Three ways to cover the same work. Which one fits depends on what you already have.
Most businesses reach this decision the same way. Something breaks, the person who usually handles it is unavailable, and it becomes clear that IT has been running on goodwill. The question that follows is whether to hire, to outsource, or to do both.
This page sets the three models side by side, so the trade-offs are visible before a proposal is on the table.
This page compares who staffs your IT function. If you are comparing how IT work is bought, ongoing support versus one-time projects, see Managed Services vs Professional Services.
Every model below covers the same underlying work. Someone has to answer the help desk, patch the servers, watch the alerts overnight, keep the licenses straight, and produce evidence when an auditor asks. What differs is who does which part, how the cost behaves, and what happens on the day that person is unavailable.
| What to compare | Fully managed IT | Co-managed IT | In-house team |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns day-to-day support | WheelHouse IT | Split by written scope, usually WheelHouse IT on tier one and after hours | Your staff |
| Who sets technology strategy | WheelHouse IT, reviewed with you | Your IT lead, with WheelHouse IT as a second opinion | Your IT lead |
| Coverage outside business hours | 24/7 from an internally staffed operations center | 24/7 from WheelHouse IT, so your staff stop carrying the pager | Whatever your staff can sustain |
| How the cost behaves | One fixed monthly fee for the agreed scope | A fixed monthly fee for the agreed scope, alongside your existing salaries | Salaries, benefits, payroll tax, training, and the tooling stack bought separately |
| When someone is out or resigns | Coverage does not change | Coverage does not change | Coverage stops until the role is filled |
| Depth in security, cloud, and compliance | Specialists available without separate hires | Specialists available to your team on the days they are needed | Limited to what your headcount happens to know |
| Adding a location or thirty people | A scope adjustment | A scope adjustment | A hiring cycle |
| Producing evidence for an audit | WheelHouse IT documents it and supplies it | Shared, defined in the scope document | Your staff build it, usually during the audit |
| Typically fits | No internal IT, or one overloaded generalist | One to five internal IT staff who cannot cover everything | Large environments with specialized in-house needs |
Three situations, three answers. Most businesses recognize themselves in one of them straight away.
The work still happens, it is just spread across whoever is nearest. An office manager resets passwords, a partner calls a vendor, and nobody owns the patching. Fully managed IT puts one accountable team in that position. New clients qualify for month-to-month services.
One or two people carry everything, which means the projects that would actually move the business keep sliding. Co-managed IT takes monitoring, patching, and after-hours coverage off them, and defines in writing where your responsibility ends and ours begins.
A single hire covers one skill set during one shift. Before committing to a salary, compare it against a model that covers nights, weekends, security, cloud, and compliance, and that does not stop when the person takes a holiday.
The same five questions separate a proposal that holds up from one that reads well and leaves gaps.
Fully managed IT means the provider is your IT department. Co-managed IT means the provider works alongside internal staff you already employ, covering the parts they cannot reach. The technical work overlaps almost entirely. What differs is who owns each part and who your people call first.
No. The model exists because the internal person is the one who knows your business, your applications, and your people. Co-managed support takes the repeating work and the after-hours coverage, so that knowledge gets spent on projects instead of password resets.
Yes, and businesses move in both directions. A company that hires its first IT manager often shifts from fully managed to co-managed. A company that loses its only IT person often moves the other way. New clients qualify for month-to-month services, so the commitment does not lock the decision in.
Under fully managed IT, WheelHouse IT owns the security controls and the evidence that they were running. Under co-managed IT, the split is written into the scope document before the engagement starts, which is the part most often left undefined.
Yes. Organizations with large environments, unusual applications, or requirements that demand staff on site often need people of their own. Many of them still use co-managed support for after-hours coverage and specialist depth, rather than hiring a second and third shift.
More questions are answered on our FAQ page.
15 minutes is all it takes to see if our approach aligns with your needs.
Call, chat, email, or fill out the form to be connected with a technical advisor.
