Adelaide owned and operated, IT & Digital + Web since 2001→
WaTo Consulting
Everything Guides & Resources

Guides & plain-English explainers

The advice we’d give you across the counter, written down in plain English.

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Buying technology is full of vague answers and “it depends.” These guides give you the straight version: what IT support actually costs (with our real published rates), Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace, whether you actually need cyber security, break-fix vs managed IT, and the rest of the questions we get asked every week.

Read them before you talk to any provider, including us. An informed customer makes better decisions, and we’d rather earn the work on the answer than the confusion.

IT & Productivity 32

Why is my business Wi-Fi slow? The common reasons office Wi-Fi is slow or keeps dropping out, and what actually fixes each one. Find out more Google Workspace setup for small business The steps to set up Google Workspace properly, and how to sort out one that grew without a plan. Find out more How much does Google Workspace cost? Google Workspace plans and prices in Australia, and how to avoid paying for licences you do not use. Find out more Google Workspace emails going to spam Why Google Workspace emails land in spam, and how to fix SPF, DKIM and DMARC so they are delivered. Find out more Google Workspace shared drives How to use shared drives so company files belong to the business and do not disappear when someone leaves. Find out more Google Workspace when staff leave A checklist for Google Workspace when an employee leaves: keep their email and files, stop access, stop paying. Find out more Microsoft 365 vs Google Workspace It's one of the most common questions we get from Adelaide businesses: should we go with Microsoft or Google? Both are solid platforms… Find out more What Managed IT actually includes Managed IT is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot without anyone explaining what's actually in the box. Find out more Signs you've outgrown your IT Most businesses don't wake up one day and decide their IT isn't working. It's a slow creep. Find out more VoIP vs landline for small business If you're still thinking about 'landlines vs VoIP' as a choice, there's an important update: traditional copper phone lines no longer exist in Australia. Find out more Is your IT person a business? Plenty of Adelaide businesses rely on a solo IT person, sometimes a contractor, sometimes a mate who's good with computers. Find out more Break-fix vs managed IT Every business ends up choosing one of two ways to handle IT: call someone when something breaks, or pay a set fee to have it looked after continuously. Find out more How much does IT support cost in Australia? Most IT providers won't give you a straight number until you've already had a sales call. Find out more In-house vs outsourced IT At some point, most growing businesses ask the same question: should we hire our own IT person… Find out more How to choose an IT provider Every IT provider's website says roughly the same thing: fast, reliable, proactive, local. That makes it hard to actually compare options from the outside. Find out more How remote IT support works A large share of business IT work can be done remotely: email, Microsoft 365, cloud systems, user accounts, updates, security alerts… Find out more What an IT health check looks at An IT health check should help a business understand its current technology, risks and priorities. It is not a sales pitch for replacing everything. Find out more IT health check checklist 24 questions any owner can answer in an afternoon to see how healthy their business IT really is. Find out more Health check, audit or pen test? Health check, audit, Essential Eight assessment or pen test: what each one is and which your business needs. Find out more What an IT health check costs Free, fixed price or quoted: what IT health checks really cost and what you should get for the money. Find out more Windows 10 and Server 2016 end of life Windows 10 support has ended and Server 2016 follows in January 2027. What to check and how to plan replacements. Find out more What a network audit should check A network audit creates a clear picture of the connectivity, equipment, access and risks the business depends on. Find out more Changing IT providers: onboarding checklist Changing IT providers should make the business safer and easier to support, not leave everyone locked out of systems or unsure who owns what. Find out more The IT documentation every business should keep Good IT documentation is not paperwork for its own sake. It lets a business understand what it owns, who can access it, which suppliers matter… Find out more Employee IT onboarding and offboarding Staff changes are one of the most common sources of avoidable IT risk and disruption. Find out more Managing the life of business devices Devices are easier and cheaper to manage when the business plans their whole life: standard selection, setup, user handover, maintenance… Find out more Cloud, on-premises or hybrid? There is no universal answer. The right model depends on the business application, data, connectivity, uptime needs, cost… Find out more Microsoft 365 migration checklist Moving to Microsoft 365 is not just copying email to a new inbox. Find out more How to add an admin to Microsoft 365 Give your IT provider access to Microsoft 365 in five minutes: a Global Administrator account with no licence and a temporary password. Find out more Building a technology roadmap A technology roadmap helps a business decide what to fix, improve or replace in the right order. It should not be a wish list of products. Find out more Software and vendor inventory Businesses often accumulate software one subscription at a time. Find out more Technology across more than one site A second site adds more than another internet connection. It creates new questions about consistent accounts, systems, security, suppliers… Find out more

