Our own team runs your helpdesk, devices and user changes, and checks the security controls behind them continually instead of waiting for something to break.
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01Who it's for
Is this service right for you?
It suits organisations with 5 or more staff where IT has become too important to leave to chance and too small to justify a full internal team.
Built for
Businesses that have outgrown an office manager or a part-time IT contractor
Organisations whose insurer, customers or auditors are asking harder questions about how their IT is secured
Teams unhappy with a current provider that fixes tickets but never deals with the security gaps behind them
Councils, schools, health and not-for-profit organisations that need IT support from a certified, government-registered supplier
You probably need it if…
Your IT is looked after by whoever in the office knows the most about computers
A contractor only turns up when something fails
A customer or insurer questionnaire has left you unsure how to answer
Your internal IT person needs help keeping on top of patching, monitoring and security
02What's included
What you get
Day-to-day support
Helpdesk
Your staff contact our helpdesk by phone, email or portal. Many issues can be fixed remotely while your staff member is on the line, and each request is tracked as a ticket so you can see what was done.
On-site support
When a problem needs hands on the hardware, such as a failed switch, a network outage or a printer that won't join the network, an engineer comes to your office anywhere in Greater Sydney. One visit a month is included in Secure+ if required; on Essentials and Business, onsite support starts from $195 an hour (2-hour minimum). Elsewhere we support you remotely, or charge for travel.
User and device changes
New starters, leavers, password resets, new laptops and access changes are handled through the helpdesk, with accounts closed promptly when someone leaves and each change tracked on its ticket.
Secure & maintain
Monitoring and patching
Continuous monitoring of your managed computers and servers, with alerts reviewed by our team and response targets agreed in writing. It covers device health, disk and performance checks, backup status and an up-to-date asset inventory. Operating system and third-party application patches are automated, routine maintenance runs as scripted policies, and remote sessions let us fix many issues without a visit.
Security baseline on devices and accounts
Endpoint protection and limited admin rights are set up on managed devices, and multi-factor authentication (MFA) is enforced on user accounts. We check that these controls stay in place, rather than assuming they do.
Liaise & report
Vendor and supplier liaison
We deal with your internet provider, phone system vendor and line-of-business software vendors on your behalf, so your team spends less time on hold explaining the problem.
Reporting
Regular reports covering tickets, patch status, security alerts and any risks we think you should know about, with recommendations ranked by priority.
03In detail
Managed IT support & helpdesk, in depth
What is managed IT support?
Managed IT support means handing the day-to-day running of your IT to an outside team for a regular monthly fee. A helpdesk only answers questions. Managed IT also takes responsibility for the state of your systems between calls, from Microsoft 365 accounts and user and identity management to backups and hardware replacement. It is the core of our managed IT services in Sydney. What is included depends on the plan, and you can compare our per-user managed IT plans.
What does security-first managed IT look like in practice?
MFA where it matters most. Email, remote access and admin accounts are protected by multi-factor authentication as standard.
Admin rights kept tight. Staff work from standard accounts, and admin access is limited to the people and tasks that need it.
Patching tracked to completion. We don’t stop at “updates scheduled”. We follow up the devices that miss them.
Backups that are tested. Where we manage your backups, we run regular test restores to check that data can be recovered.
Alerts reviewed by people. Endpoint detection and response (EDR) and email alerts are reviewed by people who understand what they mean. See endpoint security for the detail.
These controls line up with ASD Essentials, the Australian Signals Directorate’s framework, and with the maturity model organisations are assessed against today. That helps you answer when a customer, insurer or auditor asks how your IT is secured. Application control, another of the controls ASD prioritises, is available as an add-on starting from $15 per device per month, ex GST.
How are response times agreed?
Response times and coverage are set out in a service level agreement (SLA) that we agree with you based on your requirements: how critical your systems are, your hours of operation and any extended cover you need. We would rather agree what you need than promise cover in advance.
How do we protect our access to your systems?
An IT provider’s access is a target in its own right: an attacker who compromises your provider can reach many clients at once. We treat our access to your environment with the same care we expect from you.
Named engineer accounts with phishing-resistant MFA, rather than shared logins.
Least-privilege Microsoft partner access through granular delegated admin privileges (GDAP), limited in scope and time.
What if you already have an IT person?
Many organisations keep an internal IT person or a long-standing contractor. We can work with them in a co-managed arrangement: they keep the work they know well, and we take on the helpdesk overflow, patching, monitoring and the security controls that are hard to keep on top of alone. This is a shared responsibility model: we discuss and agree who handles what during the initial engagement and set it out in writing. We share the same ticketing and documentation, and give your staff member admin access where it makes sense, so less falls between two parties.
04The process
How it works
1Step 01
Discovery
We document your users, devices, accounts, network and software, and find the security gaps that need closing first.
2Step 02
Onboarding and baseline
We roll out our monitoring agent, apply the security baseline, take over admin access and brief your staff on how to reach the helpdesk.
3Step 03
Day-to-day support
Your team uses the helpdesk for anything IT. We patch, monitor and maintain everything in the background.
4Step 04
Regular review
You get regular reports, and we meet regularly to plan upgrades, budget for replacements and track security improvements.
05Frameworks
How this maps to the frameworks
Useful for your auditor, board or procurement team. The mapping shows where this service supports each framework. It doesn't replace a formal assessment.
* Not in the monthly price: projects such as moves and migrations, hardware and licences, ASD Essentials readiness reviews and penetration testing (Secure+ includes one external network test).
07FAQ
Managed IT support & helpdesk, answered.
Can't see your question? Ask a specialist and get a straight answer.
Managed IT support covers the day-to-day running of your IT for a predictable monthly fee. With Catharsis that means a helpdesk (3 hours a month on Essentials, 5 on Business, unlimited on Secure+), on-site visits depending on your plan, monitoring and patching of your computers and servers, user and device changes, supplier liaison and regular reporting. Endpoint protection, multi-factor authentication and limited admin rights are included as standard. Application control is an add-on (starting from $15 per device per month, ex GST), and items such as backup depend on the plan you choose.
What support coverage do we get?
Your staff reach our own helpdesk team by phone, email or portal, rather than an outsourced call centre. Requests are prioritised, so a business-stopping problem is handled ahead of routine changes. Response times and coverage, including any extended cover, are set out in a written service level agreement (SLA) that we agree with you before you sign.
Do we need managed IT support or just someone to call when things break?
It depends on how much you rely on your IT and how much risk you can accept. Break-fix support only reacts to problems. Patches, backups and admin accounts can go unchecked in between, and those are among the controls ASD prioritises. A managed service checks those controls continually, and aims to fix the cause of recurring problems rather than just the symptom.
What happens when we first move to Catharsis?
We start by documenting your users, devices, accounts, network and software, and collecting admin credentials and licence details from your current provider. We then deploy our monitoring agent, apply our security baseline and close the most urgent gaps first, such as accounts without MFA or former staff who still have access. Your staff are told how to reach the helpdesk before the switch.
How is this different from a regular managed service provider?
The difference is that a security team runs your IT. Penetration testing is part of our work, so your controls are set up and checked by people who know how attackers get around them, and security alerts are reviewed by people trained to recognise an attack. The security baseline is part of the monthly service rather than an add-on you buy later.
Can government agencies and councils buy managed IT support from you?
Yes, through BuyICT and buy.nsw, where Catharsis is a registered supplier. For a managed IT proposal, procurement teams receive evidence of our ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification, a written description of the security baseline we apply and the framework mapping on this page. On request, we also explain how our access to your systems is controlled, ready for your security assessment questionnaire.
