IT Support in Peterborough for Small and Mid-Size Businesses
For Peterborough businesses in Peterborough County, IT support has to handle an education (Trent University, Fleming College)-heavy local economy and the cross-pollination with Port Hope and Lindsay. Anchored by Trent University and the GE Peterborough aerospace heritage, Peterborough firms are best served by a provider that delivers 93% first-contact resolution with senior engineers on first call. Fusion Computing does exactly that, with pricing at $180/user/month fully managed; co-managed priced separately based on scope.
According to 2025 supply-chain security analysis, cyberattacks routed through third-party suppliers have increased more than 400% in recent years, placing every Canadian SMB with a vendor relationship at heightened risk.
According to the Cyber Centre’s 2024 reporting, 336 pre-ransomware notifications were issued to Canadian organizations, saving an estimated $18 million in potential losses.
According to Statistics Canada’s 2025 Canadian Survey of Cyber Security and Cybercrime, 43% of Canadian organizations were targeted by a cyber attack in the last 12 months, making proactive IT support a prerequisite, not an upgrade.
According to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security’s 2025-2027 Ransomware Threat Outlook, ransomware remains the top cybercrime threat to Canadian critical infrastructure, with AI-assisted attacks becoming cheaper and harder to detect.
Peterborough is home to Trent University, Fleming College, and the GE Peterborough aerospace heritage, a research-and-manufacturing mix that creates distinct IP-protection requirements.
“We replace the ticketing-desk model most MSPs offer with named-engineer ownership. In Peterborough, that’s the difference between an incident closing in an hour and closing in a week.” , Mike Pearlstein, CISSP, CEO, Fusion Computing
We run IT support for the four business realities that make Peterborough different from a typical Ontario small city. GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s Monaghan Road operation anchors a nuclear supply chain. Peterborough Regional Health Centre anchors a regional healthcare cluster. Trent University and Fleming College drive a research-spinout economy. George Street downtown hosts law firms, accountants, and financial advisors. Each carries real compliance obligations. Our help desk handles all four. 93% first-contact resolution, CISSP-led security, same-day on-site to Peterborough, Lakefield, and Bridgenorth.
IT support for Peterborough’s three operational tempos
The shape of an IT-support relationship in Peterborough is different from the GTA. Most prospects we talk to are paying an incumbent in hourly increments, watching the bill creep, and waiting longer for on-site than they should. Three patterns dominate: professional firms on Lansdowne Street and downtown, manufacturers and warehouses along Highway 7 and 115, and PRHC-tied medical and clinical-services firms.
Lansdowne Street and downtown professional firms
Law firms, accounting practices, wealth advisors, and consulting firms across Lansdowne Street, George Street, and downtown Peterborough. Billable hours stop the moment the printer or M365 stops. Same-day on-site, 93% first-contact resolution on the help desk, and the regulator-ready audit trail Law Society of Ontario or CPA Ontario reviews increasingly ask for.
Highway 7 and 115 manufacturers and warehouses
Manufacturing, warehousing, and distribution operations along Highway 7 east toward Havelock and the 115 toward the GTA. Plant-floor IT problems (network drops, scanner failures, ERP slowdowns, OT-network alerts) interrupt shipping. We carry on-call escalation, named after-hours engineers, and redundant internet paths in the contract.
PRHC-tied medical, clinical, and care-services firms
Medical-supply, clinical-services, and PHIPA-bound care providers tied to Peterborough Regional Health Centre. Help-desk staff are trained to recognize PHIPA-sensitive tickets and document every action. Encrypted-channel integrations with the hospital are monitored, not assumed.
Three IT-support patterns we see in Peterborough every quarter
These are the failures we repeatedly fix on the help desk. If any of them sound familiar, keep reading.
The downtown law firm paying hourly break-fix and watching the bill creep
Twelve-lawyer firm on George Street. Incumbent charges $135 per hour with a one-hour minimum, every ticket. M365 password reset: $135. Printer drop: $135. The annual IT spend doubled in three years with no improvement in service. We replace it with a fixed monthly cost that covers everything (help desk, on-site, security, backup, M365, MFA), one number per user per month, and an executive report the partners can actually read.
The Highway 7 manufacturer whose incumbent closes at 5 p.m.
