We are the IT department for businesses that do not have one
Uscale exists because the standard arrangement for small business technology is broken. Four suppliers, none of whom can see the whole system, and a business owner in the middle relaying messages between them.
Why we do it this way
The problem with splitting it up
A typical small business has a web designer who built the site, an IT person who looks after the computers, a phone company that supplies the number, and a hosting provider inherited from whoever set things up first. On paper each is a specialist. In practice, the parts they own are wired together, and none of them can see past their own edge.
So when email stops arriving, the IT person checks the mailboxes and says it is fine. The hosting company checks the server and says it is fine. The web designer changed a DNS record on Thursday and did not know it affected mail. Everybody is telling the truth, and the business has been without email for two days.
We built Uscale to remove that gap. One team holds the domain, the DNS, the hosting, the website, the email, the phone numbers and the computers. There is nothing to coordinate between suppliers, because there is one supplier. When something breaks, we can see all of it at once, and there is nobody to blame it on.
That is the whole proposition. It is not a clever one, but it removes an enormous amount of friction from running a small business.
How we work
What you can hold us to
These are the commitments we make to every client. They are specific on purpose, because vague promises are not worth reading.
You own what you pay for
Domains registered in your business name. Hosting, Google and Microsoft accounts in your name with you as owner. Source code handed over. If you ever want to leave, everything goes with you and we will help pack it. A supplier who has to lock you in is telling you something about the work.
Plain language, always
We will explain what something does and why it matters without acronyms, and we will not use complexity as a reason you should not ask. If you cannot explain the decision to your business partner afterwards, we have not done our job.
We will tell you when not to buy
Sometimes the honest answer is that the off-the-shelf product does the job, the site does not need rebuilding, or the thing you are worried about is not the thing that will hurt you. Saying so is cheaper for us than the alternative and better for the relationship.
Fix the cause, not the symptom
Restarting the machine gets someone working again. Working out why it keeps happening stops the call coming back next month. We do both, in that order.
Price it before we start
Project work gets a fixed quote once the scope is agreed. Support is a known monthly figure. Nobody enjoys an invoice that is bigger than the conversation was.
Security is not an upsell
Multi-factor authentication, current patches, working backups and mail authentication are the basics, not a premium tier. They come as part of the setup because the alternative is a business we have to help recover.
Where we work
Based in Sydney, working australia-wide
We work with businesses right across Australia. Most of what we do happens remotely, and we travel on site when a job needs hands on the hardware.
Most of our clients are between two and fifty staff. That is the size where technology matters enough to hurt when it fails, but not enough to justify a full-time IT hire. If that is you, we are probably a reasonable fit.
We work with professional services firms and hospitality and retail businesses most often, along with trades, health practices and not-for-profits.
Have a look at what you are paying for
Most businesses do not know who their domain is registered to or whether their backups work. We will check, and tell you what we find, before you commit to anything.