Bryley’s best clients are those who understand IT is something core to the whole organization.
What is hybrid IT?
Collaborating with IT
To borrow a phrase, an educated consumer is Bryley’s best customer. The most cyber-secure organizations and those that tend to get the most from their tech investments are those that view IT as a collaboration.
Even at this late date, the human element tops the list of cybersecurity breakdowns: when tech users take their eye off the ball they can still unleash havoc on an organization1. Even setting aside catastrophes there are day-to-day issues and long-range planning that can be helped by giving IT a voice at the decision-making table.
For example when you include IT, it can help mitigate potential problems like when one larger accountancy bought a smaller one. If IT had not been consulted prior to the negotiation-stage, the larger company would have not had a clear view of the tech issues, and may have gone eighteen months post-acquisition with process duplications, incompatible data and frustrated employees. But IT was consulted early-on – about the processes to keep, how to combine data, how to unify operations. So these efficiencies – meaning cost-savings of thousands of dollars – were realized within a few months instead of years.
Co-managed IT
Some outsourced IT providers take a dim view of retaining an internal IT team. But Bryley thinks that’s shortsighted.
Working with your internal team is an ideal use-case for Bryley: an internal IT person is suddenly not stuck being the only one who knows anything and everything. When the IT person takes time off there’s no cause to worry. And internal IT people are not out of their depth, but can escalate complex issues to a team of specialists.
This is why an internal IT investment becomes more valuable when you include an MSP safeguard; continuity during sick days or vacations, specialized support for complex problems, nobody is carrying all the responsibility alone. It all means less downtime and fewer emergency expenses when critical issues hit.
What does co-managed look like?
Spencer Machining (an anonymized example)
Spencer Machining has been making aerospace components for fifteen years. They have twenty employees. The founder handled basic IT himself since the beginning. He added equipment to meet client needs and worked with a local computer services company when computers broke.
Last quarter a large manufacturer reached out to Spencer to help fulfill a sizable DoD contract. The contract had the potential to add 15% to Spencer’s yearly revenue. But in order to get the contract, Spencer was informed it had to operate in compliance with CMMC Level 2 (Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, developed for military contracts).
No one at Spencer knew much about CMMC. A little research revealed there were 110 security controls from NIST SP 800-171 they’d need to implement.
Spencer quickly realized CMMC required specific knowledge they didn’t have in-house. The requirements were technical and definite, as was reporting. And CMMC requires continuous monitoring. This wasn’t a one-time thing.
Spencer needed to understand what implementation would entail. How long might CMMC compliance take? How much would it cost? What does it take to maintain compliance?
Spencer needed a partner that understood CMMC requirements, could assess their current security gaps, and help set realistic expectations about the path to certification. Spencer needed someone who could handle both the initial implementation and ongoing monitoring.
Moving to M365 Business (a different also anonymous example)
Northborough Neighbors, an eight-person non-profit, considered upgrading to a business-class of M365 and moving away from a variety of different tools like personal email addresses and Zoom calls. To support the change, rather than continuing to manage all IT internally, they explored a partnership: their administrator would continue to handle everyday support – working directly with staff, while a Managed Service Provider (MSP) would manage the technical infrastructure and security.
This partnership acknowledges different strengths. The internal admin knows how the organization works – how files are used, how reports are compiled – and helps staff with password resets and new user setup. The MSP sets up the system, configures security like multi-factor authentication and data protection, watches for problems and handles complex technical requirements.
This approach removes the risk of relying on one person – if the admin is unavailable, the MSP knows the system and can keep things running. Also the admin can focus on helping staff rather than troubleshooting more complex technical issues. The organization all at once has access to specialized security knowledge that a single person probably wouldn’t have. And an MSP’s professional oversight can make it possible to meet technical requirements for grants that demand strict data security.
The MSP provides a depth of technical knowledge from its various specialists. And Northborough’s internal admin sees that the tech is serving the staff and clients.
Knowledge, power and flexibility
Bryley’s best clients understand IT is something the whole organization is wrapped up in: if IT is in the loop it can facilitate processes and remove production bottlenecks, most employees use networked devices, and everyone who does needs to be aware of and practice best practices. And not least: knowing what to do in the event of an IT emergency is everyone’s job.
The beauty of co-managed IT is its power and flexibility: an internal team has ingrained, institutional knowledge and an MSP can handle everything from infrastructure monitoring and help-desk support to strategic planning and vCIO services – it all depends on what you decide your internal team needs most. A collaborative approach gets you the right expertise, it creates a stronger, more resilient IT environment for everyone in your organization.
This partnership is suited for catching problems before they become expensive emergencies – not because your team lacks capability, but because a deep bench of experts has seen patterns and solutions from working across multiple organizations.
If you would like a no-obligation consult to discover if an MSP can improve your IT situation, please call 978•562•6077 or email Bryley’s Roy Pacitto or complete the form, below.
1 A recent example of taking your eye off the ball: a plant manager got a phone notification on a Saturday – a production line had stopped. He needed to review error logs to see if it could be remedied remotely or if it had to wait till Monday. He had a maintenance person with some tech skills open a router port to give him access, but neither of them remembered to close it later on – leaving company data exposed to possible theft. Two weeks later the Extended Detection and Response (XDR) system detected and stopped bot activity at the exposed production server.
by Lawrence Strauss, January 7, 2026
Lawrence has written for Bryley since 2015