Shipping ran a Saturday catch-up shift. The WMS dropped at 11 p.m. The help-desk line went to voicemail until Monday morning. Two truck loads pushed to the next dispatch window. We onboard manufacturing and warehouse clients with a real 24/7 help desk, on-call senior engineers paged inside 90 seconds, triage inside 15 minutes, and redundant internet paths so the WMS does not depend on one circuit.
The PRHC-supplier whose help-desk ticket touched protected health information
A user opened a help-desk ticket and pasted a screenshot containing patient data into the ticket body. Incumbent saved it as a normal attachment. We train help-desk staff to flag PHIPA-sensitive tickets, scrub identifiers before storage, document the handling, and route to the appropriate change-control path. The PHIPA controls are visible in the ticket trail, not bolted on after the fact.
What makes IT support different in Peterborough
Predictable monthly cost instead of hourly break-fix
Most Peterborough prospects we talk to are paying an incumbent in hourly increments with rising bills and inconsistent service. Our model is one fixed monthly cost per user that includes help desk, on-site, security, backup, MFA, M365 administration, and on-call. No ticket-by-ticket invoicing.
Same-day on-site up Highway 115 and across the Kawartha corridor
We dispatch on the same business day for any ticket opened by mid-morning. Our engineers know the difference between a Lansdowne Street commercial unit, an industrial site near Monaghan, a Highway 7 manufacturer, and a Kawartha-corridor satellite in Lindsay or Cobourg. No surprise drive-time line items.
Real 24/7 with named on-call engineers
Severity-1 alerts hit our platform in under 90 seconds and page an on-call senior engineer immediately. Triage starts inside 15 minutes. After-hours on-site is contracted, not billed separately. The voicemail-and-callback model that dominates the small-MSP market is not what we run.
PHIPA-fluent help desk for PRHC-tied work
Help-desk staff are trained to recognize and handle PHIPA-sensitive tickets: scrubbing identifiers, documenting handling, routing to the appropriate change-control path. The quarterly evidence pack the hospital’s privacy team asks for is routine output.
What IT Support Includes in Peterborough
IT support in Peterborough includes help desk ticketing, 24/7 remote monitoring, Microsoft 365 administration, cybersecurity, patch management, data backup and disaster recovery, vendor coordination, and on-site dispatch. An IT support provider in Peterborough delivers these services proactively under a fixed monthly contract.
TL;DR
Fusion Computing provides IT support in Peterborough with a staffed help desk, 24/7 monitoring, Microsoft 365 administration, cybersecurity, cloud management, and on-site dispatch. We serve Peterborough businesses with a 93% first-contact resolution rate, CISSP-certified engineers, and predictable monthly pricing.
IT support in Peterborough covers the full range of what businesses with 10 to 150 employees actually need:
- Help desk available by phone, email, and remote session. Business hours and after-hours coverage
- On-site dispatch across Peterborough, Lakefield, Bridgenorth, and Norwood for hardware, network, and infrastructure issues
- Microsoft 365 and cloud application support
- Endpoint security monitoring and patch management
- Network troubleshooting. Switches, firewalls, Wi-Fi, VPN
- Vendor liaison. We deal with ISPs, SaaS vendors, and hardware suppliers on your behalf
Fusion Computing provides IT support in Peterborough with 93% of issues resolved on the first contact. The company dispatches on-site technicians within 4 hours for critical problems and resolves most remote issues within 15 minutes. All support is delivered by senior engineers from Fusion Computing’s Canadian offices. No offshore call centres or tier-1 script readers.
IT Support Options for Peterborough Businesses
Peterborough businesses often benefit from outsourcing IT because the local talent pool for specialized IT roles is limited. Recruiting a qualified system administrator in the Kawarthas takes months and costs $70,000+ in salary alone. Outsourced IT provides access to a team of specialists covering helpdesk, cybersecurity, and cloud management for a predictable monthly fee.
Peterborough businesses come to Fusion at different stages. Three models cover the most common situations:
Under 15 Employees. Pay-as-You-Go IT Support
Break-fix and project-based support billed hourly. No monthly commitment. Good for businesses that rarely have IT issues but want a reliable technician when something goes wrong.
