ELEVATE: Managed IT Services

Yes. Elevate supports businesses with more than one site, including practice groups with several clinics and distributors with more than one warehouse.

The main goal with multiple locations is to have every site set up the same way. When each office has its own network equipment, its own passwords, and its own way of backing up files, every problem takes longer to fix and every audit turns into a separate project for each site. When all of them follow the same setup, a fix that works at one location works at the others, and staff can move between sites and log in securely.

Under Elevate, we manage the network, servers, and Microsoft 365 accounts across your locations and write up how each one is set up. The remote help desk supports staff wherever they are. On-site escalation is available when a problem cannot be fixed remotely.

This is especially useful if you are growing by buying other businesses. Each one you buy comes with its own software, passwords, and backup arrangements, and usually with nothing written down. We bring each new location onto the same setup as the rest of your company, and we can price that work before you commit to the purchase.

We are based in Concord, Ontario, and work across the Greater Toronto Area. The assessment covers all of your locations and the plan sets out what each one needs.

Elevate includes baseline security. Every Elevate client gets email threat protection, a firewall for up to 75 users, endpoint protection on their computers, patch management, backups, and multifactor authentication. Elevate Complete also includes security awareness training and phishing testing for your staff. For many small businesses, this covers the basics that insurers expect to see.

Citadel Security adds three more advanced services. Quarterly external vulnerability scanning looks for weaknesses that are visible from outside your network. Stolen-credential and dark-web monitoring checks, for each of your domains, whether staff passwords have been exposed. Managed detection and response means alerts are investigated and acted on.

Citadel Security also produces two documents. One is a response plan that says what to do and who to call if something goes wrong. The other is a written record of how your security is set up, which we keep up to date.

Whether you need it depends on who is asking you questions. If your cyber insurer sends a detailed renewal form, if a client sends a security questionnaire, or if you hold patient records or confidential client files, you will probably need what Citadel Security provides.

No IT company can promise that a business will never be breached, and we do not make that promise. What we can do is show how your security is set up and keep that in writing.

Both levels provide the help desk, emergency network support, and on-site escalation from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday. The difference is staff training and how people sign in.

Look at your exposure. Complete includes security awareness training and phishing testing for your staff, and it uses Microsoft Entra multifactor authentication. If a cyber insurer, a regulator, or a client expects you to train staff regularly and show that you did, Complete already includes it.

As a general guide, Core suits a business with no IT staff and nothing big planned yet. Complete suits a business that is growing, works in a regulated field, is buying other businesses, or carries a risk that nobody has examined.

The management of your network, servers, Microsoft 365, patching, backups, email threat protection, firewall, and endpoint protection is the same in both levels. So is the written IT plan and the named team.

You do not need to decide alone. The plan we write after your assessment recommends a level and gives the reasons.

The first two steps have fixed lengths. The assessment takes two weeks from the day we get access, and it ends with a written report and a 45-minute walkthrough. The plan takes about a week after that. So within roughly three weeks you know what we found, what we recommend, and what it will cost.

The transition is the step that varies. Its length depends on how many people, locations, and systems you have, how well things were recorded by your previous provider, and how much needs fixing before we can take over safely. We scope the transition in the plan, so you see the timeline before you commit.

During the transition we work around your operating hours and move things across in stages. Your staff have support throughout. We write up your systems as we go, and by the end a named person on our side knows your setup.

We deal with your current provider ourselves. We ask them for passwords, license details, and whatever records they hold, and we keep the conversation professional.

If you are under contract with another provider, the best time to start is 90 days before renewal. That leaves enough time for the assessment, the plan, and an unhurried transition, and it means you are not pushed into renewing for another year because the deadline arrived first.

Businesses usually call us for one of a few reasons. They have to chase their provider to get things fixed. They speak to a different person every time and explain the same problem again. Nobody has given them a plan, so costs arrive as surprises. Or somebody outside the business, usually an insurer or a client, has asked a security question that their provider could not help them answer in writing.

If none of that applies to you, you may not need to switch. A provider that answers quickly, knows your systems, plans ahead with you, and keeps records is doing the job well.

