On-Site IT Support
For the work that can't be done down a wire — an engineer in your building, on your hardware, in the room where the fault actually is.
The jobs that need a person, not a session
Remote support covers most of what goes wrong in an office. It does not cover a desktop that will not power on, a switch that has quietly died in a cupboard, a patch lead somebody unplugged to charge a phone, or a printer that needs turning off at the wall by someone who can reach the wall. Underneath all of it sits one plain fact: if a device cannot get onto the network, nobody can connect to it to help. At that point the fix is a person, a torch and a look behind the desk.
On-site IT support is the layer that covers that. An engineer comes to your premises and works on the real hardware in the real building — cables, sockets, cabinets, walls, and the distance between them.
Being in the room is a diagnostic tool
The strongest argument for a visit is not that hands are needed. It is that some faults are environmental, and an environment is hard to describe over the phone if you do not know what to look for.
Wi-Fi that drops in one meeting room every afternoon. A desk that loses power whenever the kettle and the heater are on together, because it shares a circuit with the kitchen. A “no internet” report from one corner of one room that is really a damaged wall port. Faults like these get closed as intermittent and reopened a fortnight later, because a remote session sees the symptom and never the cause.
Standing in the room changes the questions you can ask. You can watch what happens when the lift runs. You can trace where a cable actually goes rather than where the floor plan says it goes. You can find the four-way extension under a desk feeding six things. Most useful of all, you can see what people actually do — the dock unplugged every morning, the fire door propped open on a network cable. None of that ever makes it into a ticket.
What we come out to do
Some of this is planned project work. Some of it is the fault nobody could clear from a distance.
- Structured cabling, floor boxes and new desk positions
- Comms cabinet tidying, patching and labelling — including cupboards nobody has opened since the last tenant
- Wireless surveys, then physically siting access points where the coverage is genuinely needed
- Server, NAS and network hardware installs, swaps and decommissions
- Fit-outs, desk moves and workstation builds
- Hardware faults, replacements, and machines with no boot or no network at all
- Printers and copiers that need moving, re-cabling or putting back on the network
- The fault that only happens in one place, at one time of day
Where the work is a project rather than a visit, it has a page of its own — designing wireless coverage around a floor plan, or moving an office without losing a week to it.
Where the line with remote sits
Most issues never need any of this. Software, email, accounts and the ordinary daily faults are better dealt with from wherever we are, and remote support is where those go. What forces a visit is physical: no network, no power, hardware to fit or replace, cable to run, or a problem that has already outlived a remote look. Nearly every business we work with uses both, and the honest split is usually mostly remote, with somebody who will come out when remote runs out of road.
What a visit actually looks like
A good visit starts before anybody travels. We look at the problem remotely first where that is possible, so the time on site goes on the work rather than on finding out what the work is. Then the visit is booked to suit the site — around trading hours, around access, around whoever needs to be there. In schools, where cabling and network work belongs in the holidays, that date gets agreed well in advance.
Expect an engineer to look wider than the ticket. If something turns up that changes the scope — trunking with no room left in it, a switch with no free ports, a restriction the building imposes — you will hear about it there and then, with what it means for the job. We would rather tell you a job needs different kit or a second visit than bodge it to finish in one.
Buildings, landlords and getting in
Half the complications on a site visit have nothing to do with IT. Serviced buildings have their own rules about the comms room, their own contractors, and a building manager whose agreement you need before anything is patched or drilled. We have surveyed a landlord’s comms room and floor ports before any hardware was bought for a client, so the shopping list matched what the building could support — that job is written up as a private office network inside a serviced building.
The practical questions are worth settling early. Who signs an engineer in. Whether the riser needs the landlord present. Whether disruptive work has to happen outside trading hours, and whether the building permits that. Where a van can park if there is kit to bring in. None of it is glamorous, and all of it decides whether a visit runs to plan.
A standing on-site day beats a run of emergencies
Reactive call-outs are part of the service — sometimes something stops, and that is that. But the offices that get least value from on-site support are the ones that only ever see an engineer during a crisis, because every visit is spent firefighting and none of it on the things that cause the fires.
A regular visit fixes that. It is when the cabinet gets tidied, the labels get done, the failing drive gets swapped before it takes a weekend with it, and the machine that keeps overheating gets opened up and cleaned. On an ongoing support arrangement, that day is usually built in.
What an engineer should leave behind
Judge on-site work by what is still there a month later. A cabinet should be tidier than it was found, with ports labelled at both ends and a note of what plugs into what. Serial numbers, IP addresses and passwords belong somewhere you own, not in an engineer’s head. Old kit and packaging should leave with the engineer.
Untidy cabling is a real recurring cost that nobody ever bills for, because the price is paid later — in tracing an unlabelled lead, or in the outage caused by pulling the wrong one. Labelling at the end of a job is the cheapest insurance in IT.
Where we come out to
We are based in SW16, on the Streatham and Norbury border. Our engineers attend sites across South London, into Croydon and out into Surrey; the areas we cover lists them. Remote support goes anywhere in the country, and plenty of the businesses we look after are remote-only. What we will not do is imply national on-site coverage we do not have. If you are in Manchester, we can still help you remotely — but you should know before you call that an engineer will not be turning up.
Frequently asked questions
How do you decide whether a job needs a visit or can be done remotely?
The test is whether the work is physical. Software, email, accounts and configuration are almost always easier remotely. A visit is the right answer when there is no network or no power, when hardware has to be installed, moved or replaced, when a cable has to be run, or when a fault has already survived a remote look and needs somebody standing in front of it. We check remotely first where we can, so a visit is spent working rather than discovering what the work is.
We're outside South London — can you still support us?
Remotely, yes, anywhere. On-site, no. We are based in SW16 and our engineers attend sites across South London, Croydon and into Surrey. A business in Manchester or Leeds is a remote-only client for us, and we will say so before you sign anything rather than after. If your work genuinely needs regular hands on hardware and you are outside our patch, you are better served by someone local to you.
What should we have ready before an engineer arrives?
Access is the big one — someone who can open comms cupboards, risers and locked rooms, and sign the engineer in if the building requires it. Beyond that: admin passwords or somebody who holds them, broadband or phone account details if lines are involved, desks clear enough to get behind, affected machines switched on and not in use, and a decision-maker reachable in case the job turns up something that changes the plan.
Do we need our landlord's permission for cabling work?
In a serviced or managed building, usually yes. Running new cable through risers, ceilings or common parts, and anything touching the shared comms room, normally needs the landlord or building manager to agree it first, and some buildings insist on their own contractor for the fabric. We would rather establish that during a survey than find it out halfway through a job, so we ask early and work to whatever the building allows.
Can you work outside our normal opening hours?
Yes, and for some work it is the only sensible option. Recabling a floor, swapping a switch everyone depends on, or moving servers all mean downtime, and downtime during trading is expensive. That work is better booked for an evening, a weekend or a quiet period, subject to what your building allows for out-of-hours access. We agree the window with you rather than assume one.
Is a regular on-site day better than calling us when something breaks?
For most offices with their own network and more than a handful of staff, yes. A standing visit is when the small physical jobs get done — cabinet tidying, labelling, a failing drive replaced, dust cleared out of a machine that keeps overheating. Call-outs are still there for when something stops. But a visit you planned is nearly always cheaper and less disruptive than a visit forced on you.
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Feedback from clients of our team, including our sister company PC Macgicians, who deliver much of our engineering work. Names withheld at their request.
Areas we cover
On-Site IT Support across South London, Croydon and Surrey — on-site where you need it, remote everywhere.
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