15 to 50 Employees. Shared Help Desk + Monitoring
A shared service plan that gives you access to our help desk team, remote monitoring, and security patching. Most issues resolved remotely within two hours. On-site dispatch included for hardware failures.
50+ Employees. Fully Managed IT
For organizations that need predictable IT costs and proactive management, our fully managed IT service wraps in everything above plus a dedicated account manager, quarterly reviews, and a written SLA.
Why Peterborough Businesses Switch to Fusion Computing
The businesses that call Fusion have usually been through at least one bad MSP experience. The ticket that sat open for four days. The technician who fixed the symptom and not the cause. The support contract that looked good on paper but produced a call centre when something actually went wrong.
Fusion resolves 93% of issues on the first contact. Not an acknowledgement. A resolution. The MSP industry average is roughly 70%. The difference is that your call reaches an engineer who already knows your environment, not someone reading from a troubleshooting script.
On-site response in Peterborough: 4-hour target for critical issues. Fusion has been supporting Canadian businesses since 2012. No overseas call centres. Canadian-owned. Data stays in Canada.
Fusion Computing has provided IT support to Canadian businesses since 2012. The company’s CEO holds the CISSP certification, and all engagements align to CIS Controls v8.1. Fusion Computing operates from offices in Toronto, Hamilton, and Vancouver. Canadian-owned, with all data stored in Canada.
Tools your team already uses. Managed and supported by Fusion
Mike Pearlstein, CISSP. CEO, Fusion Computing
Fusion has served GTA businesses since 2012. Our security leadership holds active CISSP certification and our approach is aligned to CIS Controls v8.1. The same framework used by enterprises, applied to businesses with 10 to 150 employees.
Fusion Computing is a member of the Vaughan Chamber of Commerce.
Industries We Support in the GTA
Every industry has different compliance requirements, risk profiles, and operational pressures. Fusion works across a range of sectors.
Peterborough Business Landscape
Peterborough sits 90 minutes northeast of Toronto at the intersection of Highway 115 and Highway 7, serving as the economic hub for the Kawarthas and eastern Ontario. George Street downtown is the commercial core. Law offices, financial advisors, insurance brokerages, and government services in a walkable historic district centred on Confederation Square.
The Parkway corridor along Lansdowne Street and Clonsilla Avenue houses the city’s industrial and big-box commercial base. GE Hitachi Nuclear on Monaghan Road is one of the area’s largest private employers, manufacturing CANDU reactor components. The Quaker Oats plant (now PepsiCo) on George Street North has operated since 1902. Trent University on the Otonabee River employs over 1,500 people and generates research spin-offs in environmental science and Indigenous studies. Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) anchors healthcare employment.
What Peterborough Businesses Need from IT
Nuclear-sector firms need continuous compliance monitoring and documented security controls. Healthcare practices around PRHC need PHIPA-compliant IT with proper backup and access management. Professional services firms on George Street need Microsoft 365 that works reliably and cybersecurity that satisfies E&O insurers. Manufacturing operations need 24/7 monitoring. The common thread is that Peterborough businesses need real engineers, not ticket-routing call centres.
Peterborough Business Resources
How We Reach Peterborough
From Fusion’s Toronto office at 100 King Street West, Peterborough is 90 minutes northeast via the 401 East to Highway 115 North. We exit at Lansdowne Street for the Parkway commercial corridor, or continue to George Street for downtown. The drive is straightforward once past the 401/115 interchange. Remote support resolves most issues instantly; on-site dispatch is same-day when required.
Get directions from Fusion’s Toronto office to Peterborough →
Related Resources
How Fusion Works in Peterborough
Every engagement follows the same structured process, whether you’re a 10-person office or a 200-employee operation. No guessing, no scope creep, no surprises.
Assessment
We start with a support needs assessment that documents your environment, maps user pain points, and identifies recurring issues that waste staff time. This is free and takes 2 to 5 business days.
Onboarding
If we’re a fit, we execute a structured onboarding that connects your team to Fusion’s helpdesk, configures remote monitoring, and documents every device and user account.
Ongoing Support
From there it’s ongoing support with guaranteed response times, monthly reporting, and proactive recommendations to prevent the same issues from recurring.
This process works because it’s been refined across 500+ Canadian businesses since 2012. We know what breaks, what gets missed, and what actually moves the needle for Peterborough businesses.
