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ALPHA

Vancouver Island’s trusted partner for managed IT, cybersecurity, and modern workplace support.

10/02/2026

Quick test. Read the email on the first photo and count the red flags. There are four.

How many did you catch?

If someone at your business handles payments or buys supplies, pass this along.

09/23/2026

A little late posting this, but too good not to share.

A few weeks ago the ALPHA IT team got together for an afternoon BBQ with our families. Kids running around, good food, good company, and a nice way to soak up the last bit of summer.

We're lucky to have a great group of people here. Thanks to everyone who could make it out!

09/18/2026

If your laptop died today, would you lose the work on it?

A lot of business owners assume the answer is no because the company's on Microsoft 365. That's only true if the files were actually saved somewhere besides that one laptop.

For a trades or field-service team, it could be as simple as this: a tablet gets dropped or soaked on a job site, and the estimates or photos on it turn out to be stuck there.

Quick way to check: have someone sign into their work account from another device and see if they can open something they worked on today. If they can't, that's worth a call to your IT provider.

09/11/2026

Ever had a program just stop working, and you're not sure if it's the software, the computer, or something else entirely?

Happens all the time. And most of the time, the fix isn't reinstalling anything. It's a permission that changed, a license that didn't move with someone, or something happening behind the scenes.

You shouldn't have to figure out which one it is. That's what a good IT partner is for, finding where the problem actually sits and fixing it, so your team can get back to work.

Sound familiar? Message us, we're happy to take a look.

09/03/2026

Switching IT providers soon? Here's a simple gut check for your first 30 days.

After the transition, you should be able to answer these:

- Who has access to your systems, and should they?
- Does someone have a clear list of your devices, software and vendors?
- Are your biggest security and backup risks already identified?
- Does your team know exactly who to call for help?
- Is there a plan for what gets fixed now versus later?

If any of that still feels fuzzy a month in, onboarding isn't done yet.

Have you switched providers before? What do you wish had been clearer early on?

08/20/2026

Two IT providers can both quote $3,000/month and be selling very different things.

That's probably the biggest thing we wish was easier for businesses to see when they're comparing IT proposals.

One $3,000 agreement might include day-to-day support, patching, Microsoft 365 administration, endpoint security, backup monitoring, vendor coordination, and regular technology reviews.

The other might have the same monthly number, but onsite visits are extra. Projects are extra. Backup storage is extra. After-hours help is extra. Some of the cybersecurity tools you assumed were included may be extra too.

Neither pricing model is automatically wrong.

But $3,000 vs. $3,000 isn't necessarily an apples-to-apples comparison.

If we were looking at two IT proposals, we'd want four things made really clear:

1. What does the monthly fee actually cover?
2. What will show up as an additional invoice?
3. What happens when something urgent comes up?
4. And what are you proactively doing each month when nothing is broken?

That last one matters because two managed IT agreements can both include support, but one may cover a lot more of the proactive work behind the scenes.

That's why the monthly number only tells you part of the story. The scope is what you really need to compare.

Link to the Managed IT Pricing & Buyers Guide here:
https://getalpha.ca/resources/guides/managed-it-pricing-guide/

If you've ever compared IT quotes, what was the hardest part to figure out?

08/11/2026

"What should managed IT actually cost on Vancouver Island?"

It's one of the most common questions we hear from owners here, and one of the hardest to get a straight answer on. So we wrote ours down.

As a planning range, here's what we usually see for small and mid-sized businesses:

10–20 users/workstations: $1,500–$3,000/month
20–50: $3,000–$7,000/month
50–100: $7,000+/month

These aren't quotes. They're a starting point. Two businesses with 25 people can need completely different things. One has a single office, Microsoft 365, and straightforward support. The next has office staff, field crews, mobile devices, a yard, vendors, cybersecurity requirements, backups, and job-site access. Same headcount, very different environment.

That's why the monthly number is only half the question. The other half is what's included, what gets billed separately, how cybersecurity and backups are handled, whether onsite support is available, and what your first 30 days should look like if you switch providers.

We put all of it into a practical Managed IT Pricing & Buyer's Guide for Vancouver Island businesses: real-world scenarios, red flags worth watching for, and 13 questions to ask any provider before you sign.

If you're budgeting for IT, looking at a renewal, or wondering whether your current agreement still holds up, we hope it helps.

Guide here:
https://getalpha.ca/resources/guides/managed-it-pricing-guide/

08/05/2026

The most concerning answer in a cybersecurity review usually isn't "no."

It's "not sure."

A "no" is a known gap. You can name it, assign it, and fix it. "Not sure" is different. It usually means nobody actually owns the answer.

Try these on your own business. Is MFA turned on everywhere it should be? Are your backups being tested, or just running? If a laptop went missing today, could you wipe it remotely? When someone leaves, does their access actually get removed the same day? And if you had a security incident this afternoon, would your team know what to do in the first 30 minutes?

If a few of those made you pause, that pause is the point.

In a lot of businesses, the honest answers sound like "I think so," or "our IT provider probably handles that," or "that got set up a few years ago." None of those give a leadership team much confidence.

The handful of questions your business can't answer confidently, are the ones worth sorting out first.

Which of these would your team have the hardest time answering honestly today? 👇

07/28/2026

The most convincing scam email we saw last quarter used a real executive's name. No filter caught it. A staff member did, because something felt off and they picked up the phone first.

Phishing was our single biggest security category last quarter. 70 reports. And these weren't the old "Nigerian prince" emails. They named real executives. They referenced real invoices and real vendors. One pretended to be a finance leader and asked for gift cards, and it almost worked, because the name was right and it landed on someone's phone between two meetings.

Here's the thing: this isn't a spam problem. Spam is about volume, and filters handle volume. This is targeted, and it's aimed at one thing: getting a person to act before they think.

So the best defence isn't a product. It's a few habits:

📞 Payment or banking changes get confirmed by voice using a number you already have, never one from the email
🙋 Questioning an odd request from the boss is normal, not awkward
✅ Nobody gets in trouble for slowing down to check

MFA and filters matter. But your strongest control is usually a person who feels allowed to stop and ask.

So here's a real question for any business owner: what's your team's rule for verifying a payment request? And does everyone actually know it?

07/24/2026

Last quarter, our team spent about 98 hours setting up new employee accounts across our clients.

We spent 11 hours removing them.

That's not a knock on anyone, it's just how it goes. When someone new starts Monday, there's a person waiting and a manager asking. When someone leaves, nothing breaks. Nobody complains. So it slips.

The problem is that an account nobody closed is still a working account. It may still have:

- A live Microsoft 365 login
- Access to your files and Teams
- Company email on a personal phone
- A licence you're still paying for

The fix isn't complicated. The same thing that triggers someone's final pay cheque should trigger the IT side. Disable the account, revoke access, move the files, reclaim the licence, write down that it's done.

The businesses that handle this well don't leave it to memory. One named person owns it, and IT hears about it before the last day.

So, how many active accounts in your business belong to people who've moved on?

If you're not sure, that's usually the answer.

Address

2760 Cliffe Avenue, Unit 3
Courtenay, BC
V9N2L6

Opening Hours

Monday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday	8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday	8:30am - 4:30am
Friday	8:30am - 4:30pm

Website

https://getalpha.ca/

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