The Ultimate Guide for Consultancy Firms Picking a Business IT Support Provider

Consultancy firms sell expertise, trust, and time. When your laptops crawl, email is flaky, or a breach knocks out client delivery, you burn all three. The right IT support company doesn’t just fix tickets, it protects billable hours, hard-won client relationships, and margins.

This guide distils the must-check criteria for selecting a managed IT support service partner — with current UK data points and a simple scorecard you can use in procurement.

Why this Matters Now

• Cyber attacks remain routine in the UK: 43% of businesses identified a breach or attack in the past 12 months (67% for medium firms, 74% for large). Phishing is still the biggest headache, cited in 85% of incidents. Small businesses are increasingly outsourcing security, with 62% now using external providers. GOV.UK

• Directors are being pressed to treat cyber as a core business risk, with refreshed government guidance and board-level accountability in the spotlight. The Times

• When things break, costs mount quickly. UK and Irish firms report outage costs running into millions per hour in severe cases. Even if your firm is smaller, the direction of travel is clear: downtime is expensive and increasingly scrutinised. IT Pro

What “good” Looks Like for Consultancy SMEs

1) Security posture that meets UK baselines

Ask how the provider aligns to Cyber Essentials (the UK government-backed baseline) and the NCSC’s 10 Steps to Cyber Security. Cyber Essentials focuses on five technical controls that stop the most common attacks: firewalls, secure configuration, access control, malware protection, and patching. For consultancies handling client data, Cyber Essentials Plus (independent verification) is strongly advisable. GOV.UK

What to verify

• Provider holds Cyber Essentials/Cyber Essentials Plus themselves and will help you certify. GOV.UK

• Controls are enforced across laptops, mobiles, cloud apps, and remote users — not just the office network. NCSC

2) Incident readiness and regulatory response

Have they implemented and tested an incident response runbook that maps to NCSC’s small business Response & Recovery guidance? If your firm processes personal data, can they support ICO breach reporting within the statutory 72-hour window? NCSC

What to verify

• Named roles, on-call arrangements, evidence of tabletop exercises, and a comms template for clients and the ICO. NCSC

3) Microsoft 365 and cloud first, done properly

Most consultancy SMEs standardise on Microsoft 365. You need a partner that designs for identity-centric security, conditional access, MFA, secure device management, and compliant data lifecycle — not just mailbox moves. (Microsoft 365 alignment with ISO/IEC 27001 and modern security baselines is the foundation.) Microsoft Learn

What to verify

• Strong track record in Microsoft 365 migrations and modern management (Intune), with clear hardening standards and tenant-level governance.

4) Measurable reliability and speed

SLAs are only as good as the reporting. You want first-response times, fix SLAs, patch compliance, and backup success rates measured and reviewed monthly. The cost of outages is rising — you need a provider focused on prevention, observability, and fast recovery. IT Pro

5) Supply-chain and client assurance

For many tenders, your clients will now look for Cyber Essentials status (sometimes as a bid requirement) and evidence of broader governance (e.g., ISO/IEC 27001 at least in roadmap form). GOV.UK

6) Transparent backup and recovery

Ask for the RPO/RTO they will commit to for Microsoft 365, file shares, and key SaaS platforms; and how often they test restores. Tie this to the incident runbook mentioned above. NCSC

7) Local presence with enterprise-grade partners

For South East consultancies, a nearby team (Essex, London, Home Counties) shortens onsite response and improves account management cadence — while partnerships with major vendors keep pricing and escalation strong.

The Procurement Checklist

Security & Compliance

• Cyber Essentials/CE+ held by provider (certificate link). Plan to take your firm through CE/CE+. GOV.UK

• Mapping to NCSC 10 Steps; documented policies and continuity plan. NCSC

• ICO 72-hour breach process support and data retention guidance. ICO

  
  

Microsoft 365 & Cloud

• Evidence of at least 10 recent M365 migrations of similar size.

• Intune device compliance, MFA, Conditional Access, privileged access model, and secure configuration standards documented. Microsoft Learn

  
  

Operational Excellence

• SLAs: first response, time to resolution, and P1/P2 definitions.