IT Support for Peterborough’s Key Industries
Peterborough is home to healthcare, education, nuclear manufacturing, and professional services in the Kawarthas. Each industry brings specific technology requirements and compliance obligations that generic IT providers often miss.
Fusion has direct experience supporting businesses in Peterborough, Lakefield, Bridgenorth across these sectors. We understand the difference between a manufacturing firm that needs 24/7 uptime for production systems and a professional services firm that needs secure document management and client data protection. That context matters because it determines what we monitor, how we prioritize tickets, and which security controls we enforce.
Our team includes a CISSP-certified security lead who reviews every Peterborough client’s environment quarterly, ensuring your technology posture keeps pace with both business growth and evolving threats.
Why This Matters for Peterborough Businesses
According to Statistics Canada, 47% of Canadian businesses reported spending more on cybersecurity in 2023 than the previous year, yet many still lack basic protections like automated patching and multi-factor authentication.
IT support providers bridge this gap by handling the operational work. Patching, monitoring, user management. That internal teams deprioritize when workload spikes.
Fusion’s IT support clients in the Greater Toronto Area see a 40% reduction in recurring tickets within 90 days because the root causes get fixed, not just the symptoms.
Source: Statistics Canada, “Canadian Survey on Cyber Security and Cybercrime,” 2024
Other Fusion Services in Peterborough
Three Peterborough IT-support scenarios we’ve worked through
Names and some details changed. Patterns are exact.
A 14-lawyer firm on George Street replacing hourly break-fix with a fixed monthly cost
Their incumbent had billed $135 per hour for every ticket for six years. Annual IT spend had crept past $48,000 with no end in sight. We replaced it with a fixed monthly per-user model covering help desk, on-site, security, backup, MFA, M365 administration, and 24/7 on-call. Year-one spend came in 31% below the previous year and partners stopped seeing line-item IT invoices.
A Highway 7 manufacturer with an 11 p.m. WMS outage on a Saturday catch-up shift
The WMS lost connectivity to the production server and shipping halted. The previous MSP’s voicemail returned a callback Monday morning. Our on-call engineer triaged inside 12 minutes, identified a failed primary internet circuit, cut over to the backup path we had pre-provisioned at onboarding, and had the WMS back inside 35 minutes. Lost truck loads: zero.
A 22-person PRHC-supplier whose help-desk ticket leaked PHI into the ticket body
A user pasted a screenshot containing patient identifiers into a routine help-desk ticket. The hospital’s privacy team flagged it weeks later. We rebuilt their help-desk intake on a PHIPA-aware workflow that scrubs identifiers, documents handling, and routes PHIPA-sensitive tickets through a controlled change-control path. The remediation package the privacy team requested was delivered inside two weeks.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why this matters in Peterborough: Peterborough sits at the meeting point of an Ontario knowledge economy anchored by Trent University and Fleming College, a regional healthcare network led by Peterborough Regional Health Centre, and a manufacturing base in food processing, paper, and light industrial that Statistics Canada continues to track as a meaningful share of Peterborough-area employment. That mix means a single IT support partner has to handle PHIPA obligations enforced by the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, ransomware exposure profiled by the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, and small-business operating realities documented by the Business Development Bank of Canada, all in the same week, often at sites scattered across the Highway 115 and Highway 7 corridor and into the Kawarthas. Sources: statcan.gc.ca, ipc.on.ca, cyber.gc.ca, bdc.ca.
. IT Support in Peterborough
Our Peterborough firm is paying hourly break-fix. What does your fixed-cost model actually include?
One monthly cost per user covering help desk, on-site, security (EDR, MDR, MFA, vulnerability scanning), backup, M365 administration, and 24/7 on-call. There is no ticket-by-ticket invoicing, no hourly billing for password resets or printer drops, no surprise after-hours bills. Quarterly business reviews show usage and value against the fixed cost.
Can you dispatch on-site to Peterborough the same business day?
Yes. Any ticket opened by mid-morning gets same-day on-site to Peterborough, Lindsay, Cobourg, Lakefield, Bridgenorth, and the Kawartha-corridor satellites. After-hours and weekend on-site for critical incidents is included in the contract.
