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.
Book a free call · See what’s included ↓
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. We monitor your systems every day, run the helpdesk for your staff, keep Microsoft 365 and your security up to date, and most of the time we’ve dealt with the problem before you notice it.
We’ve been doing it for around 20 years, from five offices between Whangārei and Wanaka.
What's included, and what isn't
No airy-fairy promises. Here’s what the monthly fee covers, and the things that sit outside it, so you can compare us to whoever else you’re 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 us 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 we don’t manage. |
| Network | Monitoring and management of firewalls, switches and wifi we’ve supplied or adopted. | 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 our five offices. | Travel beyond that, quoted separately. |
The short version: if it’s someone in your team stuck at their desk, it’s covered. If it’s a piece of hardware or a project with a start and an end date, we quote it separately so you can see the number before you say yes.
How the pricing actually works
Per user, per month, ex GST. Not per device, not per hour, not a mystery.
We count 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 we’ve 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. We’ll 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 us and billed separately.
There’s no lock-in trap. If you want out, we hand over every password, licence and piece of documentation. You own your tenant, not us.
What we won’t do: quote you a per-user price over the phone before we’ve looked at your setup. We map what you’ve got first, then give 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.
What happens when you call
You get a New Zealand helpdesk, staffed by our 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 gets picked up ahead of routine tickets – we pick up the phone, no waiting two days for a call back.
Helpdesk cover runs NZ business hours, with after-hours cover for critical issues: security doesn’t wait for opening time. Huntress analysts are watching 24/7 and they will isolate a compromised machine at 2am without asking permission first, then tell us and tell you.
Switching to us — the first 30 days
Changing IT provider sounds like a big deal. It’s mostly us doing quiet work in the background while your team keeps working.
Week 1 – We find out what you’ve actually got
We audit every device, user, licence, backup and security setting, and document it. Most businesses learn something here – old admin accounts nobody closed, licences being paid for by people who left, a backup that stopped running months ago. You get that list whether you sign or not.
Week 2 – We take the keys
Our monitoring and security agents go onto every machine, usually remotely and without anyone stopping work. We take over the Microsoft 365 tenant, get MFA (multi-factor authentication) on everyone, and turn on Datto backup. Your outgoing provider gets a polite, professional handover request from us – you don’t have to have that conversation.
Week 3 – We fix the obvious stuff
Whatever the audit turned up gets sorted: patching brought current, Secure Score lifted, dead accounts closed, backups proven by an actual test restore rather than a green tick on a dashboard.
Week 4 – We sit down with you
You get a written baseline: your 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, and you know exactly what you’re paying for.
More on what you’re entitled to get back, and how we handle the outgoing provider: switching IT providers without downtime.
Proof, not promises
Anyone can say they take security seriously. Here’s what we 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 us. 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. We get every client above 70% and keep them there. Don’t know your score? Ask us – we’ll show you how to check it in three clicks.
- Huntress running the SOC. A security operations centre is a team of human analysts watching alerts around the clock. Ours 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 we cover it.
- Around 20 years, five offices. Long enough to have seen it, close enough to turn up.
- 5.0 stars across 10 Google reviews from Northland businesses we look after every day – TAB Northland, Skin Cancer Doctors, Monster Creative, NZHL, North Drill, Yorke Stone & Associates and Bellcon among them.
Where we are
We support businesses right across New Zealand, and we do it from offices where our clients actually are – so “we’ll send someone” means today, not Thursday.
Our 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 we have our largest engineering team 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 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. At IT Live that means we monitor your systems every day, run the helpdesk for your staff, keep Microsoft 365 and your security current, and fix 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. We map your setup first and give 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 – we watch, patch and secure your systems continuously and head 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. We handle the handover conversation with your outgoing provider.
Do you cover the whole of New Zealand, or just Auckland and Northland?
The whole country. We have 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?
We’ll 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.