RemotePractice 01: Managed services
Run the environment so the business doesn't have to think about it.
Support, Microsoft 365, devices, backup and renewals, run to a documented baseline by Brisbane engineers. Most managed service contracts go quiet because nobody can tell if they're working. Ours are built to be visible.
The engineer who scoped it runs it.
- Australian service desk
- Background patching
- Restore-tested backups
Reviewed by Blake Bath, General Manager, on 31 October 2026.
What we run
Six functions, one baseline.
Reviewed against your business each quarter, not left to drift.
Service desk
Brisbane engineers with your documentation and the authority to make a change.
- Phone
- Teams
Identity and devices
Entra ID and Intune as the source of truth, with MFA and Conditional Access.
- MFA
- Intune
- Compliance
Microsoft 365
Exchange, SharePoint, Teams and OneDrive run to a governance model.
- Sharing
- Retention
- Labels
Backup and recovery
Microsoft 365, devices and servers, with restores tested.
- Covered
- Tested
- Dated
Licences and vendors
Renewals tracked a year out, end-of-support flagged early.
- Microsoft
- Network
- Security
Reviews
Quarterly, with the engineer, against a roadmap you keep.
- Quarterly
- Roadmap
- Plain English
Is your IT quiet?
Eight signs your day-to-day IT is under control.
Tick what's true today. The gaps are where we'd start.
Tick what's true for your business today. If you're not sure, leave it unticked.
Where you stand
0of 8 signs in place
8 gaps to close.
- Someone answers when staff callSlow support costs staff time every day.
- Microsoft 365 runs to a written baselineWithout a baseline, settings drift.
- Updates go on in the backgroundMissed updates are the most common way in.
- Backups are restore-testedUntested backup software isn't backup.
- Leavers are switched off on the dayOld accounts are an easy way in.
- Renewals are tracked a year aheadNo surprise invoices or lapses.
- The environment is documentedDocumentation outlives staff changes.
- There's a quarterly reviewOtherwise nobody's looking ahead.
Why it matters
A good managed service is one you stop noticing.
The value isn't the helpdesk response time. It's the staff time you get back when things just work, the meeting about the file server that never happens, and the audit that passes first time because the documentation existed.
Getting there isn't more tools. It's the same patch baseline, the same backup tests and the same review meeting, every quarter.
In the field
A 90-person professional services firm in inner-city Brisbane.
An inherited environment with three previous IT providers visible in the documentation. Identity was split across two tenants. Device management had been started but never finished. Backup was running, but nobody had tested a restore in over eighteen months.
The first six months went on consolidation, not new tools: one tenant, one device baseline, one backup target with tested restores. Licences were rationalised down by 11% in the first quarter without removing any capability.
Twelve months in, the environment runs against a documented baseline. The internal operations manager sees the same dashboard we do, and quarterly reviews focus on the business roadmap, not firefighting.
Outcome: ticket volume down 38% against the prior provider's baseline, and two days a month of internal staff time no longer spent chasing IT. Client anonymised.
The detail
The service pages under this practice.
How we take it on
From takeover to quiet.
- Step 1Review
What's there, documented.
- Step 2Baseline
One standard for identity, devices and backup.
- Step 3Run it
Support, patching and renewals.
- Step 4Review quarterly
Against the roadmap.
Other practices
Managed services is one of three. The other two.
Same team.
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 agent, answers on the same number or on 07 3180 0965, logs it and escalates urgent incidents to the on-call engineer.
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 about managed services.
What's included in managed services?
Service desk support for your staff, Microsoft 365 administration, device management and patching, backup with tested restores, licence and renewal tracking, and quarterly reviews.
Who answers the phone?
Our service desk, in Australian business hours, with senior engineers behind it. There's no offshore first-line layer.
How do you keep devices up to date?
Updates are applied in the background through ConnectWise, on a schedule, and reported on.
Can you work alongside our internal IT person?
Yes. Co-managed IT gives your team senior engineering capacity without taking away control.
Next step
Want IT you don't have to think about?
Tell us what's not working and we'll show you how we'd run it.
Keep reading
Reviewed by Blake Bath, General Manager, on 31 October 2026. Real Bytes' own service, checked 31 October 2026.