Escalation pressure
Internal IT handles day-to-day work but needs a reliable path for complex incidents, infrastructure problems or competing priorities.
Waterloo Region IT Strategy & Co-Managed IT
Co-managed IT for Waterloo Region internal IT teams
Add defined escalation, project capacity and documented ownership around internal IT without turning the relationship into a vague replacement model. The Waterloo Region approach is built around the infrastructure, vendor and continuity dependencies common in manufacturing, engineering, automation and technical businesses.
Co-managed IT gives an existing internal IT person or team an agreed second line of support. Scallex can take defined responsibilities for escalation, endpoints and identity, projects, documentation, infrastructure coordination, recovery planning or vendor follow-up while internal IT keeps the areas it should continue to own.
When augmentation makes sense
Signals that internal IT needs capacity or clearer ownership
The goal is not to replace useful internal knowledge. It is to make responsibilities, escalation and continuity less dependent on one person or an informal collection of vendors.
Project backlog
Migrations, network changes, endpoint work or Microsoft 365 projects keep slipping because operational support consumes the available time.
Single-person dependency
Critical knowledge, privileged access, vendor contacts or recovery procedures depend too heavily on one employee.
Infrastructure dependencies
Servers, networks, facility Wi-Fi, shared endpoints or line-of-business systems need support that spans users, infrastructure and external vendors.
Security ownership gaps
Endpoint, identity and incident responsibilities are split across people or providers without a documented operating model.
Continuity questions
Leadership needs to know who can respond when internal IT is unavailable and who owns backup, recovery and vendor escalation during an incident.
What you get
A responsibility model that can be operated, not just discussed
- Defined internal IT versus Scallex support and escalation responsibilities
- Endpoint and Microsoft 365 identity ownership planning
- Infrastructure and network escalation support where in scope
- Project support for migrations, lifecycle work and planned changes
- Documentation of systems, vendors, dependencies and escalation paths
- Backup, recovery and continuity responsibility review
- Roadmap priorities tied to business impact and operational dependencies
Co-managed operating model
Define who owns the work before an incident exposes the gap
The useful material from the retiring Kitchener-Waterloo consulting page is retained here as a more explicit operating model: practical business review, Microsoft 365 and user support guidance, cybersecurity and backup ownership, vendor coordination and a prioritized roadmap.
User support & escalation
Decide which requests stay with internal IT, which move to Scallex, and what qualifies for escalation.
Endpoints & identity
Clarify device administration, onboarding and offboarding, privileged access and Microsoft 365 responsibilities.
Infrastructure
Document server, network, firewall, Wi-Fi and business-system dependencies that affect support and continuity.
Projects & change
Use external capacity for planned changes that should not displace everyday support or internal priorities.
Vendors & documentation
Keep contacts, access paths, contracts, dependencies and escalation information usable by authorized people beyond one employee.
Recovery & absence coverage
Document who owns backup evidence, restore escalation and operational coverage when the internal team is unavailable.
Co-managed IT should make accountability clearer. The scope can be narrow or broad, but internal IT, Scallex and other vendors should each know what they own and how work is handed off.
Who it fits
Organizations that already have useful internal IT capability
This pathway is intended for Waterloo Region businesses that want to augment rather than automatically replace an internal IT person or team. It can fit manufacturing, engineering, automation and other technical organizations where internal knowledge is valuable but capacity, documentation, coverage or specialist escalation is uneven.
Buyer questions
Questions to settle before choosing a co-managed model
Does co-managed IT replace our internal IT person?
Not by definition. The model can preserve internal ownership while adding agreed support, escalation, project, documentation or infrastructure capacity around it.
How should responsibilities be divided?
Document ownership for user support, endpoints, Microsoft 365 and identity, infrastructure, security escalation, backup and recovery, vendors, projects and absence coverage. Shared responsibilities should have an explicit handoff.
What should a manufacturing or technical business add to that list?
Include the business systems, servers, network paths, facility connectivity, shared endpoints and vendor dependencies that can affect operations when ordinary office IT stops working.
Next step
Review the current responsibility model
Use the Free IT Assessment to identify support, security, recovery and ownership gaps before deciding which responsibilities should remain internal and which should be co-managed.