Our manufacturer on Highway 7 runs a Saturday shift. Does your help desk actually answer at 11 p.m.?
Yes. Severity-1 alerts hit our platform inside 90 seconds and page an on-call senior engineer immediately. Triage starts inside 15 minutes. Status updates every 30 minutes until resolution. We carry redundant internet paths and tested incident playbooks for warehouse and plant-floor environments.
We are a 12-person professional firm downtown. Are we too small for managed IT support?
No. A meaningful share of our Peterborough book is professional firms between 8 and 30 users on Lansdowne, George, and downtown. Pricing for that size starts in line with what most are already paying their incumbent on a hourly model, but with predictable monthly billing and no surprise invoices.
We are tied to Peterborough Regional Health Centre under PHIPA. Does your help desk understand that?
Yes. Help-desk staff are trained to flag PHIPA-sensitive tickets, scrub identifiers from ticket bodies, document handling, and route through the appropriate change-control path. We produce the quarterly evidence pack the hospital’s privacy team will accept.
What is the first-contact resolution rate we should actually expect?
Our platform-wide first-contact resolution sits at 93%. Most Peterborough tickets close on the first touch without an engineer dispatch. Complex multi-system incidents move to dedicated engineer time with a clear ETA, status updates every 30 minutes, and on-site dispatch if needed the same day.
Reviewed personally by Mike Pearlstein, CISSP.
Before you fill out the form
Here is what happens after you hit send
- Within 1 business day, you hear back from Mike.Mike Pearlstein, CISSP, reviews every inbound request himself. Not a junior rep. Not a sales pitch.
- A 30-minute scoping call, in plain English.We size the work, name a price, and tell you straight up if we are not the right fit. No 80-slide decks.
- Local team. Data stays in Canada.Your tickets are answered from our Mississauga office. Your data sits on Canadian infrastructure, by design.
Ready to fix your IT support?
Tell us about your team size and biggest IT headache. We respond within one business day with a plan and a quote.
Or call us directly: (416) 865-3219
How much does IT support cost for a Peterborough business?
IT support in Peterborough typically costs $180/user/month depending on scope. Break-fix is billed hourly. Managed plans include monitoring, help desk, security, and patching in one predictable monthly cost.
Do you provide on-site IT support in Peterborough?
Yes. Fusion dispatches technicians to Peterborough for hardware failures, network issues, and infrastructure work. 4-hour target for critical issues. 93% of issues resolve remotely on first contact.
Can Fusion replace our internal IT person?
Yes. Many Peterborough businesses with 10 to 75 employees use Fusion as their complete outsourced IT department. Help desk, monitoring, security, vendor coordination, and strategic planning. All from one team.
What industries do you support in Peterborough?
Fusion supports businesses across professional services, construction, manufacturing, finance, healthcare, and logistics. Every industry has different compliance and uptime requirements. We tailor accordingly.
How fast is your response time?
93% first-contact resolution. Most remote issues resolve within 15 minutes. On-site response target is 4 hours for critical issues in the GTA. After-hours emergency support available.
What to Look for in an IT Support Provider in Peterborough
- Response time guarantees in writing. Not just “we’ll get back to you soon”
- Local presence. Technicians who can be on-site in Peterborough within hours
- Security-first approach. Patch management, MFA, and endpoint protection are standard, not add-ons
- Transparent pricing. No surprise invoices for work you assumed was covered
- References from businesses your size in Peterborough
Looking for full managed IT services including monitoring, security, and vendor coordination? See Managed IT Peterborough →
Part of Fusion’s IT support Toronto and national IT support network.
Ready to get IT support sorted for your business?
Fusion has delivered IT support to Canadian businesses since 2012. 93% first-contact resolution, fixed-price contracts, no surprises. Our 2026 support rates run $150 to $175/hr for ad-hoc work or $3,500 to $5,000/mo for a 20-person business. Get a free 30-minute assessment and a straight quote for your environment.
Nearby Service Areas
What if your situation is different?
The objections we hear most often, answered straight.
We already have a break-fix shop we like
Keep them for hands-on work if the relationship works. Many of our clients run a hybrid: break-fix for after-hours hands-on, Fusion for security, compliance evidence, 24/7 monitoring, and the strategic IT work. You do not have to choose one.
Our business is under 15 people. Are we too small?
