01
Support & escalation
Agree on support hours, contact channels, urgency definitions, and who takes an issue after hours.
Put in writing: Named owner, escalation path, and written coverage terms.
Know who owns the work.
Build a managed-IT scope around a named owner, documented coverage, and the systems your team depends on. The audit defines what LUCA operates, what remains with you, and how the work is checked.
Samuel Mfinanga · Named engineer · 20+ years infrastructure
Start with your operation
Tell us what the account must carry.
Answer what you know; every question is optional. Your choices prepare an editable contact draft; nothing is sent until you review and submit it there. They do not produce a price or promise a service level; scope and terms are agreed after review.
Book a call
Continue now, or add a few details first.
Before the agreement
Make the scope visible.
A managed IT proposal should show what is covered, what is separately quoted, and what remains yours. These are decisions to make together, not a list of pre-included services or a promised service level.
02
People & devices
Count the users, locations, devices, and systems in scope; identify what stays with your team.
Put in writing: Current inventory and a responsibility map.
03
Backup & recovery
Identify what must be protected, who runs restore tests, and who decides when to recover.
Put in writing: Backup ownership, test cadence, and recovery priorities.
04
Security & access
Decide who approves access, reviews exceptions, responds to alerts, and coordinates incidents.
Put in writing: Approval authority and an incident handoff path.
05
Networks & vendors
Name the owner of connectivity, equipment, cloud accounts, and third-party tickets.
Put in writing: Vendor contacts and the boundary between teams.
06
Projects & transition
Separate ongoing support from new projects, hardware purchases, and the provider handover.
Put in writing: Quoted exclusions, transition checkpoints, and sign-off owners.
Replacing a provider?
Keep control through the handoff.
A switch is more than installing new tools. Use these four checkpoints to ask for a written transition scope before anyone changes access or support ownership.
- 01
Establish control
Who owns every account, device, vendor relationship, backup, and open issue today?
Ask for this recordA buyer-owned inventory with the current owner, missing access, critical dependencies, and the people authorized to approve changes.
- 02
Protect continuity
What must keep working while responsibility changes hands?
Ask for this recordA handoff order for business-critical systems, support contact path, change window, validation checks, and a named rollback decision-maker.
- 03
Change access deliberately
When can the incoming team enter, and when should the outgoing team lose access?
Ask for this recordApproved access steps, least-privilege assignments, tool changes, evidence of removal, and an exception owner—not credentials in a public form.
- 04
Accept the new operating state
What shows the buyer that support and recovery now have an owner?
Ask for this recordA checked support route, tested handoffs, known exceptions, agreed reporting, and an exportable environment and exit record.
These are buyer checkpoints, not a promise that every activity, tool, coverage hour, or transition period is included. The actual responsibilities and terms belong in the reviewed proposal. Do not send credentials or sensitive environment details through this site.
Book a callStill comparing providers?
Make the proposals answer the same questions.
Compare ownership, coverage hours, security, transition, and exclusions before you compare the monthly number.
Read the managed IT buyer guide →Managed services
Support, and the stack under it.
The person at the desk
- Sign-in, mail, printing, a file they cannot reach, a computer that will not start
- Set the approval and timing for new-hire access and leaver removal
- Name the account owner, backup contact, and escalation path
- Define remote service, staffed hours, and any after-hours response in writing
The stack
- Workplace mail, identity, and device management, administered together
- Agree on patch ownership and an inventory of what is actually in use
- Specify backup coverage, restore-test cadence, and evidence to retain
- Identify monitoring owners and the path from the office to the internet
- Include vendor and admin access review where it belongs in scope
Managed Services & Support: what this includes
Managed Services & Support: the work in scope.
- 01If you already have an IT leadKeep them. Map which decisions and vendors stay with your lead and which support queues LUCA would carry. Both teams approve the responsibility map before service begins.
- 02In the monthDefine the recurring work: people support, accounts and devices, patching, backup, monitoring, and reporting. The audit and written scope say which are included and at what cadence.
- 03Not in the monthA move to a new office, a full network rebuild, a migration, or a security architecture that has to be designed. Those are projects. They are quoted on their own, before the work starts. They are not slipped into the monthly invoice.
- 04The first thirty daysUse the opening plan to document identity, devices, backup, and connectivity. Decide which access changes need approval, whether a restore test is included, and who receives monitoring alerts. Dates and deliverables belong in the scope.
- 05The pageAgree on a report someone can act on: what is healthy, what changed, and what should happen next. Set the format and cadence before the account starts.
- 06Remote, nationwideRemote service can be scoped for U.S. locations. Confirm which systems and tasks can be handled remotely and which need local hands or a separately planned visit.
