IT Services
Oak Services Group offers IT vendor and project management under our managed services offering. We take the administrative burden off our clients and provide seamless back office management.
Our IT managed services offering consolidates your back-office administration:
driving efficiency by leveraging a managed services staffing model for core IT functions
building operational resilience by tapping into IT teams with deep specialized expertise on an as-needed basis.
increasing accountability through using independent partners
enabling cost-control by placing ongoing managed service costs and project costs alongside the financial management and control function.
Managed IT Services: Vendor and Project Management
Technology plays a critical role in all accounting and finance functions. It is impossible to introduce efficiencies, help organizations scale, and optimize reporting and performance without embracing technology. Oak Services Group uses technology whenever appropriate and leverages AI and advanced solutions whenever practical. Accounting and Financial functions require a high degree of trust and accountability. Our use of AI is limited to those select areas where automation adds efficiency but not in any situation that could jeopardize or compromise data integrity.
To support our client’s IT needs, we provide IT vendor and project management on a managed services basis. We streamline back-office operations working through an ongoing managed services arrangement or on a project basis, as needed.
For Managed IT Services, Oak Services Group leverages relationships with a range of IT providers specializing in all aspects of IT services. We bring the right expert, for the right period of time, to drive efficiency in your IT operations and special projects.
We assist our clients in determining their needs, engaging with the right providers, structuring, monitoring and maintaining ongoing, efficient IT relationships. We take on day-to-day management of the vendor relationships and any IT projects as needed.
Maximizing Access to Expertise:
"Having systems infrastructure be as effective as possible for your organization is critical for world-class delivery and for keeping your business model competitive. Small to mid-size firms often find it difficult to maintain a team with high-level expertise needed in each functional area. Fractional IT services on a Managed Services basis enables you to get the best experts only when and as needed, keeping your overall costs to managed level."
Through our IT managed services offerings, we help clients with:
IT Asset Management (ITAM) involves the tracking, managing, and optimizing an organization's IT assets—e.g. hardware, software, and cloud services—throughout their lifecycle. It ensures technology is accounted for, deployed efficiently, secured, and retired properly, reducing costs and risks. Key components include inventory management, license compliance, and cost optimization.
IT backup management is the strategic process of creating, storing, securing, and testing copies of digital data to ensure recovery from data loss, cyberattacks, or system failures. It involves scheduling full and incremental backups, monitoring their success, and ensuring data is readily available for restoration from multiple locations and media types, thus ensuring business continuity.
IT data solutions are bundled sets of services, software, or hardware designed to help businesses manage, analyze, and secure their digital information. These solutions streamline operations such as cloud storage, data analytics, cybersecurity, and IT infrastructure management, enabling companies to turn raw data into actionable insights and improve efficiency.
Data solutions can be focused on internal data management, storage and integration or be geared toward external presentation of data to management, clients or individual users.
IT disaster recovery (DR) and business continuity (BC) planning ensure an organization can withstand disruptions and resume operations. BC Planning is a holistic strategy maintaining essential business functions during a crisis, while IT DR is a subset focused specifically on restoring IT infrastructure, systems, and data.
An IT help desk is a centralized support function—comprising human agents and software tools that provide technical assistance to employees or customers. It acts as the primary point of contact for troubleshooting hardware, software, networking, and user access issues. This often involves structured ticketing systems among other tools.
IT Budgeting and forecasting is the process of planning, allocating, and predicting technology-related expenses (hardware, software, services) to align with business goals. Budgeting sets static, annual financial targets for IT spending, while forecasting dynamically updates projections based on trends to manage cash flow and adapt to changes.
IT Mobile Device Management (MDM) is a security software solution that allows IT departments to monitor, manage, and secure employee devices—such as smartphones, tablets, and laptops (from Apple, Android, Windows)—from a centralized console. It ensures data protection, enforces compliance policies, and enables remote troubleshooting or data wiping for lost devices.
MDM enforces security policies like password complexity, device encryption, and secure VPN access. If a device is lost or stolen, IT can remotely lock or wipe corporate data to prevent security breaches.