• Patch compliance and backup success rates published monthly; restore tests quarterly. NCSC

• Observability and proactive monitoring approach (to reduce outage windows). IT Pro

  
  

Governance

• Quarterly business reviews covering risk, spend, and roadmap.

• Supplier vetting and third-party risk process.

  
  

Commercials

• Fixed-fee managed IT support with clear inclusions, fair use, and project ratecard.

• Exit assistance clause and data hand-back terms.

  
  

Questions to Ask Shortlisted Providers (and what “good” sounds like)

1. “How will you take us to Cyber Essentials Plus?”Good: “Baseline gap analysis against the five controls, remediation plan, staff training, internal pre-assessment, and IASME-accredited audit scheduling.” IASME - Home

2. “Show us your incident runbook and how you meet the 72-hour ICO clock.”Good: “On-call rotations, clear severity matrix, pre-drafted client/ICO comms, evidence of tabletop exercises, and a breach diary template.” ICO

3. “How do you secure Microsoft 365 beyond basic MFA?”Good: “Conditional Access, device compliance via Intune, admin separation, just-in-time privileged elevation, and automated configuration drift reporting — aligned to ISO/IEC 27001 controls.” Microsoft Learn

4. “What telemetry do you collect to prevent outages?”Good: “Endpoint health, patch status, SaaS API signals, and network performance, with alert correlation and monthly trend reports to minimise downtime.” IT Pro

Red flags

• SLA without evidence. If they can’t show last quarter’s SLA and patch/backup stats, treat promises cautiously.

• “We’ll sort Cyber Essentials later.” Baseline controls are table stakes now, and clients increasingly expect them. GOV.UK

• Email-only breach response. If there’s no live on-call and no 72-hour reporting playbook, your regulatory exposure rises. ICO

A Simple Scoring Template You Can Copy

Criterion	Weight	Score (1–5)	Notes
Cyber Essentials/Plus readiness & support	15%		5 controls implemented end-to-end. GOV.UK
NCSC 10 Steps alignment (policies, BCP)	10%		Documented, reviewed annually. NCSC
Incident response & ICO 72-hour process	10%		Runbooks, on-call, tabletop evidence. NCSC
Microsoft 365 security & device management	15%		CA, Intune, PIM/JIT, baseline hardening. Microsoft Learn
Proactive monitoring & outage prevention	10%		Observability and monthly trend reviews. IT Pro
SLA quality & historic performance	10%		First response, fix times, patch/backup KPIs.
Backup/restore (RPO/RTO) & test evidence	10%		Quarterly restore tests; audit logs. NCSC
Local presence & vendor partnerships	10%		Onsite capability in the South East; Tier-1 vendors.
Commercial clarity & exit support	10%		Fixed-fee scope, fair use, data hand-back.

Add up weighted scores to rank providers objectively.

How AIS Fits this Brief

AIS Technology provides managed IT support and it services for SMEs across London and Essex. We support 600+ users with 24×7 availability, proactive monitoring, Microsoft 365 expertise, and strategic it consulting services. As a Microsoft partner with strong Dell and Cisco relationships, we combine local presence with enterprise-grade delivery — ideal for consultancy firms that need reliable day-to-day it support and a roadmap that keeps pace with client assurance demands.

Sources and Further Reading

• UK Cyber Security Breaches Survey 2025 – prevalence, phishing, outsourcing, and SME policy/BCP stats. GOV.UK

• NCSC – Cyber Essentials overview, five technical controls; official requirements and brochure; 10 Steps to Cyber Security; why resilience matters. GOV.UK

• ICO – breach reporting and 72-hour guidance for organisations. ICO

• Microsoft – ISO/IEC 27001 alignment for cloud services and M365 security posture foundations. Microsoft Learn

• Downtime impact – recent UK/Ireland outage-cost analysis highlighting the business case for observability and proactive monitoring. IT Pro

• Government updates and board accountability – evolving guidance placing cyber risk at director level. The Times

  
  

Ready to evaluate providers?

AIS can run a no-cost, no-obligation baseline review against the checklist above and show you where small changes — MFA hardening, device compliance, backup testing — create outsized resilience. If you want the template as a branded PDF for the it support procurement process, say the word and I’ll produce it.