IT Consulting in Detroit, MI
Detroit companies bring in an IT consultant when a decision is bigger than the help desk: a server that loses support in January 2027, a second building or a Windsor office, an acquisition, or a customer audit with a deadline. NetSys answers with a written assessment, a costed roadmap and the engineers to carry it out, working remotely from Brooklyn.
The short answer
NetSys provides IT consulting to Detroit organizations that want a plan before they spend: a written assessment of every system, account and vendor, a roadmap with costs, and engineers who then run the projects it calls for. Typical work includes Microsoft 365 and Azure migrations, network redesigns, retiring Windows Server 2016 before support ends on January 12, 2027, readiness for OEM or NIST SP 800-171 reviews, and IT due diligence for acquisitions. Consulting is remote, with workshops by video and change windows set in Eastern time, which is Detroit's own. Each assessment and project is quoted once scoped, and day-to-day support, if you want it, sits under its own agreement.
Service information by The NetSys Group. Our editorial standards.
How IT consulting is delivered for Detroit projects
Discovery happens over video and through software rather than a walk-through. We interview the owners, the finance lead and whoever knows the plant or the practice system, then deploy NinjaOne and ThreatDown agents and read the Microsoft 365 tenant, firewall configuration and backup reports, which together give a more complete inventory than a clipboard tour would. NetSys does not send consultants or engineers to Michigan. Physical steps in a project, such as racking a new switch, moving a server or running cable for a new suite, are carried out by your staff or your cabling contractor, with our engineer on a call checking each step before the next one starts. Every engagement has a named lead engineer, a written scope and dates you approve before work begins. Assessment, design and integration work is coordinated from Brooklyn, with meetings and change windows stated in Eastern time. The project has agreed milestones, acceptance checks and a handover. Ongoing monitoring and help desk require a separately defined managed scope.
Windows Server 2016 and the projects Detroit offices face in 2026 and 2027
On January 12, 2027 Windows Server 2016 leaves extended support, and from then on Microsoft ships it no security updates. In many Detroit offices that server still runs the file shares, the domain, a print server and the database behind an ERP or practice system. Windows 10 reached end of support on October 14, 2025, so engineering workstations and machine-side PCs still on it are already exposed. A consulting engagement sorts each workload into one of four paths: move it to SharePoint or Azure, rebuild it on a supported Windows Server release, retire it, or isolate it on its own network segment because the equipment vendor will not certify a newer system. We price each path, sequence the work around production or busy seasons, and test the result before anything old is switched off.
Planning across the river: Windsor offices and the new bridge
The Gordie Howe International Bridge opened to traffic on July 27, 2026, linking I-75 in Detroit with Highway 401 in Ontario and giving trucks and commuters a second major crossing beside the Ambassador Bridge. A Detroit company with a Windsor office, warehouse or engineering team faces IT questions that a single-site plan never meets. We design one Microsoft 365 tenant with Conditional Access that knows both countries, encrypted site-to-site tunnels between Fortinet or Meraki firewalls on each side, and naming, licensing and device policies that match across the border. Windsor shares Eastern time, which keeps change windows simple. Where records about Canadian employees or customers are involved, we map where that data lives so your counsel can weigh Canadian privacy obligations alongside Michigan's.
Readiness for OEM, insurer and NIST SP 800-171 reviews
Many consulting projects start with someone else's deadline. An OEM sourcing team sends a supplier security questionnaire, a cyber insurer adds conditions at renewal, or a defense prime asks for a current SPRS score. A readiness engagement compares your environment with the specific document in front of you, scores each requirement as met, partly met or missing, and turns the gaps into a project plan with owners and costs. For NIST SP 800-171 Revision 2, that means 110 security requirements, a system security plan and a plan of action for open items. On the CMMC side, the July 13, 2026 suspension of Phase 2 means third-party Level 2 certificates will not become a condition of award on November 10, 2026 as planned, yet the self-assessments, SPRS affirmations and DFARS 252.204-7012 obligations remain.
IT due diligence for Detroit acquisitions
Supplier consolidation, dealer group purchases and private equity roll-ups are a normal part of the auto economy, and the target's IT is often the least examined part of a deal. Our due diligence inventories accounts, administrator rights, licenses and contracts, checks whether backups actually restore, reviews endpoint protection coverage, scans what the company exposes to the internet, and reads the security questionnaires it has signed for its own customers. The report ranks findings by what needs a price before closing, what can wait for integration, and what would fail a customer audit. After the deal, the same engineers can plan Day 1 access, email and identity cutovers, or the separation of a carved-out business from its former parent under a transition services agreement.
The first 30 days of a Detroit consulting engagement
Here is how a four-week assessment is laid out. In week one we agree the scope, the questions the owners or board need answered, and who on your side holds which knowledge. Week two is collection: agents report on every computer, we export tenant and firewall settings, and we interview department leads about where work gets stuck. Week three turns that into findings, each tied to evidence and ranked by risk and cost. In week four we take you through the roadmap: quick fixes, projects for the next two quarters and items to budget for next year. You keep the report whether or not we do the follow-on work. If you go ahead, the engineer who wrote the assessment leads the projects, so nothing is lost in a handoff.
