Co-managed IT pairs your in-house IT person with an outside managed IT provider. Your IT person can handle day-to-day requests and firm-specific work like Revit standards, while the IT provider can cover security, monitoring, backup and after-hours support. That said, there's no fixed division. The split is tailored to your firm's needs. Co-managed usually makes sense for architecture firms with 30-50+ employees and one IT person, and it typically costs less than half of a second IT hire. Here's how it works and how to tell if your firm needs it.
How Co-Managed IT Splits the Work
Your IT person stays in charge. The provider fills the gaps that one person can't cover alone. Below is an example of how this split can work.
Your in-house person handles:
- Day-to-day user requests and onboarding
- Revit and BIM standards, templates and content
- Project-specific software setup
- Office knowledge and staff relationships
- Priorities and budget input
While the co-managed provider handles:
- 24/7 monitoring and alerting
- Security tools: EDR, MFA, email filtering
- Backup and tested disaster recovery
- After-hours, vacation and sick-day coverage
- Escalations, network and server projects, vendor calls
5 Signs Your IT Person Needs Backup
- They haven't taken a real vacation in a year, or they take calls while they're away.
- Security projects keep slipping because daily tickets come first.
- Nobody else knows the admin passwords or how the network is set up.
- Your cyber-insurance questionnaire asks about tools you don't have, like EDR or 24/7 monitoring.
- They're also your BIM manager, and project work is suffering.
How to Set Up Co-Managed IT in 3 Steps
- Define the split. Agree in writing who owns which tasks, using the table above as a starting point.
- Share access and documentation. Both sides need admin access and one shared source of network documentation.
- Meet regularly. A 30-minute review of open issues, security alerts and upcoming projects keeps everyone aligned.
Why Katy Architecture Firms Choose Alexaur for Co-Managed IT
We've supported architecture, engineering, and construction firms across Katy, TX and Greater West Houston since 2001, and we're still family-owned. The person who answers your call knows why the trailer machine matters.
- We don't replace your IT person. We make sure they're never on their own.
- 98% of support tickets resolved on the first call
- Average client tenure of more than 10 years
- 100+ combined years of cybersecurity experience on staff
- Clients who have implemented our full security and business continuity recommendations have not reported a business-disrupting security incident.
- Fluent in the software you actually run: AutoCAD, Revit, Bluebeam, SolidWorks, Procore, Navisworks, ProjectWise, and OnScreen Takeoff.
- Dell & Lenovo Partner
- Managed Protection Security Suite Associate Accreditation
- MSP Pro
- Keeper Sales Professional
- Network+ Certified
- SonicWall Certified
Book a free Discovery Call to map out a co-managed split for your firm.
