RemoteIT strategy and vCIO
Know what your IT will cost before you spend it.
Laptops die at once. Licences renew at the worst time. Big decisions get made on a salesperson's advice because nobody senior is around to ask. We give you a written plan, a real budget and a senior engineer who sits down with you every quarter.
- Written plan, one to three years
- Quarterly review
- One-page board report
Philip VernerDirector
Blake BathGeneral Manager
Mason WiseMSP Practice Lead
Travis JacobOperations Manager
What you get
What changes when IT has a plan.
Five things land on your desk. Pick one to see what is in it.
A written plan for the next one to three years
What needs replacing, what needs fixing and what it will cost, in the order it should happen. A few pages, not a slide deck.
- Every device, licence and contract
- Priorities ranked by risk and cost
A budget the owner can sign
IT spend for the next year laid out against the plan, so renewals and replacements stop arriving as surprises.
- Monthly set-aside, not one big hit
- Renewal dates in one list
A regular sit-down
Each quarter we go through what changed, what went wrong, where security stands and what needs a decision next.
- Incidents and trends
- Decisions written down
A one-page board report
Security, spend, projects and risk in plain English, ready for a board, an owner or an insurer.
- Same format every quarter
- Readable in five minutes
Someone senior in the room
When a big technology decision comes up, a senior engineer who knows your setup helps you make it.
- Vendor quotes checked
- Options laid out in plain English
Replacement planner
Turn one big bill into a steady one.
Most offices buy computers in a batch, so they all fail in the same year. Spread the replacements and the cost becomes a line in the budget.
Planned, not panicked
$9,000a year
- Set aside
- $750a month
- Replaced each year
- 5computers
- Year 1
- Year 2
- Year 3
- Year 4
- Year 5
- Spread out $9,000 a year
- All at once $36,000 in year 4
A rough guide only. The plan we write covers every device, licence and contract, not just computers.
Where spend is heading
Software costs are climbing. Plan for them.
Gartner's latest forecast for Australia, in Australian dollars. For a small business it shows up as renewals that cost more each year, usually with an AI feature you did not ask for.
$192.2bn
forecast Australian IT spending in 2027, up 8.7% on 2026.
Gartner, September 202613.3%
forecast growth in software spending, as AI is added to the subscriptions businesses already pay for.
Gartner, September 20265.5%
forecast growth in spending on devices such as laptops and phones, to $19.5 billion.
Gartner, September 2026How it works
How the plan gets built.
Want to see the board report first? Our board reporting guide shows what goes in it.
- Step 1Understand the business
Where you are heading, what is getting in the way, and what your people complain about.
- Step 2Look at what you have
Devices, systems, licences, contracts and security, and what each one costs.
- Step 3Write the plan
Priorities, timing and budget, agreed with you.
- Step 4Keep it current
We review it with you each quarter and adjust as the business changes.
Core services
One team. Eight ways to use it.
Every core service is run by the same Brisbane engineers, so the person who sets up your laptop is the one who answers when it breaks. Most clients use several.
- Managed ITIT and security from one team, watched day and night.
- IT Help Desk & SupportCall, email or log it. A Brisbane engineer owns it until it is fixed.
- Co-Managed ITExtra engineers for the IT team you already have.
- Device ManagementEvery laptop and phone updated, encrypted and accounted for.
- IT Strategy & vCIOA written plan, a real budget and a quarterly sit-down.You are here
- IT ProcurementDevices that arrive set up and ready to work.
- Vendor ManagementOne number for your internet, phone and software suppliers.
- Labour HireOur engineers on your project, for as long as it takes.
Get help your way
Six ways to reach us. Pick whichever suits you.
Helpdesk hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm AEST. On Advantage and above, emergencies get a response within 1 hour and outages within 2, with 24/7 best-effort escalation.
- Call 07 3114 2808
An engineer answers Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm AEST. After hours, weekends and public holidays, Chip, our AI receptionist, answers and logs the details for the team.
Call now - Email the helpdesk
Send it to helpdesk@realbytes.com.au and a ticket is logged straight away, with a reference number you can quote.
Email us - Client portal
Log and follow your tickets, see what we are working on and who has it.
Open the portal - Remote support
When an engineer asks to see your screen, start a secure session here. You start it, so nobody sees your screen until you do.
Start a session - Chat in Microsoft Teams
Clients can message Chip, our AI assistant, in Teams to log a request without leaving their desk.
How clients reach us - Service status
Check whether Microsoft 365 or another cloud service is down before you lose an hour troubleshooting.
See live status
Questions
What people ask before they call.
Who is this for?
Owners and leadership teams who make decisions about technology and spend but do not have a senior IT person to help. It suits businesses with a board, more than one site, or big changes coming like a move, a merger or new systems.
What is a vCIO?
A virtual chief information officer: a senior person who plans your technology and budget with you, part time, without the cost of hiring one. With us, that is a senior engineer who already knows your setup.
What happens in the quarterly review?
We go through what changed in the last quarter, any incidents, where security stands, project progress and spend. Then we agree the priorities and budget for the next quarter. It is a conversation, not a status report.
Why are our software costs going up?
Partly because vendors are adding AI features to the subscriptions you already pay for and pricing them in. Gartner forecasts Australian software spending to grow 13.3% in 2027, more than twice as fast as spending on devices, IT services or phones and internet. A plan catches each renewal before it lands and checks whether every licence is still used.
How is this different from IT support?
IT support fixes things and keeps them running day to day. Planning is about what to change next and what it will cost. Most clients have both, but you can start with a one-off plan.
We already have an IT person. Does this still help?
Yes. Your IT person keeps running things. We add the planning, the budget and the board reporting, and work with them on the big decisions.
Next step
What is the next big IT cost coming your way?
Talk to us and we will help you plan for it, before it turns up as an invoice.
Keep reading
- Board reporting for IT What a one-page IT report for a board looks like.
- IT procurement Replacements bought, set up and delivered to plan.
- Vendor management Every renewal date and contract in one list.
Checked 30 October 2026. All figures in AUD. Planner figures are your own inputs and a rough guide only. Spending forecasts are Gartner's, published September 2026. Gartner: IT spending in Australia to exceed $192 billion in 2027; IT Brief: Australia IT spending set to hit A$192.2bn in 2027