Managed IT Support NZ
One team, one number, one fixed monthly cost.
Unlimited helpdesk, security, backup & Microsoft 365 for one fixed price per user, per month, ex GST.
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Quick answer: IT Live Northland is a New Zealand managed service provider (MSP) that runs your helpdesk, security, backup and Microsoft 365 for one fixed price per user, per month, ex GST. IT Live monitors your systems every day, staffs a New Zealand helpdesk for your team, and most of the time deals with the problem before you notice it.
Most businesses don’t call an IT company because they want IT. They call because the email won’t send, the new starter has no laptop, or the insurer has asked a question nobody can answer. Managed IT support means you stop paying by the hour to fix things after they break.
IT Live has been doing this for around 20 years, from five offices between Whangārei and Wanaka.
What's included in IT Live's managed IT support, and what isn't?
IT Live’s monthly managed IT fee covers unlimited helpdesk support, device monitoring and patching, Microsoft 365 tenant management, Huntress security, Datto backup and network management. Hardware, Microsoft licences and anything with a project scope and an end date are quoted separately, so you see the number before you say yes.
No airy-fairy promises – here is the line by line, so you can compare IT Live to whoever else you are talking to.
| Included in the monthly fee | Not included (quoted separately) | |
|---|---|---|
| Helpdesk | Unlimited day-to-day support by phone, email or ticket. No hourly clock running. | Work that isn’t day-to-day support – anything with a project scope and an end date. See the Projects row. |
| New staff & leavers | Setting up the user, mailbox, licences, security and the device build. | The laptop itself – purchased through IT Live and billed separately. |
| Devices | Monitoring, patching and antivirus on every managed PC, laptop and server (NinjaOne). | Hardware purchase, repairs out of warranty, and replacement gear. |
| Microsoft 365 | Tenant management, security settings, licence right-sizing, mailbox and SharePoint admin. | The Microsoft licences themselves – billed per user on top of the support fee. |
| Security | Huntress SOC (security operations centre – a team of analysts watching alerts 24/7), MFA enforcement, Secure Score management, email security. | Formal SMB1001 Gold certification audit, if you want the certificate in your own name. |
| Backup | Datto backup of Microsoft 365 – email, OneDrive, SharePoint & Teams – plus server backup where you have one. | Large one-off restores from a third party’s platform IT Live does not manage. |
| Network | Monitoring and management of firewalls, switches and wifi supplied or adopted by IT Live. | Cabling, new hardware, and site rewires. |
| Reviews | A regular business review – what’s drifted, what incidents happened, what’s coming. | – |
| Projects | Planning and advice on what you should do next. | The project itself – migrations, office moves, server replacements, rollouts. Quoted upfront, fixed price. |
| On-site | On-site visits where the job needs hands on the ground, close to one of IT Live’s five offices. | Travel beyond that, quoted separately. |
The short version: if it’s someone in your team stuck at their desk, IT Live covers it. If it’s a piece of hardware or a project with a start and an end date, IT Live quotes it separately so you can see the number before you say yes.
How much does managed IT support cost per user in New Zealand?
IT Live prices managed IT support per user, per month, ex GST – not per device, not per hour, not a mystery.
The figure is set after IT Live has mapped your setup, and four things move it: how many users you have, whether you still run servers, how much risk your industry carries, and how old your hardware is. Microsoft licences are billed on top.
IT Live counts the people who need support, not the machines they carry. Someone with a laptop, a phone and a desktop is still one user. That keeps the maths honest and it means your bill moves when your headcount moves, rather than when you buy gear.
It’s a fixed fee per user, per month, for everything in the “included” column above – set once IT Live has seen your setup, not quoted blind over the phone. What moves the number up or down for you:
- How many users you have. More seats, lower rate per seat.
- What you’re running. An all-Microsoft-365 business with no server costs less to look after than one with on-premise servers and line-of-business apps.
- How much risk you carry. A medical practice or a law firm holding client data needs more than a five-person builder. IT Live will tell you honestly which one you are.
- How old your hardware is. Devices past end of life take more work to keep patched and secure than a fleet that’s been kept current.
