Choosing an IT model
Co-managed vs fully managed IT: which fits you?
Both are flat-fee, proactive alternatives to break-fix IT. The difference is who runs your environment. Co-managed extends an internal team you already have; fully managed is your whole IT department. Here's how to tell which one fits.
In short
Choose co-managed IT when you have a capable internal team that needs more capacity, after-hours coverage, and specialist depth, without giving up control. Choose fully managed IT when you have little or no internal IT and want one team to own the whole environment end to end.
Side by side
The two models, compared.
| Co-managed IT | Fully managed IT | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs day-to-day IT | Your internal team, with NBIT filling the gaps | NBIT, end to end |
| Who owns priorities and decisions | Your team keeps authority | You set direction; NBIT executes and advises |
| Best fit | You have a capable internal team that's overloaded | You have little or no internal IT |
| What NBIT provides | After-hours coverage, overflow, specialists, shared tooling, project bandwidth | The full IT department: monitoring, help desk, security, backups, roadmap |
| Tooling | Shared access to NBIT's RMM, ticketing, and security stack | NBIT's full stack, managed for you |
| Your internal IT team | Kept and extended, not replaced | Not required |
| Pricing | Flat monthly fee, scoped to the gaps NBIT covers | Flat monthly fee, per user and device |
Choose co-managed if
- You have an internal IT team you want to keep and extend
- Your team is capable but overloaded with tickets and slipping projects
- You need after-hours coverage or specialist depth you can't staff full-time
- You want more capacity without giving up control of your environment
Choose fully managed if
- You have little or no internal IT
- You want one team to own the whole environment end to end
- You're tired of break-fix support and juggling multiple vendors
- You'd rather budget a predictable monthly fee than hire and manage IT staff
Common questions
Choosing a model, answered.
- What's the core difference between co-managed and fully managed IT?
- With co-managed IT, your internal team keeps authority and runs the day-to-day, and the provider fills specific gaps. With fully managed IT, the provider owns the whole environment end to end. Co-managed extends a team you already have; fully managed replaces the need for one.
- Can we start with one model and switch later?
- Yes. Many organizations start fully managed and move to co-managed as they build an internal team, or start co-managed and shift more to the provider if their internal capacity changes. The right model is the one that fits your team today, and it can change as you do.
- We have one IT person. Which model fits?
- Usually co-managed, so that person keeps ownership while gaining after-hours coverage, specialist depth, and backup for vacations and overflow. Fully managed can also make sense if you want the provider to carry the load and treat that person as a liaison, or as a safety net if they leave.
- Does pricing differ between the two?
- Both are flat monthly fees rather than hourly billing. Fully managed is typically priced per user and device for the whole environment; co-managed is scoped to the specific gaps the provider covers. Either way, larger projects are quoted separately, so there are no surprises.
Not sure which model fits?
Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll look at how your IT runs today, whether you have internal staff to build around, and recommend the model that actually fits, co-managed or fully managed. No obligation.