll leave with a realistic order of work.
More From ACT360 for Orillia Businesses
Does Your Business Stall When Your IT Person Takes a Week Off?
Book a free 30-minute co-managed IT review.
Get an IT Readiness AssessmentGet in Touch
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Saturday-Sunday: Closed
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