Melbourne's VISITS brings the MSP experience to consumers

Melbourne-based managed services provider VISITS has launched a consumer IT services business to build and support work and study from home setups.

Called myITworks, the business aims to bring the professional IT approach to homes and small businesses, providing hardware, networking and IT support services for work, study and play.

The business is staffed by a dedicated team separate from VISITS, with a crew of technicians and an operations manager.

VISITS sales director David Williams told CRN the myITworks was launched on the onset of the coronavirus pandemic with many clients moving their staff to remote working setups at home.

“COVID-19 created a need for end user support versus a company’s IT needs, and so we have a lot of our clients come to us and say ‘we’ve got all of our staff working from home - they don’t have the skills, we don’t necessarily have the capacity to assist them with their network and their requirements,” Williams said.

“[VISITS] actually dropped everything and created a bit of a support structure for them and along the way it got easier to separate the corporate support [with the end user support] because the requirements and needs are different.”

Williams added that as the service progressed, the end user support had additional staffing requirements. These included the need for police and working with children checks and different skill sets than corporate clients required.

Some of the services include troubleshooting computers, internet, mobile, network and wi-fi problems; setting up voice and video conferencing tools; supply and installing new desktop and laptop computers, monitors, printers, webcams and other hardware; arrange, configure and manage NBN and 4G internet; and setting up cloud backup solutions.

With VISITS’ background in education technology and working with schools, myITworks also helps set up education and video conferencing software specific to students.

In addition, users have the option to have smart home kit like voice assistants, smart lighting, cameras, smart appliances, as well as more leisurely pursuits like gaming computers, VR headsets and high-speed internet to support online gaming.

Most of the services are done remotely, with a set price of support services billed on 15 minute blocks, with exceptions like installing networks and other onsite jobs.