Professional services
When your people are the product, downtime is expensive
Consultancies, agencies and advisory firms sell time and expertise. We help organisations like yours find practical ways to keep that time productive, client information protected and Microsoft 365 working the way the team actually works.
- Typical size
- 10 to 250 people, often across several offices and a lot of home working.
- What's usually at stake
- Billable hours, client confidentiality and deadlines that don't move.
- Most common starting point
- Tidying up Microsoft 365 and getting support response times agreed in writing.
- Frequent trigger
- A client security questionnaire, a merger, or an office move.
At a glance
What we hear in this sector
Different organisations, same conversations. If any of these sound familiar, you're in good company.
“Every hour someone spends fighting their laptop is an hour we can't bill.”
“Clients keep sending us security questionnaires and we're guessing at half the answers.”
“We've got files in SharePoint, files on a server and files in someone's personal drive.”
What matters most in professional services
The technology itself is rarely complicated. What makes it different here is that the work is time-based, client-facing and often done away from the office.
Protecting billable time
Small, repeated interruptions cost more than the occasional big outage. Slow logins, laptops that need rebuilding and a support desk nobody wants to ring add up quietly across a fee-earning team.
Client confidentiality you can evidence
Clients increasingly ask how their information is handled. That's easier to answer when access is controlled properly, leavers are removed promptly and someone can produce the evidence without a scramble.
One reliable home for documents
Version confusion is a professional risk, not just an annoyance. Getting document storage into one sensible place, with sharing that behaves predictably, removes a lot of daily friction.
Working the same way anywhere
Client sites, home, coworking spaces, the train. If the experience changes depending on where someone is sitting, people invent workarounds - and workarounds are where risk collects.
Onboarding that doesn't embarrass you
New starters and contractors join often in this sector. A repeatable first-day setup means someone is useful on day one rather than waiting on a laptop.
Where organisations here usually start
We'll tell you honestly what's worth doing first, and what can wait until next year's budget.
- 01
Understand the working week
We start by learning how your teams actually work - client sites, deadlines, tools - rather than auditing your kit list.
- 02
Fix the daily friction
Sort the handful of issues that interrupt fee-earners most often. It's usually a short list, and it's usually not glamorous.
- 03
Tighten access and identity
Multi-factor authentication, sensible admin rights and a proper leaver process. The practical security work that clients ask about.
- 04
Plan the rest honestly
A short, prioritised list with rough costs, so you can decide what's worth doing now and what can wait.
How we help firms like yours
We help organisations find long-term, workable solutions to their IT problems and priorities. Sometimes that means day-to-day support and Microsoft 365 management. Sometimes it means pointing you at the one change that would remove most of the noise, and being straight with you about the rest.
Professional services firms tend to be well run and time-poor. You don't need a transformation programme - you need someone dependable to keep things moving, flag what's coming and give you an honest answer when you ask whether something is worth the money.
Behind every support ticket is a person trying to get their job done, often with a client waiting. That's the standard we hold ourselves to.
- A support desk your fee-earners will actually use
- Agreed response times, in writing, with visibility of open tickets
- Microsoft 365 licensing reviewed so you're not paying for shelf-ware
- Straight answers for client security questionnaires
- A repeatable joiner, mover and leaver process
- A simple IT roadmap tied to your business plan, not a product catalogue
Questions people ask us
Not at all. Plenty of firms have a capable internal person or a part-time supplier and just need extra hands, specialist input or cover for holidays. We'd talk through co-managed options rather than assume you want to replace what's working.
Start with a conversation, not a proposal
Get an IT health check that reviews your support, security and Microsoft setup, then gives you a short, prioritised list of what's worth doing.