Microsoft licences are billed on top, per user, per month. Hardware is bought through IT Live and billed separately.
There’s no lock-in trap. If you want out, IT Live hands over every password, licence and piece of documentation. You own your tenant, not IT Live.
What IT Live won’t do: quote you a per-user price over the phone before looking at your setup. IT Live maps what you’ve got first, then gives you one fixed monthly figure. It doesn’t cost anything.
Want the detail on how managed IT is priced across the market, and what to check in anyone else’s quote? Read how much managed IT support costs in NZ.
Is managed IT support worth it for a small business in New Zealand?
Managed IT support is worth it for a New Zealand business of roughly 5–50 staff — big enough that downtime hurts, not big enough to justify hiring an IT manager. That is most of IT Live’s client base, and it is exactly who the fixed per-user model is built for.
You pay IT Live one fixed price per user, per month. For that, every one of your staff can ring the IT Live helpdesk as often as they need — no ticking clock, no surprise invoice at month end. Behind the helpdesk IT Live is patching your machines, watching for security trouble & checking your backups actually ran. You find out about problems after they have been fixed (IT Live’s favourite kind of phone call).
The difference from hourly break-fix is simple: an hourly provider gets paid when things break — IT Live gets paid when they don’t. Twenty years in & five offices across NZ later, that model still works.
If you are a five-person business wondering whether you are too small — you are not. Small businesses are now the main target for cyber attacks precisely because attackers assume nobody is watching. With managed support from IT Live, someone is.
What happens when you call IT Live's helpdesk?
Call IT Live and you get a New Zealand helpdesk staffed by IT Live’s own engineers – not an offshore call centre, and not a ticket queue that swallows things. Critical issues jump the queue: a full outage or a business-stopping problem is picked up ahead of routine tickets, and someone picks up the phone rather than leaving you waiting two days for a call back.
IT Live helpdesk cover runs NZ business hours, with after-hours cover for critical issues: security doesn’t wait for opening time. Huntress analysts watch every IT Live client 24/7 and will isolate a compromised machine at 2am without asking permission first, then tell IT Live and tell you.
How does switching to IT Live work in the first 30 days?
Switching to IT Live takes about 30 days, and most of it happens quietly in the background while your team keeps working.
IT Live audits everything you own in week 1, deploys monitoring, security and backup in week 2, fixes what the audit found in week 3, and hands you a written baseline in week 4. IT Live also runs the handover conversation with your outgoing provider, so you never have to make that call.
Week 1 – IT Live finds out what you have actually got
In week 1 IT Live audits every device, user, licence, backup and security setting in your business, and documents it. Most businesses learn something here – old admin accounts nobody closed, licences still being paid for by people who left, a backup that stopped running months ago. You keep that written list whether you sign with IT Live or not.
Week 2 – IT Live takes the keys
In week 2 IT Live’s monitoring and security agents go onto every machine, usually remotely and without anyone stopping work. IT Live takes over the Microsoft 365 tenant, gets MFA (multi-factor authentication) onto everyone, and turns on Datto backup. Your outgoing provider gets a polite, professional handover request from IT Live – you don’t have to have that conversation.
Week 3 – IT Live fixes the obvious stuff
In week 3 IT Live fixes whatever the audit turned up: patching brought current, Microsoft Secure Score lifted, dead accounts closed, and backups proven by an actual test restore rather than a green tick on a dashboard.
Week 4 – IT Live sits down with you
In week 4 IT Live hands you a written baseline: your Microsoft Secure Score, where you stand against the 27 controls of SMB1001 Gold, what needs replacing in the next 12 months, and a budget for it. No surprises later.
By day 30 your team knows one number to call – the IT Live helpdesk – and you know exactly what you’re paying for.
More on what you’re entitled to get back, and how IT Live handles the outgoing provider: switching IT providers without downtime.
How does IT Live prove its security claims?
IT Live proves its security claims with outside evidence rather than assurances: SMB1001 Gold certification assessed by an independent body, Microsoft Secure Score over 70% on every managed client, Huntress analysts watching alerts 24/7, and Datto backup on every Microsoft 365 tenant.
