Co-Managed IT Services for Ontario Businesses
Extra hands and expertise for the IT team you already have, not a replacement for them.
ACT360 works alongside the internal IT hire growing Ontario businesses already have, covering overflow, specialized projects, and after-hours gaps, built on the ACTION methodology.
FREE · 30 MIN · NO OBLIGATION
What Your Free IT Readiness Assessment Covers
A 30-minute review with an ACT360 technology partner. We’ll look at what your internal IT setup already handles well and where it actually needs backup.
- Where your internal IT hire needs backup most
- What overflow or specialized work makes sense to hand off
- How a co-managed engagement would be scoped and priced for your business
Why Co-Managed IT Matters
Co-managed IT means ACT360 works alongside the internal IT person or team a business already has, filling gaps in coverage, security, and specialized projects instead of replacing that role.
Most businesses that look into co-managed IT already have someone handling day-to-day technology, often an internal hire who’s genuinely good at the daily requests but has no backup when they’re on vacation, out sick, or stuck on a project outside their specialty. In a lot of cases, that person also has the accidental role: hired to run the shop floor or the front office, then handed the laptop and Wi-Fi problems as an add-on to their actual job. Co-managed IT gives that person real backup, not a replacement, and gives leadership one place to send the security questions, vendor renewals, and after-hours emergencies an internal hire was never meant to own alone.
Hiring a second full-time IT person isn’t always realistic either. The Information and Communications Technology Council has projected sustained demand for digitally skilled workers in Canada that outpaces supply, which is part of why growing businesses look at co-managed IT instead of a second or third internal hire: it’s faster to scope and doesn’t depend on winning a competitive hiring market.
Co-managed IT sits between the two other paths on ACT360’s IT services page. Standalone IT support is the helpdesk layer on its own, with ACT360 as the primary contact. Full Managed IT takes over the entire relationship: monitoring, security, vendor management, and vCIO strategy under one roof. Co-managed IT is scoped specifically to the gap between what an internal hire already covers well and what they don’t have the time, tools, or specialization for.
What’s Included in ACT360 Co-Managed IT
Specialized security work is the piece most internal hires have the least time for. The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s baseline guidance for small and medium businesses recommends ongoing oversight rather than a one-time setup, which is exactly the gap co-managed IT is built to fill.
Overflow & After-Hours Coverage
Backup when your internal hire is out sick, on vacation, or buried in a specialized project, so nothing waits until Monday.
Specialized Project Work
Migrations, security hardening, and vendor negotiations handled by ACT360 while your team keeps daily operations running.
Strategic Planning Support
vCIO-style budgeting and roadmap input layered on top of the day-to-day work your internal hire already owns.
A Named Contact, Not a Ticket Queue
Adam or Jeffrey coordinates directly with your internal hire, so hand-offs never land in a generic queue.
A Path to Full Managed IT
Room to grow into a full Managed IT engagement later if your needs outgrow a co-managed arrangement, without starting over.
Co-Managed IT vs. Fully Managed IT vs. In-House Only
Businesses researching co-managed IT are usually deciding between three real paths, not whether they need outside help at all. Here’s how they actually compare.
If you don’t have an internal IT hire at all, see Managed IT Services.
Who Co-Managed IT Fits Best
Co-managed IT works differently depending on what’s already in place. Here’s where it fits.
Growing Business, One IT Hire
Best fit: a single internal IT person who’s genuinely good at day-to-day support but has no backup. ACT360 covers after-hours coverage, security hardening, and specialized projects.
Multi-Location Teams
Best fit: an internal team stretched across locations with no dedicated security or infrastructure specialist. ACT360 covers vendor management, infrastructure projects, and strategic planning support.
Scaling Toward Full Managed IT
Best fit: a business that expects to eventually hand off the full relationship but isn’t ready yet. ACT360 provides a defined path to Managed IT once needs outgrow the internal team.
Signs Your Internal IT Person Needs Backup
We hear a short list of the same signals on almost every first call about co-managed IT, and none of them mean your internal hire is doing a bad job.
Our Approach
A.C.T.I.O.N.
Co-managed IT starts with understanding what your internal IT person already owns well, so ACTION fills the specific gaps instead of duplicating effort. The handoff is staged around your team’s schedule, and we keep checking in through quarterly reviews.
Assess
A real look at what your internal IT person already owns well, not a headcount-and-device-list quote.
