I am the Practice Manager at a large GP Practice in West Yorkshire, I’ve been extremely impressed with the support we’ve received from SMART IT for our phone system. They are consistently ...
Liz Brook
a year ago
Third Line Backup Support Alongside Your Team
Every in-house IT team has moments when the challenge in front of them needs deeper expertise, another pair of hands, or simply someone to bounce ideas off. That's exactly what SmartCare Enterprise is built for.
SmartCare Enterprise gives your internal IT team direct access to our senior engineers whenever they need it. Not to take over, but to back them up. When your team hits the edge of what they can solve alone, we're the third-line specialists who step in to resolve it.
Beyond escalations, we also provide the strategic support that keeps your IT aligned with your business: regular technology reviews, guidance on procurement and roadmaps, and a dedicated account manager who knows your organisation inside out. And when your IT team is on holiday, we're there to keep things running smoothly, so your users are never left without support during critical weeks.
Beyond escalations, we also provide the strategic support that keeps your IT aligned with your business: regular technology reviews, guidance on procurement and roadmaps, and a dedicated account manager who knows your organisation inside out. And when your IT team is on holiday, we're there to keep things running smoothly, so your users are never left without support during critical weeks.
Our Mission
Transforming the Way Businesses Work
Our mission is to transform the way businesses work through intelligent technology, AI and business automation, backed by proactive support.
Every solution we deliver is designed to help organisations:
Every solution we deliver is designed to help organisations:
What Is Co-Managed IT Support?
Co-managed IT support is a model where your internal IT team keeps day-to-day ownership and control of your systems, while a partner like Smart IT fills specific gaps, whether that's specialist expertise, additional capacity, or cover when your team is stretched. It sits between two extremes: doing everything in-house, or handing your whole IT function over to an external provider.
It's a common fit for organisations where:
It's a common fit for organisations where:
Co-Managed vs Fully Managed IT
If you're weighing up which of our IT support options fits, here's the simplest way to think about it:
Fully Managed (SmartCare)
We become your IT department, handling day-to-day support, monitoring, security and strategy directly for your users.
Co-Managed (SmartCare Enterprise)
Your IT team stays in control of day-to-day support. We provide senior escalation, specialist backup and strategic guidance alongside them, to your and your team.
If you're not sure which fits, that's a normal starting point, get in touch and we'll help you work out the right shape of support for your organisation.
What's Included
SmartCare Enterprise is designed to work alongside your in-house IT team, providing the specialist support, strategic input, and safety net that keep your organisation running at its best.
Third-Line Escalation
Senior expertise when your team needs it.
- Server and network infrastructure support
- Support for routers, switches and firewalls
- Onsite support for server infrastructure
- Direct escalation from your IT team to our senior engineers
Holiday Cover
Support that fits around your team's holidays.
- Book holiday cover for any period when your team is away
- Remote or onsite, first and second-line support for your end users
- Microsoft 365 support during cover
- Cover available on request
Proactive & Preventative
Catching issues before they become incidents.
- 24/7 proactive server monitoring and alerting
- Cyber security incident escalation for customers with SmartSecurity
- Backup and recovery escalation for customers with SmartBackup
- Customer portal for logging, tracking and reviewing tickets
Strategic Partnership
A partner for the bigger decisions.
- A dedicated account manager who knows your business
- Regular technology reviews with our senior team
- Strategic IT guidance to align technology with business goals
- Guidance on IT procurement and technology roadmaps
Why Choose Smart IT for Co-Managed IT Support
Local Third-Line Expertise, Ready When You Need It
Your team already knows your systems better than anyone. What SmartCare Enterprise adds is the depth and specialist capacity to handle the moments a smaller team can't cover alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. SmartCare Enterprise is built specifically to work alongside your existing IT team, not replace them. It's designed for organisations who want to keep and support their internal team by adding third-line escalation/backup support to help them, alongside holiday cover and strategic guidance.
Co-managed IT support means your in-house IT team keeps day-to-day ownership of your systems, while Smart IT provides additional expertise, capacity and escalation support exactly where and when it's needed, rather than taking over the whole function.
A third-line escalation is an issue your first and second-line engineers have been unable to resolve. Rather than continuing to work it in-house, your team escalates it directly to our third-line engineers, who pick it up and see it through to resolution.
Not as standard. SmartCare Enterprise is built to support your IT team directly, rather than your end users. The exception is holiday and sickness cover, where we can provide first and second-line support to your end users while your team is away.
Yes. You can book holiday or absence cover for any period your team is away, covering remote or onsite first and second-line support for your end users.
Escalations are prioritised by urgency and business impact. High priority issues target a 30-minute response, medium priority 1 hour, and low priority 4 hours.
Normally, your internal IT team manages the Microsoft 365 tenant for first and second-line support, escalating to us where necessary, except during holiday or sickness cover, when we can also handle first and second-line support directly. That said, agreements can be flexible: if you'd prefer us to fully manage your Microsoft 365 tenant so your team can focus on other priorities, we can do that too.
If you're a SmartSecurity or SmartBackup customer, cyber security incidents and backup or recovery issues can be escalated to us directly as part of SmartCare Enterprise, in addition to server and network infrastructure escalations.
Yes. Every SmartCare Enterprise customer has a dedicated account manager who knows your organisation, alongside regular technology reviews and strategic guidance on procurement and technology roadmaps.
It's built for any organisation with its own internal IT team that wants additional expertise and capacity, rather than being defined by a strict headcount. If your team would benefit from third-line backup, strategic guidance, or holiday cover, it's worth a conversation regardless of exact size.
Yes, this is one of the most common reasons organisations choose co-managed IT. A small team can cover day-to-day support well, but specialist areas like cyber security, or a genuinely difficult infrastructure problem, are hard to build deep expertise in when you only face them occasionally. SmartCare Enterprise gives your team that specialist depth without needing to hire for it directly.