Anyone can say they take security seriously. Here is what IT Live can show you.
- SMB1001 Gold certified. SMB1001 is an independent cyber security standard for small and medium business, and Gold means 27 specific controls – MFA, email security, patching, backups, access reviews and the rest – assessed and certified by an outside body, not by IT Live. It’s the evidence insurers ask for when they’re pricing cyber cover – here’s what your insurer actually wants evidenced.
- Microsoft Secure Score over 70% on every managed client. Secure Score is Microsoft’s own measure of how well a Microsoft 365 tenant is locked down. IT Live gets every managed client above 70% and keeps them there. Don’t know your score? Ask IT Live – it takes three clicks to check.
- Huntress running the SOC. A security operations centre is a team of human analysts watching alerts around the clock. IT Live’s SOC is Huntress, and they don’t just email a warning – they isolate the machine.
- Datto backup on Microsoft 365. Microsoft keeps the platform running; it does not back up your data against deletion, ransomware or a staff member on their way out the door. That’s on you, so IT Live covers it.
- Around 20 years, five offices. Long enough for IT Live to have seen it before, close enough to turn up.
- 5.0 stars across 10 Google reviews from Northland businesses IT Live looks after every day – TAB Northland, Skin Cancer Doctors, Monster Creative, NZHL, North Drill, Yorke Stone & Associates and Bellcon among them.
Where does IT Live have offices in New Zealand?
IT Live has five offices in New Zealand: Whangārei, Auckland North Shore, Auckland Mt Wellington, Wellington/Kāpiti and Wanaka.
IT Live supports businesses right across the country from those five offices, close to where the clients actually are – so “someone will come out” means today, not Thursday.
IT Live’s Northland team works out of 9A Reyburn Street in the middle of Whangarei, covering the city and the wider Northland region including Kerikeri, Dargaville, Kaikohe, Paihia and Waipū. In Auckland, IT Live’s largest engineering team is at Saturn Place in Rosedale on the North Shore, plus an office in Mt Wellington for the south and east of the city. Down the line there’s Wellington and Kāpiti, and Wanaka for Central Otago and the Southern Lakes.
Day-to-day support is delivered remotely by the same New Zealand helpdesk wherever you are – one team, one number. When a job needs hands on it, someone local from the nearest IT Live office turns up.
Frequently asked questions
What is managed IT support?
Managed IT support is where an outside team – a managed service provider, or MSP – looks after your technology for a set monthly fee, instead of you ringing someone only when something breaks. IT Live monitors your systems every day, runs the helpdesk for your staff, keeps Microsoft 365 and your security current, and fixes issues, often before you notice them.
How much does managed IT support cost in New Zealand?
It is priced per user, per month, ex GST, so the cost scales with your team rather than landing as a big upfront bill. Where you land depends on your size, whether you still run servers, how much risk your industry carries, and how old your hardware is. Microsoft licences are billed on top. IT Live maps your setup first and gives you one fixed monthly figure before you commit.
What is the difference between managed IT support and break-fix?
Break-fix means you only pay when something goes wrong, so problems get caught late and the invoices are unpredictable. Managed support is the opposite – IT Live watches, patches and secures your systems continuously and heads off issues early. Downtime drops, budgeting gets simple, and your team has someone to call the moment they are stuck instead of soldiering on.
How long does it take to switch providers, and will my team lose a day?
About 30 days end to end, and no. Most of the work is remote agent deployment and tenant admin that happens around your team rather than to them. The only visible change for staff is usually turning on MFA and learning a new number to ring. IT Live handles the handover conversation with your outgoing provider.
Do you cover the whole of New Zealand, or just Auckland and Northland?
The whole country. IT Live has offices in Whangarei, Auckland (North Shore and Mt Wellington), Wellington/Kapiti and Wanaka, and the helpdesk is the same team wherever you are. On-site work is covered from the nearest office.
Want to know what you'd actually pay?
IT Live will map what you’ve got – every device, licence, backup and security gap – and come back with one fixed monthly figure. No cost, no obligation, and you keep the audit either way.
Email info@itlive.co.nz, or get in touch here.