Anonymised · Real client · 12-month managed services record · FY26
Case study · Managed IT & Security · 12 months

What $1,850/month actually buys.
Mid-sized Australian accounting firm · 12 users · FY26.

A 12-month operating record from a real Evisent client — a mid-sized accounting practice with an affiliated financial advisory arm under an external AFSL. 117 tickets — all resolved — an always-on security stack across 23 endpoints, 1,176 vulnerabilities tracked, 125 patch cycles deployed, 4 Quarterly Business Reviews, and a sustained licensee compliance program for the financial advisory practice. This is what shows up when the helpdesk queue is quiet — and what the per-user managed services fee actually funds.

EVISENT // OPERATING RECORD ACTIVE CLIENT
Accounting Practice · 12 users
FY26 · JUN 2025 – MAY 2026
100%
Tickets resolved
117
Tickets / 12 mo
1,176
Vulnerabilities tracked
125
Patch cycles
23 ENDPOINTS · 4 QBRs · 8.5h SCHEDULED ADVISORY · LICENSEE COMPLIANCE PROGRAM
117
Tickets resolved
across 12 months
1,176
Vulnerabilities
tracked & patched
125
Patch cycles
deployed
What the year actually looked like

The ticket queue is the visible part. Most of the work isn't in the queue.

117 tickets across 12 months sounds light for a 12-person firm — and that's the point. The ticket count is a function of what doesn't get raised: endpoints that don't get compromised, patches that don't get missed, identities that don't get phished, mail rules that don't sneak in. Every ticket raised in FY26 has been resolved. At the moment the annual report was cut, 116 had closed and 1 remained in progress (since closed). We don't carry tickets. The four cards below cover what landed in the queue. The two sections after that cover what didn't.

Tickets · 76% incident

89 incidents · 13 software requests · 7 leavers · 6 new starters · 4 alerts

The mix you'd expect from a well-run small practice. The biggest single bucket is incident response. Only one ticket all year originated from a user-raised vulnerability — the rest of the vulnerability surface is handled in the always-on stack, below. Every ticket raised in FY26 has resolved.

Lifecycle

13 onboarding and offboarding events handled cleanly.

Provisioning of accounts, devices, M365 licences and security policies — and the reverse on the way out. Identity, access and data don't drift in a firm running this process. No abandoned accounts. No unprovisioned starters waiting on access.

Patching tempo

125 patch cycles. Every Wednesday morning. All endpoints.

Windows and third-party application updates deployed, monitored and reported across all 23 endpoints, on a defined schedule. Current state at year-end: zero missing critical updates, zero missing standard updates on sampled endpoints.

Threats stopped quietly

1,176 vulnerabilities tracked. 1 critical CVE escalated.

Continuous vulnerability scanning across the endpoint fleet. One critical CVE (CVE-2025-55182, React Server Components) was escalated via the licensee in 2025 and remediated as a tracked piece of work — most of the rest landed in the weekly automated patch run. The absence of incidents is the system working.

Behind the fee

The always-on managed services stack.

The per-user managed services fee funds an integrated security and operations stack that runs continuously across every device and user account — not just helpdesk response. At $181.50/user/month ex GST, that works out to roughly $6 per user per day for round-the-clock coverage. The eight components below are active 24/7 whether or not a ticket is raised.

◉ EDR

Managed Endpoint Detection & Response

24/7 threat detection on every endpoint, backed by a Security Operations Centre that triages, contains and remediates incidents on Evisent's behalf. Active threat hunting — not passive AV signatures.

◉ Allowlisting

Application allowlisting / control

Zero-trust application execution policy. Only approved software runs; ransomware, droppers and living-off-the-land attacks are blocked by default rather than detected after the fact. Approval requests are reviewed and actioned by Evisent.

◉ Patching

Automated patch management

OS and third-party application updates deployed, monitored and reported across all devices on a defined schedule. Closes the vulnerability window that drives most breach activity.

◉ DNS

DNS-layer protection

Outbound DNS filtering blocks access to malicious, phishing and command-and-control domains before a connection is established.

◉ M365 config

Microsoft 365 & Intune configuration management

Ongoing tuning of conditional access, device compliance, sign-in risk policies, mailbox rule review, sharing and retention policies, and tenant hardening. This is where most of the invisible admin time lands.

◉ Vuln mgmt

Vulnerability management & patching

Continuous scanning across monitored endpoints with automated weekly patch deployment. Vulnerability surface actively managed even when no ticket is raised.

◉ Backup

Backup verification

Daily monitoring of Microsoft 365 and endpoint backups, with alerting on failures.

◉ Mail security

Email threat protection

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 active across protected mailboxes, with policy tuning and incident review.

Where the money went

$42,866 ex GST across 12 months. Itemised, not bundled.

Evisent's bills separate the service fee from Microsoft licensing from hardware-at-cost. Every line item is visible; nothing is hidden inside an all-in number. Microsoft licensing is provisioned through our CSP at competitive rates. Hardware is supplied at cost plus a small handling fee.