IT Consulting in Detroit: what NetSys delivers
Assessment and roadmap
- A written assessment of every system, account, vendor and risk, produced from discovery rather than a questionnaire
- A 12-to-36-month technology roadmap with costs, sequencing and the decisions that depend on each other
Projects, designed and run
- Microsoft 365 and Azure migrations planned around identity first, with Entra ID, Conditional Access and Intune designed before data moves
- Network and office designs: Cisco Meraki or Fortinet firewalls, segmentation, Wi-Fi and failover, specified before the fit-out starts
Ongoing advisory
- Virtual CIO service: a quarterly review with leadership covering risk, spend, projects and what changed
- IT due diligence for acquisitions, leases and vendor decisions, with findings in writing
On-prem servers to Azure and OneDrive to SharePoint
Two migrations in one engagement. The client's servers lived in the office, so the business lived with the office's power, cooling and hardware age, and years of files sat in individual OneDrive accounts shared ad hoc. NetSys assessed and sized each workload and moved it into Azure with identity anchored in Entra ID, designed a SharePoint structure of sites by function and permissions by role before moving a single file, migrated the OneDrive estate into it, set backups for both platforms and took on day-to-day management. The write-up is limited to the scope delivered, with no outcome figures claimed.
IT consulting work for other clients
- Real estate
Commercial property management company
SharePoint migration of 800 GB of leases, vendor records, and property documents, with separate access permissions for 12 property teams.
SharePoint & OneDrive MigrationIT for Real Estate and Property Management
Client names are withheld. These examples were chosen for the work involved, not for where the client is, so none is presented as a Detroit client.
What IT consulting costs in Detroit
Consulting is priced by the project or by the review rather than by the hour: an assessment has a fixed price based on the size of the environment, a migration is quoted from the workload inventory, and virtual CIO advisory is a monthly figure that scales with how many reviews and decisions a year you need. What moves the number is the number of systems and sites, the compliance standard in play and whether we are also managing the environment afterwards. Every quote is written from discovery, and the terms run month to month.
Who this fits, and who it does not
Best fit: 10 to 150 employees, a decision on the table that involves cloud, an office move, an acquisition, a compliance program or a system nobody trusts, and leadership that wants options with numbers rather than a sales deck.
Read next
Industry pages: IT for Manufacturing · IT for Healthcare
Terms used on this page: Virtual CIO (vCIO) · Microsoft Entra ID · Zero Trust
Guides: the cloud migration questions owners ask most · Google Workspace versus Microsoft 365 for a small business
Related pages
Read the full IT Consulting service page. See everything NetSys delivers in Detroit, MI.
Also in Detroit: Managed IT Services · Cybersecurity · IT Support
Industry pages for Detroit: Manufacturing IT Support in Detroit, MI
IT Consulting elsewhere: Chicago · St Louis · Cleveland · Cincinnati · Indianapolis · Milwaukee
Related services: Azure Cloud Migration · Virtual CIO (vCIO) · Microsoft 365 Migration · IT Due Diligence Services
IT Consulting in Detroit: FAQs
How does IT consulting work for Detroit organizations?
Engagements are remote from start to finish. Discovery interviews, design reviews and the roadmap presentation run over Teams or Zoom, and the inventory comes from agents and configuration exports rather than a tour of the building. Physical work falls to your staff or contractors, guided step by step by our engineer, since NetSys does not send people to Michigan. Each project has a written scope, milestones, acceptance checks and a handover document, and changes happen in agreed windows on Eastern time. When a project ends, you can stop there or move into an ongoing managed agreement, which is separate and runs month to month.
How is IT consulting priced in Detroit?
Consulting is quoted, not metered by the hour. After a discovery call we set a fixed price for the assessment that reflects how big the environment is, how many locations it spans and which standard you are measured against. Migrations and other projects are quoted from the assessment's inventory once the work is defined, and virtual CIO advice runs as a monthly arrangement. We do not publish prices, because those drivers vary so much between a 15-person firm in Birmingham and a supplier with three plants. Hardware and licenses are quoted separately, and every quote is in writing before work starts.
Can you assess the IT of a company we plan to acquire?
Yes. Before closing we examine the target's accounts, administrator access, licenses, vendor contracts, backups, endpoint protection and internet-facing systems, and we read any security commitments it has made to its own customers. Findings come in writing, sorted into three groups: issues that need a price before closing, issues to fix during integration, and items that would fail a customer or insurer review. The work is scoped to your transaction timetable and kept under the confidentiality terms your deal team sets. If the deal closes, we can run the integration or the carve-out from the same findings.
How do I choose an IT consulting firm in Detroit?
Ask to see a sample assessment. Look for findings ordered by risk and priced, rather than a shopping list of products. Then ask whether the engineers who write the plan will also carry it out, how the firm stays neutral between vendors, and what the handover includes when a project ends. For a Detroit company, also ask whether the firm understands supplier questionnaires, NIST SP 800-171 and Michigan's breach law, and whether it says clearly what it does remotely. NetSys works entirely remotely in Michigan and states that in the proposal.
Do you work with our ERP or engineering software vendor?
Yes. We do not replace the vendor that supports your ERP, CAD, PLM or practice software; we handle everything underneath it. That means the server or cloud platform it runs on, the database backups, the network path between the application and the plant floor or front desk, client installs, license servers and multifactor access for the vendor's own support staff. During a migration we schedule the vendor's part of the cutover, confirm their requirements in writing and test the application with your users before the old system is switched off.
What does a virtual CIO do for a Detroit company?
A virtual CIO is the senior technology adviser that a company of 20 to 200 people rarely employs full time. Each quarter they review the roadmap with ownership, track spending against the IT budget, prepare for upcoming renewals and audits, and decide which projects come next. They also take the questions that come up between reviews, such as whether a new customer's security terms are realistic or what a planned office move will need. On a Detroit agenda that can mean supplier security requests, replacing Windows Server 2016 and planning for staff on both sides of the border.
Bring the decision you are stuck on.
A cloud move, a merger, a compliance deadline, a system nobody trusts. Tell us what you run and what has to change, and an engineer comes back with an assessment, options with real numbers and the order to do them in.