Predictable Managed IT for Melbourne SMEs
Managed IT Services Melbourne — What’s Actually Included, Honestly
What Managed IT Actually Includes (And What Most MSPs Won’t Tell You)
Most “managed IT services” pages are vague on purpose. The vagueness lets the MSP tack on extras at quote time. We do it differently — this page lists what’s actually included in your monthly fee, what we charge separately, and where pricing depends on your environment.
TechAssist provides managed IT to Melbourne SMEs in the 5–150 staff range across professional services, trades, manufacturing, healthcare, education and operational businesses. Local team, NinjaOne / BitDefender / Sentinel One / ThreatLocker stack, 13 certified specialists, real engineers who answer the phone.
How Our Managed IT Service Works
Three steps. Discover what you have. Onboard you cleanly. Manage proactively. Predictable monthly fee from day one.
01
Discover
Free 60-minute review of your current IT setup. We look at what’s working, what isn’t, what your security posture looks like honestly, and what we’d fix first. Written summary, no obligation, no upsell.
02
Onboard
Four-week deployment with zero disruption. We document every server, endpoint, M365 tenant, network device and vendor, deploy NinjaOne monitoring, harden security baselines, set up backup and brief your team. By week four we know your IT better than anyone you’ve had before.
03
Manage
24/7 monitoring. Helpdesk under SLA. Patches on a defined cadence. Monthly performance reports. Quarterly business reviews with your account engineer and our vCIO. One flat monthly fee, one accountability point, no surprise invoices.
Eight Things Included in Every Managed IT Plan
All eight included in your monthly fee. No surprise add-ons. No “security uplift project” quotes for the basics. No “configuration time” line items.
1
24/7 Australian Helpdesk
Real engineers in Australian time zones, answering tickets within SLA. Not a script-reading offshore first level, not a chatbot. Most issues resolve remotely in minutes.
2
Proactive Monitoring (NinjaOne)
Every server, workstation, M365 tenant and network device monitored 24/7. Backup failures, disk degradation, patch lag and security events alerted before your team notices.
3
Patch Management
Critical CVEs patched within the Essential Eight 48-hour window. Application and OS patches on a defined cadence. Tested staged rollout for known-risky updates.
4
Microsoft 365 Hardening
Conditional Access, Intune device management, MFA on every account, DLP rules, audit logging, M365 backup. Done the way Microsoft actually recommends, not just whatever a reseller had time for.
5
Endpoint Security
BitDefender, Sentinel One and ThreatLocker on every workstation, laptop and mobile device. EDR, application control, threat hunting. Cyber insurance renewals get smoother.
6
Daily Verified Backups
3-2-1-1-0 standard. Three copies, two media types, one offsite, one immutable, zero errors verified. Quarterly tested restore. Backup that actually works when you need it.
7
Strategic vCIO
Quarterly business reviews tying technology to business goals. Roadmap, budget planning, vendor management, M&A IT due diligence when needed. The strategic layer most SMEs can’t justify hiring full-time.
8
Vendor Management
Microsoft, your ISP, telephony, line-of-business apps. We coordinate with your vendor stack so you stop being the meat in the sandwich when something needs three companies to fix it.
Service Tiers
Three flat-fee tiers plus a co-managed option. Per-user pricing, no minimum lock-in beyond a 90-day transition guarantee.
Essentials
Essentials
For 5–15 staff. Helpdesk, monitoring, patching, M365 support, daily backups. The fundamentals done properly. Best for businesses outgrowing break-fix.
Professional
Professional
Most clients sit here. 15–75 staff. Full managed IT plus Essential Eight uplift, ThreatLocker application control, vCIO quarterly reviews, named account engineer.
Enterprise
Enterprise
For 75–150 staff. Dedicated account engineer, monthly vCIO, advanced security, on-site allocation, custom SLAs. Compliance-grade documentation.
Co-Managed
Co-Managed
You have internal IT but need depth, after-hours cover, project capacity, or vCIO support. We complement your team rather than replace it.
What’s Included vs What’s Out of Scope
Included in your monthly fee: Helpdesk, monitoring, patching, M365 support and hardening, security tooling, daily backups, vendor management, quarterly vCIO reviews, monthly reports, and unlimited remote support time.
Charged separately: Hardware (at cost plus a small admin fee, no inflated mark-ups), large project work (quoted up front, fixed-fee where possible), specialist consulting outside our standard stack, and on-site time beyond your tier’s allocation. We tell you up front when something is out of scope — never billed by surprise.
How Pricing Actually Works
Per-user, per-month, on a flat fee. Pricing depends on your tier, staff count and a small set of environmental factors (server count, line-of-business app complexity, regulatory obligations).
Hardware is charged at cost plus a small admin fee. We don’t mark up Microsoft licences. Project work is quoted up front, fixed-fee where the scope allows. No “configuration time” line items, no after-hours emergency loadings within SLA, no padded invoices.
Why Most MSPs Underdeliver
The pattern we see when clients leave another MSP to come to us: vague SLAs, hidden hardware mark-ups, security promised but never deployed properly, an offshore first-level helpdesk that wastes 20 minutes before escalating, and an account manager who turned over twice in 18 months.
We’re built differently. 13 specialists, deliberate client cap, named account engineer per client, full Australian-based engineering, documented in IT Glue with the client owning their documentation. If you ever leave us, you take the docs with you.
What Melbourne SMEs Get from Managed IT
Predictable Monthly Cost
Flat fee covering helpdesk, monitoring, patching, security, vCIO. No surprise invoices, no inflated hardware mark-ups, no “configuration time” padding.
24/7 Australian Helpdesk
Real engineers in Australian time zones, answering tickets within SLA. 97% customer satisfaction on tickets — measured, not invented.
Local Melbourne On-Site
When hardware needs hands, our Melbourne-based engineers attend on site across the metro area, typically within an hour. No interstate flights.
Cyber-Insurance Ready
Essential Eight aligned. MFA on every account, EDR on every endpoint, immutable backups, documented incident response. Renewals go through smoothly.
Industry Expertise
LEAP and Affinity for legal. ERP for manufacturing. Clinical systems for healthcare. eduSTAR for schools. We talk your kit fluently before we quote.
Documented & Portable
Your environment lives in IT Glue. If you ever leave us, you take the documentation with you. We don’t hold knowledge hostage.
Want a closer look at managed IT pricing?
See indicative monthly pricing for Essentials, Professional and Enterprise tiers, plus what’s included and what’s out of scope.
Get a Free Managed IT Assessment
Call 1300 028 324 or fill out the form for a free 60-minute managed IT assessment. We’ll review your current setup, score you against the eight inclusions, and tell you honestly whether managed IT is right for your business.
Related Essential Eight Resources
Read our comprehensive Essential Eight guide for a detailed breakdown of all eight controls and how to implement them in your organisation.
Our IT audit service assesses your current maturity level across all eight strategies, and our Security Operations Centre monitors for the threats these controls help prevent.
TechAssist integrates Essential Eight compliance into our cyber security services and managed IT plans. For strategic guidance on your compliance journey, our Virtual CIO service builds a prioritised roadmap tailored to your business.
Ready to Talk Managed IT?
Contact TechAssist today for a no-obligation Essential Eight assessment. We’ll evaluate your current maturity level and build a practical roadmap to compliance.