Sometimes. If you are a 10-person office with basic needs and no compliance exposure, a good break-fix shop plus Microsoft 365 admin may be enough. If you carry any regulated-profession obligation (Law Society, PHIPA, OSC), cross-border data flow, or buyer-side compliance, the answer changes. We will tell you straight if Fusion is overkill.
Will you try to lock us into a 3-year contract?
No. Our standard is a one-year initial term to cover onboarding investment, then month-to-month. If we are not delivering, you leave. This is on purpose. Long-term contracts hide poor service.
What if we do not click with your engineers?
We swap them. Every account has a named senior engineer and a backup, and if the fit is wrong we rotate until it works. That is written into the service agreement.
Our cyber insurer specified a particular MSP
That is becoming more common. Most insurers accept any MSP whose controls align to CIS Controls v8.1 (ours do), and we can produce the evidence to satisfy an underwriter who has not heard of us. If they insist on a specific partner, that is usually negotiable. Start the conversation with your broker.
We had a bad experience with our last MSP
Most people we talk to have. We ask specifically about that experience on the first call so we can avoid repeating the specific failure mode. The 93% first-contact resolution guarantee is built for this conversation.
What is changing in Peterborough right now
OPG’s $26.8B Pickering Nuclear refurbishment, approved by Ontario in November 2025, deepens the nuclear-supply-chain role of Peterborough’s GE Hitachi Nuclear operation on Monaghan Road. 30,500 jobs are expected across the refurbishment with 6,700 sustained through station operation, deepening demand for CNSC-aligned supplier controls.
Canadian SMBs lose an average of 22 hours per employee per year to unresolved or slow IT issues
Source: Statistics Canada Small Business Productivity Report, 2024
The real cost of in-house IT vs managed IT
For a 50-person firm in Ontario or BC. Salary data from 2025 PayScale and Hays GTA IT compensation surveys.
Internal IT manager + junior tech
- IT manager salary: $95,000 to $125,000
- Junior tech salary: $55,000 to $70,000
- Benefits (30%): $45,000 to $58,500
- RMM + EDR + backup + M365 admin tools: $35,000/year
- Training + certs: $8,000/year
- Vacation, sick, turnover: you cover the gap
- 24/7 coverage: not possible with 2 people
Total: $238,000 to $296,500 per year
Fusion managed IT
- 24/7 help desk with on-call escalation
- Named senior engineer on your account
- CISSP-led quarterly security review
- Full tooling stack included (RMM, EDR, MDR, backup)
- No turnover gap, no sick-day gap
- Compliance evidence as routine deliverable
$180 to $250 per user/month (~$108,000-$150,000 for 50 people)
Most firms at 25 to 75 users save $80,000 to $150,000 per year on Fusion vs. a comparable in-house team and get 24/7 coverage they could not build internally.
Where Fusion responds in Peterborough
Fusion’s on-site dispatch covers the Monaghan Road GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada BWRX-300 footprint, the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) campus, the Lansdowne Street commercial corridor, Trent University and Fleming College, and the Highway 115 / 7 Trent-Severn corridor connecting Lindsay, Cobourg, and Bobcaygeon. Same-business-day dispatch up the 115 from the GTA reaches nuclear-supplier line PCs, PRHC-tied clinic endpoints, and downtown professional offices in under 4 hours.
