MicroRentals provides managed IT services and business IT support to Melbourne organisations, delivered on site by Melbourne-based technicians and backed by something almost no provider here has: a fleet of over 2,000 laptops we own outright. We have been supplying and supporting business IT since 1987.
A managed service provider that owns hardware
Melbourne has no shortage of managed service providers. Nearly all of them manage devices they do not own and cannot replace from stock. When a laptop dies, they raise a purchase order with a distributor, and you wait as long as the distributor says you wait.
We hold the fleet ourselves — over 2,000 laptops, plus desktops, monitors, servers and AV equipment. Hardware and its management can sit under one agreement, with one invoice and one phone number, and a failed device is replaced from stock rather than ordered in.
We should be precise about what that means for Melbourne, because the honest version is better than the marketing version. Our warehouse is in Sydney. A replacement for a stocked configuration is dispatched within 4 hours, and final delivery is by courier — so a Melbourne client gets a replacement moving the same day, not a replacement on the desk the same afternoon. What you are buying is the removal of the distributor from the chain, not teleportation.
This is Device as a Service — from $79 per device per month ex GST — and it is why a rental company running managed services behaves differently from a managed service provider reselling somebody else’s hardware.
And if you would rather own the equipment than rent it, we procure it for you. Laptops, desktops, servers, networking and peripherals, bought on your behalf and configured to your standard operating environment before they reach your desks. Hardware procurement has been one of our professional services for years — it is not a favour we do reluctantly between support tickets, which is how it works at a lot of providers. Rent it, buy it, or run a mix; the management is the same either way.
Support on the ground in Melbourne
Our technicians in Melbourne are based in Melbourne. Remote response within 1 business hour. On-site attendance scheduled to suit your site and your people — with a window given when you log the job, rather than a vague promise of “same day” that gets quietly missed.
Melbourne makes local coverage matter more than the headline population does, because the business base is genuinely dispersed. A provider who services the CBD and Docklands competently can still be useless to you in Box Hill, Clayton, Dandenong, Tullamarine, Port Melbourne or out through Werribee and Point Cook. We cover the metropolitan area rather than the centre of it.
What is included in managed IT services
One monthly agreement covering the things that otherwise arrive as separate invoices and separate phone calls:
- Helpdesk and desktop support — remote first, on-site when it needs to be, for the people actually trying to do their jobs.
- Monitoring and maintenance — remote monitoring and management across servers, endpoints and network, so problems are found before somebody reports them.
- Security — endpoint protection, firewalls, phishing protection, patching, and vulnerability assessment. We work to the ACSC Essential Eight as a framework; more on that below.
- Network and server management — setup, configuration, VPN, and ongoing management of the infrastructure the rest of it sits on.
- Cloud and Microsoft 365 — migration, licensing, tenancy management and support.
- Backup and recovery — backup configuration, monitoring, and tested restores.
- Hardware procurement and asset management — buying the equipment on your behalf when you would rather own it, and knowing what you have, where it is, and what it costs.
Who we work with in Melbourne
Professional services firms in the city and inner suburbs. Engineering, construction and contracting businesses across the west and south-east. Medical and allied health practices. Not-for-profits and associations. Education providers. Manufacturers and logistics operators through the industrial corridors. Businesses running several sites across the metropolitan area.
Typically between ten and two hundred staff — large enough that IT failure costs real money, small enough that a full internal team is hard to justify.
To be direct about what we are not. We do not hold security clearances and we are not DISP members. If your requirement is accredited work inside a government department, we are not the right provider and we will tell you that on the first call rather than the third.
Multi-site, and the Melbourne sprawl problem
Multi-site is more common in Melbourne than in most Australian cities, and it is where unmanaged IT estates go wrong fastest. Practices with rooms in three suburbs. Contractors with a head office and two depots. Retail and service operators with a site per region. Each location quietly accumulates its own printers, its own network gear, its own way of doing things, and its own undocumented workaround.
Monitoring, standard operating environments and asset management are handled centrally so every site is configured the same way and nobody has to remember which office has the odd setup. Where devices come from our fleet, that standardisation is largely automatic, because the builds are ours.
Essential Eight, without overclaiming
Several of the ACSC Essential Eight mitigation strategies are ordinary managed IT functions in practice — patching operating systems, patching applications, application control, restricting administrative privileges, and multi-factor authentication all depend on knowing and controlling your endpoints.
We work to the Essential Eight as a framework and can report against it. What we will not tell you is that engaging us confers a maturity level. Essential Eight maturity is an assessment of your organisation, not a badge a supplier hands over, and any provider implying otherwise is overselling.
Worth noting: the parts of the Essential Eight most providers find hardest are the ones that depend on knowing exactly what hardware exists and controlling what runs on it. That is considerably easier when the devices came from us in the first place, built to a known standard operating environment.
Co-managed IT: working alongside the person you already have
A great many firms run their entire technology function through one internal IT person. That person is usually competent and usually stretched — they cannot take leave without something slipping, they have no one to escalate to, and every project competes with the day job.