Comprehend
We dig into where the actual gaps are — after-hours coverage, specialized security work, a second set of hands — instead of duplicating effort.
Tailor
The recommendation is built around what your internal hire doesn’t have time for or isn’t specialized in, not a pre-packaged tier.
Implement
The handoff is staged around your team’s schedule — never a big-bang cutover that disrupts your internal hire’s routine.
Optimize
Quarterly reviews keep checking in so the split of responsibilities keeps making sense as your business grows.
Nurture
We build relationships with your whole team, including your internal hire, not just the owner.
Read More About Co-Managed IT
The Team Values Behind ACT360’s Co-Managed IT
Co-managed IT partnerships work because both teams, yours and ACT360’s, can count on these values being real, not printed on a wall.
Be the Client
We listen to our clients and other team members to understand the full scope of the requirements and goals. We put ourselves in your shoes as we design and build the processes, tools, and infrastructure that will make your team more productive.
Give the 360° Solution
Our goal is to give our clients the full solution, so your technology becomes a profit enhancer rather than a profit hindrance. That’s why we offer more than a service desk or IT support — we bring a vCIO, IT strategy, and process improvement to the table.
Be a Problem Solver
We look beyond the problem to find its actual source so we can resolve it. When we work with your team and any vendors, we make sure every issue at hand is fully addressed.
Always Looking Forward
We strive to deal with our mistakes as a team, learn from them, fix them, and then not look back and repeat them. We also aim to provide proactive and forward-facing solutions by identifying issues as soon as they’re spotted.
Working to Live, Not Living to Work
We want our employees to feel supported to take care of family and personal needs. So we believe in creating a flexible, asynchronous, and remote-friendly workplace — as long as the work is getting done well and on time, then we are satisfied.
Treating Employees Like Experts
We believe our employees are experts who can be trusted to own their work and feel empowered to improve results. So we trust our experts to create solutions in efficient ways that work for them and to seek continual improvement, for the company and for others.
Meet the Team Behind ACT360’s Co-Managed IT
You won’t be handed off to a rotating helpdesk.
Adam Bowles
Partner & CEOAdam leads with discovery. He won’t recommend a co-managed scope until he understands what your internal hire already owns well.
Jeffrey Bowles
Partner & Director of IT ServicesOne of ACT360’s founding team members and trained in computer science at Georgian College, Jeffrey runs the technical foundation, helpdesk, networking, and cybersecurity, and leads ACT360’s vCIO and DEEP MSP programs.
What Ontario Businesses Ask About Co-Managed IT
Co-managed IT is scoped to the specific gap being filled, not the full managed IT rate that assumes ACT360 owns the entire relationship. Because your internal hire keeps handling day-to-day work, most co-managed engagements cost less than fully outsourcing, and a number gets confirmed at the IT Readiness Assessment rather than quoted blind.
No. Co-managed IT is built to support your internal hire, not replace them. They keep their role, their relationships with your team, and their institutional knowledge, while ACT360 fills the specific gaps around them.
That’s a fair concern worth naming upfront. Co-managed engagements work best when your internal hire helps define what ACT360 covers from the start, usually the after-hours coverage and specialized work they don’t have time for, so it reads as backup, not a quiet replacement plan.
Specialized work that falls outside a generalist internal hire’s day-to-day scope: security hardening, cloud migrations, and vendor contract negotiations. Your internal person typically keeps ownership of daily helpdesk and user support.
Yes, and it’s a conversation about changing needs, not a renegotiation from scratch. Some businesses choose co-managed IT specifically because they aren’t ready to hand over the full relationship, then move to full Managed IT once needs grow past what their internal hire and ACT360 can split.
Yes. ACT360 supports growing businesses across Central and Southern Ontario, including Newmarket, Simcoe County, Orillia, and Aurora, not just Barrie where the team is based. See Co-Managed IT in Barrie for local specifics.
Standalone IT support is a helpdesk relationship on its own, with ACT360 as the primary contact for day-to-day issues. Co-managed IT assumes you already have an internal hire handling that layer, and scopes ACT360’s work around the specific gaps they have, not the whole helpdesk.
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Get an assessment and find out exactly where co-managed IT would help most.
Get an IT Readiness AssessmentGet in Touch
Phone Number
Building Address
By Appointment only: 24 Maple Ave, Barrie, Ontario
Business Hours
Monday-Friday: 9am to 6pm
Saturday-Sunday: Closed
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