IT Consulting · Philadelphia

IT Consulting in Philadelphia: Assessments and Roadmaps With Costs Attached

NetSys gives Philadelphia businesses written answers to the IT questions that carry a budget: what to do with a Windows Server 2016 machine before January 2027, whether files belong in SharePoint or Azure, how to set up a new office or lab, and what a security program should cost. Engineers write the assessment and run the projects that follow it.

All IT services in Philadelphia

The short answer

NetSys provides IT consulting in Philadelphia: environment and security assessments, technology roadmaps with costs, Microsoft 365 and Azure migrations, network designs for office moves and buildouts, compliance programs and virtual CIO reviews. Every engagement has a written scope, agreed milestones, change windows in Eastern time, acceptance checks and a handover. The work is delivered remotely by our Brooklyn engineers; NetSys does not send consultants on site in Philadelphia, so discovery runs on interviews, screen shares and our own tools. A consulting project does not include a staffed help desk unless you add a managed agreement.

Service information by The NetSys Group. Our editorial standards.

How IT consulting is delivered in Philadelphia

Consulting for a Philadelphia business runs remotely from start to finish, and we do not send consultants to your office. Discovery combines interviews with the people who run the business, read-only access to Microsoft 365 and your firewall, and a lightweight agent that inventories computers and servers, so the assessment is built from data rather than a walk-through. Design reviews and project meetings happen on Teams with drawings and plans on screen. During a migration or cutover, the change window is scheduled in Eastern time, with a rollback plan and named contacts on both sides. Physical tasks, such as racking a new firewall in a new suite, are done by your landlord or your own cabling contractor from our written run sheet while an engineer configures the equipment remotely. 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.

What an assessment delivers

An assessment is a document you can act on without us. It inventories every system, account, vendor and contract; scores security against a recognized framework such as the CIS Controls or the NIST Cybersecurity Framework; records backup and recovery reality with an actual test restore; and lists findings in order of risk, each with an owner, an estimated cost and a deadline where one exists. The roadmap that follows groups those findings into quarters, so leadership sees what the next 12 to 18 months of IT will cost and why. The engineers who will carry out the work write it and put their names on it. Some firms use the report to hold an existing provider to account; others use it to plan a move or a budget. Either outcome is fine, and the report belongs to you.

Server retirements before January 12, 2027

Extended support for Windows Server 2016 ends on January 12, 2027, and assessments often find at least one such server still running a file share, an accounting database or the domain controller. For each workload we compare three answers in writing: move files to SharePoint and OneDrive, or to Azure Files where applications still need a drive letter; lift the database or application to Azure, or publish it through Azure Virtual Desktop; or replace the server with new hardware and a current operating system. Each option carries a one-time cost, a monthly cost and a risk of disruption, and the right choice depends on how the software vendor supports it. Migrations are scheduled outside business hours, rehearsed on a copy first and accepted by you before the old server is shut down and its drives wiped.

Office moves, consolidations and lab buildouts

Philadelphia's office market is moving. The Center City District put downtown office vacancy at 20.4% in the second quarter of 2025, and many leases are ending in consolidations, moves to newer buildings or a smaller hybrid footprint. In University City the opposite is happening: new lab buildings, including the tower at 3201 Cuthbert Street that opened in May 2026, are adding space for life-sciences tenants. Either way, IT has a lead time that leasing teams tend to underestimate. Business circuits can take weeks to install, so we order them as soon as the lease is signed. We design the network, Wi-Fi coverage and conference rooms from the floor plan, write the cabling specification for your contractor, ship configured equipment and plan a weekend cutover so Monday morning starts normally in the new space.

Virtual CIO reviews and how projects are priced

Not every firm needs a full-time technology executive, but every firm past 20 people benefits from someone who owns the plan. A virtual CIO engagement gives you a quarterly review with an engineer who knows your environment: progress against the roadmap, new risks, license and contract renewals coming due, and the budget for the next four quarters. It is also where vendor-neutral advice happens, such as whether to stay on Google Workspace or move to Microsoft 365, or whether a software vendor's hosted option beats running the application yourself. We do not bill by the hour. An assessment has a fixed price that depends on how large the environment is, a migration is quoted once the workloads are inventoried, and virtual CIO advice is a flat monthly amount on month-to-month terms.

What is included

IT Consulting in Philadelphia: 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

Published case study

Large international food importer: the whole platform rebuilt in Azure

An extreme weather event knocked out power and connectivity to a food importer's building and cut a 120-person, three-warehouse business off from suppliers and clients worldwide for days. NetSys ran a two-week assessment of every workload with recovery objectives per system and a cost model comparing an on-premises refresh with Azure, designed a landing zone with hub-and-spoke networks and Entra ID Conditional Access, lifted the SQL environment to Azure SQL Managed Instance, rebuilt file shares on Azure Files, published applications through Azure Virtual Desktop, connected the warehouses by VPN, and layered Defender for Endpoint, Exchange Online Protection and immutable backups on top. The migration took ten weeks with a weekend cut-over.

Read the full case study (120+ employees · 3 warehouses)

From our client work

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 Migration IT 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 Philadelphia client.

What IT consulting costs in Philadelphia

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.

How the monthly fee is built

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.

IT Consulting in Philadelphia: FAQs

How does IT consulting work for Philadelphia organizations?

Remotely, on a written plan. Discovery interviews, design reviews and status meetings run on Teams, our tools inventory the environment with read-only access, and every change window is stated in Eastern time with a rollback plan. NetSys does not send consultants to Philadelphia; physical work such as cabling is done by your contractor from our specification while an engineer configures equipment remotely. Each project has milestones, acceptance checks and a handover, and an ongoing help desk is available only under a separate managed agreement.

How do I choose an IT consulting firm in Philadelphia?

Ask for three things in writing before you sign: a sample assessment, a roadmap with costs, and the name of the engineer who will run the projects it recommends. Then ask how the firm stays vendor-neutral, how security is built into each project and what the handover includes, down to documentation and administrator credentials. A firm that cannot show its work on paper is selling time, not advice. NetSys works this way for Philadelphia companies from its Brooklyn office, remotely and on month-to-month advisory terms.

What does an IT consulting engagement include, and how is it priced?

Consulting covers assessments, roadmaps, Microsoft 365 and Azure migrations, network and office designs, security and compliance programs and virtual CIO reviews. Prices are fixed per deliverable rather than hourly: the assessment by the size of the environment, a migration by the inventory of workloads and data, an office project by the floor plan and equipment list, and the virtual CIO as a monthly amount. The quote is written from discovery, and any change to scope is agreed in writing before work continues.

Can you help us choose between Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace?

Yes. The answer turns on the applications your staff use every day, the security controls you need, how your clients share files with you and whether you can mix license tiers. We test both platforms against three real tasks your team performs, price them on the same basis including migration effort and training, and write a recommendation you can take to your partners or board. If the right answer is to stay where you are, the report says so.

Do you also provide managed IT in Philadelphia?

Yes, under a separate agreement. Consulting covers assessments and projects; running the help desk, monitoring, security and backups every month is managed IT, and our managed IT services page for Philadelphia explains what that plan includes and how it is priced. A common path is an assessment, then the roadmap's first projects, then a decision about handing over day-to-day support. Both services are delivered remotely from Brooklyn.

Engineers, not a sales deck

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.

Explore IT Consulting Scope 845-203-3914