Managed IT support for professional services businesses starts from £30 per user per month for core helpdesk, monitoring and infrastructure management. Adding comprehensive cybersecurity — including managed firewall, Cyber Essentials certification support, email security and incident response — starts from £40 per user per month. The final cost depends on your user count, number of offices and existing infrastructure. Book a free 15-minute call and we’ll put together an itemised proposal based on your specific requirements with no obligation to proceed.

Professional services businesses face a combination of IT pressures that generic providers don’t account for: strict obligations around client confidentiality and data protection, regulatory requirements from bodies such as the SRA, FCA or ICO, the security risks introduced by hybrid and mobile working, and the practical challenge of managing access for staff who join and leave regularly. DMS structures IT support around these specific pressures rather than applying a one-size-fits-all approach.

DMS implements layered security controls appropriate for firms handling sensitive client data: endpoint protection, email filtering with impersonation protection, multi-factor authentication, controlled access management and encrypted backup. Microsoft 365 is configured with data loss prevention policies and controlled external sharing — so staff can collaborate with clients securely without resorting to consumer tools. All controls are documented for audit and compliance purposes.

Yes — compliance readiness is a core part of what DMS delivers for professional services clients. This includes Cyber Essentials and Cyber Essentials Plus certification (increasingly required by insurers and enterprise clients), ISO 27001 technical control support, GDPR-aligned data handling procedures and documented business continuity plans. DMS doesn’t provide legal or regulatory advice, but the technical infrastructure we manage is built to support your compliance obligations and provide the evidence your regulator or clients may require.

Managing access for staff who join and leave — particularly in practices with trainees, contractors and associates — is one of the most common pain points DMS addresses. We put structured onboarding and offboarding processes in place: accounts are provisioned promptly when staff join and deactivated the same day when they leave. This is also a key element of Cyber Essentials compliance, which requires controlled access management across your entire user base.

DMS works with professional services businesses of all sizes — from boutique practices and sole practitioners with 5–15 staff, through to mid-sized firms and multi-office consultancies with 150+ employees. The approach is scaled to the size and complexity of the firm. Smaller practices benefit from a full IT function without the overhead of internal resource; larger firms typically benefit most from consolidating IT, security and telecoms under a single managed provider.

If your firm suffers a ransomware attack, data breach or cyber incident, the immediate priorities are: isolate affected devices from the network, contact your IT provider to contain the incident, and assess whether personal data has been compromised. Under GDPR, a reportable breach must be notified to the ICO within 72 hours of discovery. Firms regulated by the SRA or FCA have additional notification obligations to their regulator. DMS provides incident response support as part of its managed IT and cyber security service — containing the threat, preserving evidence, restoring systems from clean backups and producing the documentation your regulator or insurer will require. Having a tested incident response plan in place before an attack occurs is the single most important step a professional services firm can take.

Microsoft 365 can be made highly secure for professional services use, but the default configuration is not sufficient on its own. Out of the box, M365 lacks the data loss prevention policies, conditional access controls, external sharing restrictions and audit logging that firms handling confidential client data require. DMS configures Microsoft 365 to meet the security standards appropriate for legal, financial and consultancy environments — including multi-factor authentication enforcement, device compliance policies, controlled external sharing via SharePoint and Teams, and DLP rules that prevent sensitive data leaving the organisation. Properly configured, Microsoft 365 meets the technical control requirements for Cyber Essentials and supports compliance with GDPR and sector-specific obligations.

Switching IT provider typically takes four to six weeks from agreement to full handover, and with a structured transition plan, disruption to day-to-day operations is minimal. DMS manages the transition process end to end: auditing your existing infrastructure, migrating data and configurations, onboarding your users and ensuring continuity of support throughout. The handover is phased so your team is never without cover. For professional services firms concerned about disruption to client-facing work, transitions are planned around your calendar — avoiding critical deadlines, reporting periods or regulatory windows. Most firms find the transition itself is significantly less disruptive than the IT problems they were experiencing before making the change.