12-month spend breakdown · ex GST
All four streams below are visible line items on monthly invoices. Microsoft licensing is provisioned via our CSP; hardware is purchased at cost plus a small handling fee.
$27,225
Evisent managed services
(12 × $181.50/user/mo avg)
$7,435
Microsoft licensing
(via our CSP)
$6,795
Hardware
(at cost + handling)
$1,411
Other
(Azure, WatchGuard, consulting)
Steady-state monthly invoice (May 2026 representative): $2,178 managed services + $39.48 flex M365 BP (new starter) + $21.60 shared mailbox basics + $16.20 Entra ID P2 (privileged identity) + $7.20 Defender for O365 + ~$22 Azure usage = $2,285.66 ex GST. Annual M365 renewal ($6,594 ex GST) paid up-front in August for best pricing — shows separately, not pro-rated into monthly.
The licensee compliance program

The work that doesn't fit in the ticket queue at all.

The accounting firm's affiliated financial advisory practice operates under an external AFSL licensee, and is subject to ongoing cyber compliance audits by the licensee's corporate risk team. Across FY26 Evisent acted as the advisory practice's nominated IT/cyber representative through that program. None of this work appears as helpdesk tickets — but it's a significant share of the year's effort, and it's what keeps the advisory practice on the right side of its licensee's controls.

Multi-stage audit response & ZTNA implementation

A condensed view of the licensee-driven workstreams Evisent delivered against this account in FY26.

NOV 2025 – JAN 2026
Cyber audit response

Multi-stage written response to the licensee's mandatory "Cyber — next steps for your practice" audit. Covered managed service provider requirements, cyber insurance evidence, documented policies, and AFSL mandatory IT controls. Supporting certificates and evidence prepared and supplied for submission by the licensee's deadline.

FEB – APR 2026
Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) project

Designed and quoted a ZTNA solution to replace the legacy VPN / VPN-exemption arrangement. Responded to two rounds of detailed follow-up questions from the licensee covering DNS protection, conditional access, identity controls and scope across related practices. Implementation completed mid-April 2026.

MAR 2026
Entra ID P2 deployment

Deployed Microsoft Entra ID P2 on the advisory practice's privileged admin identity, with conditional access policies extending across the wider shared tenant. Directly addresses the licensee's identity protection requirements.

ONGOING
Security questionnaires & access reviews

SSO clarification with the licensee's cyber team, OneDrive admin support and offshore-operator access reviews, archive email reviews, and ongoing liaison with the licensee on evolving controls.

Advisory, reviews, and strategic time

4 Quarterly Business Reviews. 8.5 hours of scheduled advisory time.

In addition to the always-on stack and the licensee compliance program, FY26 included four Quarterly IT Reviews with the firm's leadership, a 13-attendee live cyber awareness training session (covering the 2025 threat landscape, phishing trends and practical defences), business process automation discovery sessions, a Copilot AI introduction, and dedicated time on SharePoint storage strategy.

◉ 4 × QBR

Quarterly Business Reviews

Jul 2025, Oct 2025, Jan 2026, Apr 2026. Roadmap, vendor management, licensing posture and security maturity reviewed each quarter with firm leadership.

◉ Training

Cyber awareness training

1-hour live session, October 2025. 13 attendees including the affiliated advisory practice. 2025 threat landscape, phishing trends, practical defences.

◉ Advisory

Automation discovery & Copilot

Multi-session business process automation discovery (Aug–Sep 2025), Copilot AI introduction (Oct 2025), and SharePoint storage planning (Dec 2025).

The point

This is what an MSP fee actually pays for. Not a phone number.

Most small accounting and advisory firms can name the helpdesk number their MSP gives them. Very few can name the eight things in the security stack, or the patch cadence, or the vulnerability count, or the licensee evidence they'd need on day one of an AFSL audit. That's the gap Evisent is built to close. You should know exactly what you're paying for, and it should hold up under audit.

  • 100% of tickets resolved. 117 raised across 12 months; all closed. We don't carry tickets — every issue resolves to closure.
  • 23 endpoints monitored 24/7 with EDR, application allowlisting, DNS-layer protection and managed M365/Intune configuration.
  • 1,176 vulnerabilities tracked, 125 patch cycles deployed, zero missing critical updates at year-end.
  • 4 Quarterly Business Reviews + 8.5h scheduled advisory + a live cyber awareness training session.
  • Licensee compliance program delivered end-to-end: multi-stage audit response, ZTNA implementation, Entra ID P2 deployment, ongoing questionnaire response.
  • Itemised billing: service fee, Microsoft licensing, hardware-at-cost and other broken out separately on every invoice. No bundled all-in number.
"The brief, when this firm came to us, was 'we want an IT partner who can also handle the licensee side.' 12 months later the answer is the operating record — the ticket queue, the always-on stack, the audit responses, and the bills you can actually read."
— Evisent operating note · FY26 managed services review · client anonymised pending sign-off
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