If some of it does apply, here is what Elevate does differently. Two named people know your account and both have worked on it. A problem that is not moving follows a set path to somebody who can move it. You get a written IT plan that we review with you on a set schedule. We write up your systems, so the knowledge belongs to your business.

You can test this without committing to anything. The complimentary assessment takes two weeks and gives you a written report on your systems, your security setup, your software, and your risks. The report is yours whether or not you work with us. Some businesses take it back to their current provider and ask for the gaps to be fixed, and that is a reasonable use of it.

On both Elevate levels, the remote help desk, emergency network support, and on-site escalation are available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday. If a problem needs somebody at your office, on-site visits are provided the next business day. We go through your working hours during the assessment and recommend the level that fits them.

It means that when your staff call or email for help, they reach people who already know your business. Two people on our team are named on your account, and both have done real work on it. They know which systems you depend on, how your network is laid out, what changed recently, and which problems have come up before.

This matters most in three situations. The first is an ordinary support call. Your staff do not have to explain your setup from the beginning, so the problem gets fixed sooner. The second is when one of the two people is away. Because both have worked on your account, the other can pick up the work without a handover. The third is when a problem is not getting resolved. There is a set path for who it goes to next, so it does not sit in a queue waiting for somebody to notice.

We support this with written records. We write up every client’s systems, including how they are set up and who supplies what. If somebody new ever has to work on your account, they start with that record and do not have to guess.

Many businesses come to us after relying on a single IT person, either on staff or at a small provider. When that person was busy or left, everything they knew went with them. Having two named people and a written record removes that risk.

In most cases you keep what you have. Elevate is a service for managing your systems, and it does not require you to replace equipment that still does its job.

During the assessment we look at your computers, servers, network equipment, and software licenses. We record how old each item is, whether it is still supported by its manufacturer, and whether it is causing problems. We also look at the software you are paying for.

The plan that follows puts our recommendations in priority order. Some items will need replacing soon, usually because they no longer receive security updates or because they keep failing. Others can wait a year or two. Some need nothing at all, and the plan says so. Each recommendation has a cost beside it, so you can budget and decide what to do first.

A few changes are common when a business joins Elevate. We set up the security tools included in the service, such as endpoint protection, email threat protection, and multifactor authentication, if you do not already have suitable ones. We also make sure your licenses and domain names are registered to your company and not to a former employee or an old provider.

The written record of your systems is kept up to date as these changes are made.

A written IT plan is a document that sets out what your business has, what condition it is in, what needs attention, and what it will cost. It turns IT from a series of surprises into something you can budget for.

A typical plan covers the age and condition of your computers, servers, and network equipment, and when each should be replaced. It lists software and licenses and when they renew. It records security gaps and the order in which we recommend fixing them. It also notes changes in the business that will affect IT, such as new staff, a new location, or a new software system.

We write the first version after your assessment. It sets out what we would do, in what order, and what each part costs, and it also lists what we would leave alone for now. You get a firm price for the work in the plan.

After that, we go through the plan with you on a set schedule. In each review we look at how things are running, what has changed, what you are paying for, and what is coming. The plan is updated afterward, so it reflects your business as it is today.

For an owner or a controller, the benefit is practical. You can see next year’s IT costs in advance, and you can explain them to a board, a partner, or a bank.

Elevate covers the daily work of keeping your systems running and safe, and it puts named people in charge of that work.

For support, your staff get a remote help desk, emergency network support, and on-site escalation when a problem cannot be fixed remotely. Both levels provide this from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday to Friday, with next-business-day on-site visits.

For your systems, we manage your network, your servers, and your Microsoft 365 accounts. We apply patches and updates, and we look after your backups.

For security, Elevate includes email threat protection, a firewall for up to 75 users, endpoint protection on your computers, and multifactor authentication.

Core uses Duo for multifactor authentication and Complete uses Microsoft Entra. Complete also includes security awareness training and phishing testing for your staff.

Every Elevate account gets a written IT plan. We go through it with you on a set schedule so you can see what needs attention, what should be replaced, and what it will cost.

Two named people know your account and both have worked on it. We write up your systems, and there is a set path for who a problem goes to next if it is not being resolved.