- 07In the roomSome work needs a person on site. Discuss availability in Lincoln, Omaha, and Denver during scoping; elsewhere, define the remote boundary and local-hands plan.
- 08Technology you can buyIf equipment or licenses are needed, request an itemized quote apart from the recurring service. Confirm availability, delivery, and ownership before purchase.
- 09If you leavePut the exit handoff in writing: environment map, asset list, backup design, account access, and any transfer fees. Your next team should not have to reconstruct the basics.
Managed Services & Support: the practical distinction
What changes when this work is done here.
A ticket number, then a stranger who has never seen the office.
Name the account owner, backup contact, and escalation path in the scope.
A backup job is green, so it must be fine.
Define a restore test, its cadence, and the evidence you will receive.
A portal full of charts, and a quarterly meeting to explain them.
Agree on a useful reporting cadence: what is healthy, what changed, what is next.
After hours, you start the explanation over.
Write down staffed hours, monitoring, on-call coverage, and who gets the alert.
Leave, and the picture of your environment stays in their tool.
Specify the environment record, asset list, backup design, and exit handoff.
The workflow
How the account is scoped and run
- 01The auditIdentity, devices, backup, and the path to the internet, written down. If the real job is a website, a software build, or a security design, we say so and stop. Those are other practices.
- 02The priceThe monthly account is quoted from that picture. A project is quoted on its own, before it starts. You see the line between them.
- 03One engineerName an account owner, backup contact, and escalation path in the agreement. Decide who handles each queue before the first ticket.
- 04The first thirty daysDocument the starting environment, approve access changes, and agree on any restore test and monitoring handoff. The schedule and evidence are written into scope.
- 05The monthSet a reporting cadence and format that answers what is healthy, what changed, and what needs a decision next.
- 06After hoursSeparate staffed support, automated monitoring, and on-call response. If after-hours coverage is needed, name the contact, severity, and response target in writing.
Before the quote
Know what your IT account must cover.
A monthly agreement should follow the real environment, the people who use it, and the hours when a failure matters. Bring the facts you have; unknowns belong in the audit.
- 01
People and places
How many people, locations, devices, and critical applications need support? Separate remote coverage from work that requires a person on site.
- 02
Who decides
If you have an IT lead, name what they keep and what LUCA would run. Include vendor access, joiners and leavers, and who authorizes a material change.
- 03
What cannot wait
Identify the systems whose outage stops the business, the after-hours contact, and the recovery you expect. A backup status is not the same as a tested restore.
- 04
What stays separate
Office moves, migrations, and major security redesigns are projects, not invisible additions to the monthly account. Ask for a written line between them.
What gets scoped
The audit sets covered users, devices, systems, support hours, on-site geography, ownership, escalation, reporting, and separately quoted projects before a monthly account is priced.
Read the primary guidance
These sources help frame the questions. They are not a LUCA certification or a promise that every control is included in a service quote.
Before you choose
Questions worth settling before you switch.
- Can you work beside our internal IT lead?
- Yes. In a co-managed scope, your lead keeps the decisions you assign to them. The proposal names who owns each support queue, change approval, vendor relationship, and escalation so work does not fall between teams.
- What happens when we move from another provider?
- Start with an audit of accounts, devices, vendors, open issues, backups, and the systems that cannot go down. The transition plan should name the handoff order, access changes, validation checks, and the person who can approve each step. Do not send access details through this form.
- Is after-hours support or a response time included?
- Coverage hours, severity levels, response targets, and the after-hours escalation path belong in the written scope. We do not ask you to infer them from a generic support claim. Bring the hours and systems that matter to your audit.
- How will we know backups can actually restore?
- Ask for the restore test, the systems covered, the recovery target, and the evidence you will receive. A successful backup job is not proof that a business-critical service can be recovered.
- What remains ours if we leave?
- The written environment picture, asset list, and backup design should leave with you. The agreement should also name the access handoff, vendor ownership, and steps for removing LUCA access at the end of service.
- How should we compare managed IT prices?
- Compare the contract model and the work it covers, not just a per-person or per-device rate. Confirm users, equipment, hours, security, backup, on-site work, transition fees, overages, and excluded projects in writing. LUCA quotes the account after reviewing the environment.
Service here · product under NEXUS
NEXUS MSP Edition is a separate software discussion. Availability is not confirmed; this is not LUCA's managed-services labor.
See the NEXUS product pathHow we quote
- Monthly account
- Quoted after the audit
- Projects
- Quoted separately
For
Owners who need day-to-day technology support, internal IT leads who need extra capacity without giving up decisions, and teams planning a provider change.
Other work in Technology & Software Engineering
Book a call
Tell us what you need done and what success looks like. The contact page also gives you LUCA's direct phone and email.
Book a call