IT department for your business

22 years! S3 was founded by Marc, Vince, and myself in June 2003 after we all graduated in computer engineering together. Our vision was to become an outsourced IT department for SMBs which is still what we are today. We were, therefore, a Managed Service Provider before the term was used.

We are still the three sole owners of S3 and work hard at it every day.

Our typical client is an SMB based in the Greater Montreal, often with additional offices across Canada or the U.S. Many operate in a hybrid work model, and some are fully remote.

They all have in common that they take cybersecurity and employee productivity very seriously. They want IT to drive their business forward, not hold it back.

Our clients are in different industries:

• 60% are professional services firms
• 40% are in distribution or manufacturing

They all operate within the Microsoft ecosystem, using tools like Microsoft 365, Windows, and Azure. Most have a mix of cloud and on-premise infrastructure, while others are fully cloud-based.

We support two types of clients:

• Businesses without internal IT staff, where we act as their fully managed IT department
• Businesses with internal IT teams, where we work collaboratively with their IT team to extend their capabilities

Clients usually find us when they outgrow their IT provider or their IT team needs help.

Managed IT Services: For businesses without an internal IT team.

Co-Managed IT Services: For businesses with an internal IT team.

Our Managed IT Services:

We act as the complete IT department for SMBs without an internal IT team. Our role is to ensure that technology supports your company’s goals and vision and never holds you back. Our top priorities are cybersecurity and employee productivity.

We start by modernizing, standardizing, and securing your IT environment. Then, we take care of ongoing management, monitoring, and security. We provide remote and on-site support for all your users.

We also help you get the most out of Microsoft 365, automate repetitive tasks, and integrate AI to boost user productivity.

Finally, we create a 3-year IT plan that includes a detailed budget and risk analysis, which we review annually.

Summary of services included:

• Modernization, standardization, and security of the IT environment and user experience
• Microsoft 365 optimization, task automation, and AI integration
• On-premise and cloud infrastructure management and monitoring
• Cybersecurity management and monitoring
• Remote and on-site user support
• New user onboarding and device setup
• Strategic IT planning (3-year roadmap, budget, and risk analysis)
• IT projects (analysis, execution, and project management)
• Procurement of hardware, software, and cloud services

Our Co-Managed IT Services:

Our co-managed IT services offer a collaborative extension to your internal IT team. We bring expertise in strategic IT consulting, IT operations, cybersecurity, 24/7 infrastructure management, automation, user support, and project execution and management.

We also share our tools, best practices, and everything we’ve learned from optimizing our operations over more than 20 years, helping your team work more efficiently daily. We can help you deploy self-service tools for users, automate service requests, integrate AI into your IT operations, and reduce resolution times by delivering relevant information directly to the technician handling the issue. In short, we share our “secret sauce” with your team.

This partnership strengthens your IT team’s capabilities by providing targeted support where it’s needed most.