Co-Managed IT Services for Canadian Businesses
Co-managed IT means Fusion works alongside your internal IT lead and fills the gaps: monitoring, security, overflow support, after-hours coverage, vendor management, and escalation. Your team keeps strategic ownership. Fusion handles the operational depth a single IT person cannot sustain alone. About a third of Fusion’s clients already run co-managed.
One accountable team for IT support, security, and strategy — working alongside your internal IT person, not replacing them. Built for Canadian businesses with 30–150 employees.
When one IT person isn’t enough — but two is too many
Ticket backlog growing
Your IT person triages all day and projects never start. Routine requests pile up while strategic work stalls.
No coverage when they’re out
Vacations, sick days, or turnover leave the entire company exposed. There is no Plan B.
Security skills gap
Your IT generalist manages endpoints, email, and networking. But threat detection, incident response, and compliance documentation require specialized depth they don’t have time for.
Vendor management consuming hours
ISP issues, printer leases, software licensing, hardware warranties. Vendor coordination eats hours that should go toward projects, user support, and risk reduction.
How we split the work — clearly, from day one
Your internal IT keeps
- Strategic project ownership and priorities
- User-facing support (if preferred)
- Business application administration
- Budget and procurement decisions
- Direct relationship with leadership
Fusion handles
- 24/7 monitoring and alerting
- Patch management and endpoint hygiene
- After-hours and overflow helpdesk
- Security stack management (Huntress, Fortinet)
- Backup verification and disaster recovery readiness
- Vendor coordination and escalation
- Monthly reporting, lifecycle visibility, recurring issue analysis
- Compliance-supporting controls and records (PIPEDA, CyberSecure Canada, cyber insurance)
The split is flexible. Some clients hand Fusion most of the day-to-day operational load. Others keep most support in-house and use Fusion for security, after-hours, and overflow. We scope it to what your team actually needs.
What co-managed IT includes
Clear escalation paths
Documented ownership of every ticket with clear escalation paths between your team and Fusion.
24/7 monitoring
24/7 network and endpoint monitoring so issues are caught before they become outages.
Patch management
Automated patch management across endpoints and servers to close vulnerability windows.
Endpoint protection
Endpoint protection — documented stack can include Huntress MDR, next-gen AV.
Firewall management
Firewall management (Fortinet) with policy enforcement and monitoring.
Backup management
Backup management and verification so recovery readiness is documented, not assumed.
Microsoft 365
Microsoft 365 administration and lifecycle management across your tenant.
Vendor coordination
Vendor coordination — ISPs, hardware, software licensing handled so your team doesn’t have to.
Monthly reporting
Monthly reporting — ticket volume, SLA performance, security posture, and what needs attention next.
Regular reviews
Regular review cadence with your internal IT lead and leadership to keep priorities aligned.
Co-managed, fully managed, or staff augmentation — what fits
Co-managed IT
You have internal IT staff. Fusion handles monitoring, security, after-hours, overflow, and vendor management. Your team keeps strategic ownership. Best for businesses with 30–150 employees and a small IT team.
Fully managed IT
No internal IT staff, or you want to fully outsource. Fusion owns the entire environment. See fully managed IT services →
Staff augmentation
Temporary or contract IT headcount. Co-managed IT is different — it provides continuous operational ownership, not staffing.
A controlled first 90 days — integration, not disruption
Days 1–14: Discovery
Discovery and documentation start with a comprehensive 168-point assessment. Fusion maps your environment, meets your IT lead, establishes shared access, and documents what exists — devices, users, networks, security posture, backups, vendor relationships. No disruptive changes without alignment. Immediate action only for urgent security or backup risks.
Days 15–45: Parallel operations
Fusion begins monitoring, patching, and after-hours coverage alongside your internal team. Shared escalation paths go live. Weekly syncs with your IT lead.
Days 46–90: Optimization
Backlog reduction, security baseline hardened, vendor relationships transitioned where agreed. Regular review cadence begins. Clean baseline established.
Your IT person stays involved the entire time. The goal is to make their job better, not make them feel replaced.
Why businesses with internal IT choose Fusion
One accountable team
Experienced engineers who already know your environment — not script readers, not a ticket queue. When your IT lead escalates, they reach someone who already has context.
Security built in, not bolted on
The documented co-managed security stack can include Huntress MDR, Fortinet firewall management, and CIS Controls v8.1 alignment. Your internal IT person did not sign up to be a security analyst — Fusion handles that layer.
Transparent operations
Monthly reporting, lifecycle visibility, recurring issue analysis, and a prioritized plan for what comes next.
Canadian-owned. Canadian data sovereignty.
PIPEDA-aligned privacy practices and documentation that support client due diligence, insurer requirements, and audit readiness. Fusion does not make blanket compliance promises — it helps maintain the operational controls and records that support renewals, audits, and due diligence.
CISSP-certified security leadership
Strategic security decisions guided by senior expertise, not just vendor recommendations.
Tooling follows the client environment
Support tooling follows your environment. Fusion documents the service stack and can work within platforms like ConnectWise, NinjaOne, Huntress, and zofiQ when they fit the operating model. Existing tools do not get ripped out on day one.
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“Within the first week of Fusion’s onboarding, they found unpatched servers, no working backups, and admin credentials that hadn’t been changed since 2019. It was genuinely alarming.”
— Derek K., Partner, Westview Law Group, Toronto
Co-managed IT in practice
Logistics company — co-managed partnership
A mid-size logistics company’s internal IT was inundated with L1 support and unable to prioritize their own goals. Fusion took over L1/L2 support, maintenance, and administration.
L1/L2 support, maintenance, and infrastructure administration transferred to Fusion
Biweekly vCIO calls created shared planning and prevented unexpected costs
Internal IT refocused on business goals and technology-driven process improvement
Frequently asked questions about co-managed IT
What is co-managed IT?
Will Fusion try to replace our IT person?
How do we decide who handles what?
Can Fusion work inside our existing ticketing and support tools?
What happens after hours and on weekends?
What security tools does Fusion bring to a co-managed engagement?
How much does co-managed IT cost?
What if our IT person leaves?
What is the difference between co-managed IT and fully managed IT?
Who co-managed IT works best for
- You have 1–3 internal IT staff who are overwhelmed or stretched thin
- Your business has 30–150 employees
- You need after-hours coverage, security depth, or vendor management your team cannot sustain alone
- You are in a regulated or compliance-sensitive industry and need operational controls your generalist IT person cannot maintain
- You have an internal IT person who is considering leaving — co-managed IT fills the gaps without creating a single point of failure
- You have outgrown reactive break-fix support but are not ready to fully outsource IT
Documented stack can include
Industry examples
Where we provide co-managed IT support
Toronto / Vaughan / GTA
Remote help desk plus on-site support when hands-on work matters
Hamilton / Burlington
Local planning and site coordination via 64 Hatt Street
Metro Vancouver
On-site support when hands-on work matters
Remote support across Canada
Monitoring, helpdesk, and security management for distributed teams
Related services and resources
Let’s talk about what your IT team actually needs
Book a 30-minute IT assessment. We start with a 168-point evaluation of your current environment and identify the gaps your internal IT team is stretched across. No pressure, no 90-slide deck.