Anchor employers and corridors
- GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy Canada (Monaghan Road)
- Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC)
- Trent University + Fleming College
- Lansdowne Street commercial corridor
- Highway 115 / 7 Trent-Severn corridor
- Multi-site satellites (Lindsay, Cobourg, Bobcaygeon)
- Quaker Oats + Kawartha Dairy manufacturing legacy
- Downtown professional core (George Street / Hunter Street)
Industry mix and compliance pressure
- Nuclear supplier tickets: line-controller PC swap windows
- PRHC-tied medical: same-day clinic-endpoint dispatch
- Trent / Fleming: research-vendor workstation tickets
- Construction firms: project-trailer connectivity + VPN
- Professional services: tax-season ticket spikes
Fusion help desk vs the alternatives
| Fusion managed help desk | Break-fix MSP support | Internal IT person | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First-response SLA | ✓ 15 min P1, written | × “We’ll call back” | — Walk to their desk |
| Pricing model | ✓ Flat per user/month | × Hourly + minimums | — Salary |
| Annual cost (25-user SMB) | ~$30K–$45K | $20K–$70K, volatile | $65K–$85K loaded |
| Coverage hours | ✓ 24/7/365 | × Business hours only | × 9-to-5 |
| Ticket system + tracking | ✓ ConnectWise portal | × Email chains | — Notebook if lucky |
| First-call resolution | ✓ ~80% target | × Variable | — Depends on the issue |
| Self-service knowledge base | ✓ Per-client KB articles | × None | — Confluence if maintained |
| User onboarding/offboarding | ✓ Documented + auditable | × Billable each time | — Spreadsheet checklist |
| Endpoint patching + monitoring | ✓ Continuous via RMM | × Manual at site visits | — If they have time |
| Escalation path | ✓ Tier 1 → engineer → vCIO | × The owner picks up | × Dead-ends |
| Documentation | ✓ Live in IT Glue | × Tribal knowledge | — In someone’s head |
| Replace someone | ✓ Continuity baked in | × Find a new provider | × Recruit + ramp |
Fusion help desk vs hiring your own
| Fusion help desk | Hire 1 helpdesk tech | Hire 3-person helpdesk | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Direct annual cost (25 users) | ~$30K–$45K | $70K–$85K loaded | $210K–$255K loaded |
| Sick day / vacation coverage | ✓ Team rotation | × Office unsupported | ✓ Internal rotation |
| After-hours response | ✓ 24/7 included | × On-call, often misses | — Rotating, OT cost |
| Skill breadth | ✓ M365, networking, MDR, AV | × One person, one specialty | — Better — still capped |
| Senior engineer escalation | ✓ Included | × They are the escalation | — If senior is on staff |
| Time-to-onboard new tool | ✓ Days — pre-built playbooks | × Weeks of self-learning | — Faster but still slow |
| Audit evidence cadence | ✓ Continuous | × Bottom of the queue | — Quarterly if disciplined |
| Replacement risk if quits | ✓ Zero | × 3–6 month gap | — Painful but survivable |
| Recruiting cost | ✓ $0 | $8K–$15K per hire | $25K–$45K total |
| Headcount as you grow | ✓ Add users, not heads | × Hire #2 ~40 users | — Hire #4 ~80 users |
| Walks to your desk | — Remote-first + on-site visits | ✓ Yes — legitimate edge | ✓ Yes |
Recent engagements
Where Fusion has shown up for similar IT-support situations.
- Marketing Agency Cyber Recovery
Stabilized in 72 hours after a ransomware breach; gap closed in week one. - Cannabis Retail Security + Multi-Site Rollout
PCI-DSS compliance and a secure POS rollout across multi-site retail. - Scaling a Design Studio: 35 to 205 users
Zero unplanned downtime through a 4-month phased deployment.
Security program led by
Mike Pearlstein, CISSP
CEO, Fusion Computing · 14 years advising Canadian businesses on security architecture
CISSP (Certified Information Systems Security Professional) is held by fewer than 1% of Canadian MSP leaders. Every Fusion engagement includes a quarterly CISSP-led security review of your environment, mapped to CIS Controls v8.1 and the control framework your auditor or cyber insurer is asking about.
“We switched to Fusion after our old MSP took 48 hours to respond to a server failure. Fusion had us back online the same day. Their team knows our systems and our people by name.”
Sandra M., CEO
Industrial Supply Company, Toronto
4.9★ average across Fusion Google reviews · Read more reviews
How Fusion compares to a break-fix shop and a national MSP
The three MSP buying options we see most often. Straight comparison.
The first-month guarantee
If Fusion does not hit our stated 93% first-contact resolution rate in your first month of service, month two is on us. No arguments, no proration games. We measure it, we show you the report, and if we miss, you do not pay. We have not missed yet.
Real Fusion client stories
Published case studies. Real outcomes, documented.
Talk to Fusion today
100 King Street West, Suite 5700
Toronto, ON M5X 1C7
(416) 508-7802
64 Hatt Street, Mailbox 44
Dundas, ON L9H 7T6
(416) 566-2845
Serving the Lower Mainland
(604) 800-7788
Toll-free 1-888-541-1611