Co-managed is not a smaller version of full outsourcing. It is a split of responsibilities agreed in writing: which systems we monitor and which they own, who holds which credentials, what we escalate to them and what they escalate to us, and who is on point when something breaks at 4pm on a Friday. Done properly it keeps the institutional knowledge in-house and adds the depth, tooling and after-hours cover that one person cannot provide alone.
Done badly it creates two teams who each assume the other is watching. The difference is entirely in how carefully the boundary is drawn at the start, which is why we scope it explicitly rather than leaving it to goodwill.
We work with businesses, not home users
MicroRentals is a business managed service provider. We do not do home computer repair, consumer virus removal or residential callouts. Everything on this page is built around organisations with staff, systems and an operational dependency on both working.
That matters when you are choosing a provider, because a firm splitting its week between home callouts and business contracts is not building the same capability.
How it works when you engage us
1. Assessment. We audit what you have — devices, servers, network, licences, backups, security posture — and tell you what is actually wrong with it, in writing.
2. Proposal. A scope and a monthly cost, with the inclusions listed explicitly. If hardware is part of it, that is priced per device per month alongside.
3. Onboarding. Documentation, monitoring agents, security configuration, and a handover so your people know who to call. We work to a defined onboarding plan rather than an open-ended transition.
4. Steady state. Monitoring, helpdesk, patching, reporting, and a scheduled review. Devices refresh on a cycle rather than when something finally dies.
Frequently asked questions
Where are your Melbourne technicians based?
In Melbourne. On-site attendance across the metropolitan area is carried out by our Melbourne-based technicians. Our head office and warehouse are at 7-9 Underwood Road, Homebush in Sydney, which is where the equipment fleet is held.
If a laptop fails in Melbourne, how fast is the replacement?
A replacement for a stocked configuration is dispatched within 4 hours, with final delivery by courier. That is meaningfully faster than a provider raising a purchase order with a distributor, but it is not same-afternoon like our Sydney clients get, and we would rather you knew that before signing than after.
Do you support businesses with multiple sites across Melbourne?
Yes. Multi-site is common here — practices, firms and operators running several locations across the metropolitan area. Monitoring, standard operating environments and asset management are handled centrally so every site is configured the same way.
How quickly do you respond?
Remote response within 1 business hour. On-site attendance is scheduled rather than promised same-day, and we give you a window when the job is logged so you can plan around it.
What does managed IT cost in Melbourne?
Pricing is set per agreement, driven by the number of users and devices, how much of the environment you want covered, your security requirements, and whether hardware is included. We quote a fixed monthly figure with the inclusions listed, rather than an hourly rate that varies with how bad a month you have had. Where hardware is included, Device as a Service starts from $79 per device per month ex GST.
Is there a lock-in contract?
No. Managed services run month-to-month with 30 days’ notice. There is no minimum term and no exit fee.
Can you supply the hardware as well as manage it?
Yes, either way you prefer. We can rent it to you from our own fleet of over 2,000 laptops — supplied on a monthly cost per device, configured, supported, replaced on failure and collected at end of term. Or we can procure it for you to own outright: laptops, desktops, servers, networking and peripherals, bought on your behalf, configured to your standard operating environment and managed under the same agreement. Most providers can do neither well, because they hold no stock and treat procurement as a favour rather than a service.
Can you work alongside our internal IT person?
Yes. Co-managed arrangements are common, particularly for firms with one internal IT person who needs cover for leave, depth on projects, and someone to escalate to at 4pm on a Friday. We scope what we own and what stays in-house so nothing falls between the two.
Do you hold government security clearances?
No. We do not hold security clearances and we are not DISP members. We support the private sector and government-adjacent businesses. If your work requires accredited personnel inside an agency, we are not the right fit and we will say so early.
Do you support Microsoft 365?
Yes — migration, licensing, tenancy configuration, security settings and day-to-day support. Email migration is one of our established professional services.
What happens to our data if we leave?
Your data and your documentation are yours. On exit we hand over environment documentation, credentials and asset records to you or your incoming provider. Rental equipment is collected, wiped and rebuilt with a fresh operating system install before it returns to the fleet.
Do you only work with businesses that rent from you?
No. Plenty of our managed service clients own their equipment outright, including equipment they bought before they met us. Renting is an option, not a condition.
How long have you been doing this?
MicroRentals has operated since 1987 — nearly four decades supplying and supporting business IT. Our engineers hold Cisco and Microsoft certifications, and we are the official IT solutions partner of the Sydney Roosters.
If we only need equipment and not management, can you do that?
Yes. That is IT equipment rental in Melbourne, which stands on its own.
Talk to us about IT support in Melbourne
Tell us how many staff and sites you have and what is currently breaking. We will tell you what we would fix first.
MicroRentals · Managed IT services and equipment rental for Melbourne businesses
1300 790 650 · [email protected] · Monday to Friday, 8:30am – 6:00pm
Head office and warehouse: 7-9 Underwood Road, Homebush NSW 2140. Melbourne on-site support by our Melbourne-based technicians.
Recent Comments