IT monitoring software provides tools designed to track, analyze, and manage the performance, availability, and health of an organization’s IT infrastructure, including servers, networks, and applications. It provides real-time visibility and automatic alerts to help IT teams detect issues early, reduce downtime, and ensure systems operate efficiently.
T procurement RFP (Request for Proposal) Design and Response is the structured, two-part process of soliciting and submitting detailed bids for complex technology projects, such as software implementation, infrastructure upgrades, or IT outsourcing. It moves beyond simple price comparisons to evaluate a vendor's technical approach, experience, and overall value, aiming to reduce risk and ensure long-term fit.
IT project planning and staffing involve defining the project scope, timeline, and budget, while simultaneously assembling and managing the team with the necessary technical skills. It aims to ensure that the right personnel are available, assigned to correct tasks, and supported to deliver the project on time and within budget.
IT server and workstation support involves managing, maintaining, and troubleshooting a company’s network infrastructure (servers) and end-user computers (workstations). Server support ensures 24/7 data availability and security, while workstation support focuses on individual employee productivity. This includes hardware repairs, software updates, security patches, and performance optimization.
IT Training projects range from Infrastructure training (Teams, Sharepoint, Security Software) to applications-based training (QBO, Excel).
We take a needs-based approach and design training specifically to meet your organizations needs. In some areas we may have off-the-shelf pre-existing materials, in others we may need to custom develop content for your sessions.
We also source and manage relationships with IT Training companies should your organization want on-going training en mass around common topics.
Vendor management is the strategic process of sourcing, selecting, onboarding, and managing third-party suppliers, vendors, and service providers. It involves controlling costs, mitigating risks, ensuring compliance, and fostering relationships to maximize value throughout the vendor lifecycle.
We Also Assist Our Clients With Managing Outsourced Project-Based IT Work:
This includes:
- Reviews of the existing environment (cloud and office-based) and IT processes.
- Current and Future State planning
- Risk Assessment: Compliance, Data Loss, Reliability & Resiliency
- Recommendations an path forward
This includes:
- Cloud File Storage & Sharing
- Online Applications and Access
- Office 365 - Setup & Optimization
This includes:
- System Integration & Process Mgmt.
- Data Warehousing - Architecture, Dev & Optimization
- Data Analysis, Visualization and Reporting
This includes:
- AI App Dev.
- AI Review, Assessment & Training
This includes addressing:
- App Performance
- Network Storage
- System Migrations
- Microsoft Optimization
- Phone-based Infrastructure (MDM)
- Management of Cloud providers
- Reviewing Internal System Development Processes
Example projects include but are not limited to:
- Financial System Design & Implementation
- FP&A Model Development
- Internal / External Web Dev
- IT Strategic Planning
- Technology Relocation
- Process Automation (Scripts/AI-based/other)
Software Implementations can include:
- Accounting & Finance Systems
- ERP Systems
- HRIS Systems
- Reporting & Data Visualizations Systems
- Sales & Marketing Automation Systems
This is a deeper technical systems review and architecture planning exercises to optimize technology and plan architectures to support grow or specific use-cases.
Main Drivers For Outsourced IT Services
There are two primary areas where managed services make sense in IT services over more traditional models:
Ongoing IT tech support, systems maintenance and daily IT work can vary in intensity and benefit from the scalability of managed services. Setting up systems and solutions is often time intensive. Monitoring and maintaining tends to be less time commitment. Many firms use cloud-based services, keeping operational support lighter. Security work is ongoing and crucial, and so is compliance efforts (e.g. Soc 2), but require specialized expertise.
This work can benefit from: having on-call services when needed; having the right expertise when needed; being able to scale a team when needed; and, setting up the right fractional team for most efficient mix of personnel and scaling over time as needed.
IT project work can vary significantly from project to project. It would be prohibitive to maintain a staff with the highest level of expertise in each area.
Under managed services, you can scale up or down as needed and retain or replace resources and gain specialized expertise whenever desired, depending on its goals and overall approach. For example, companies growing through acquisition, for instance, would have significant ongoing needs.