Cyber & Safety 24

How to spot a phishing email Phishing emails are the number one way businesses get compromised, and in 2026, they're harder to spot than ever. Find out more How often should you back up? Most business owners know they should be backing up their data. Fewer know how often, and even fewer have actually checked that their backups work. Find out more What is the Essential Eight? You might have heard 'Essential Eight' mentioned by your IT person, your insurer, or a government client. Find out more Do I actually need cyber security? It's one of the most common things we hear: 'We're too small to be a target.' The reality is the opposite. Find out more What to do if you've been hacked Discovering (or suspecting) that your business has been hacked is stressful. The instinct is either to panic or to hope it goes away. Neither helps. Find out more Critical PHP vulnerabilities (PHP2Shell) Two critical PHP flaws (PHP2Shell) let attackers run code on unpatched servers. What they are, who's affected and what to do now. Find out more cPanel and WHM login bypass A critical cPanel and WHM login bypass is being used in real attacks. What it means for your hosting and what to check. Find out more How to secure business Wi-Fi Business Wi-Fi often carries staff devices, guest devices, printers, payment equipment, cameras and cloud-connected systems. Find out more Business email security checklist Email is where many business decisions, payments and customer relationships pass every day. Find out more Password management for small business Passwords still protect many of the accounts a business relies on, but people cannot safely remember a unique strong password for every service. Find out more Microsoft 365 security baseline Microsoft 365 is where most businesses keep email, files, calendars and day-to-day work. That makes it worth protecting properly. Find out more How to secure your domain name Your domain name supports email, websites, customer trust and many connected services. Losing control of it can disrupt much more than a website. Find out more How to test backups and recovery Many businesses know they have backups but have never tested whether the right data can be restored quickly enough. Find out more Business continuity and IT recovery A backup alone does not keep a business operating during a serious outage or cyber incident. Find out more Cyber incident response planning When a cyber incident happens, the first few decisions can affect evidence, business disruption, customer communication and recovery. Find out more A practical cyber security policy A cyber security policy should give staff clear, workable rules for handling accounts, devices, email, information and suspicious activity. Find out more Cyber insurance IT readiness Cyber insurance applications and renewals often ask a business to describe its systems, security controls, backups and response arrangements. Find out more Privacy policy change, 10 Dec 2026 From 10 December 2026, covered businesses must explain automated decisions in their privacy policy. Who it applies to and what to add. Find out more Free government cyber checks The free Cyber Health Check, IDCARE's one-on-one help and the ASD guides, who can use them and where they stop. Find out more SMB1001 explained The small business cyber certificate in plain words: the five levels, who checks them, and what it proves. Find out more Digital Duty of Care explained The proposed Digital Duty of Care in plain words: who it covers, what it would require, the penalties and the timeline. Find out more Digital Duty of Care for small business As drafted there's no small business exemption. What that means for an ordinary business website, and the features that carry the most risk. Find out more Digital Duty of Care for larger businesses Risk assessments, design features, user tools, records and penalties: what larger online services would need to do. Find out more Digital Duty of Care risk assessment The parts of a Digital Duty of Care risk assessment, how often to review it, and a simple way to make a start. Find out more

Web & Domains 28

New website or fix the old one? The signs a website can be repaired, the signs it needs replacing, and how to decide before spending money. Find out more .au vs .com.au: which domain? When .au domains became available as a shorter alternative to .com.au… Find out more WordPress vs Sitejet vs Custom Choosing how to build your website affects your business for years. Pick the wrong platform and you end up paying to rebuild it. Find out more Why keep WordPress updated We see it all the time. A business gets a WordPress site built, it looks great on launch day, and then nobody touches it for two years. Find out more Why WordPress sites keep breaking The most common website job we get asked to fix is a broken WordPress site. WordPress is a lot like Windows. It needs updates all the time. Find out more Leaving WordPress: your options Plenty of business owners reach a point where their WordPress site feels like more work than it is worth. Find out more Is an AI-coded website safer than WordPress? More business owners are asking us whether a website written with AI tools, often called a vibe coded site… Find out more What is vibe coding? You have probably seen the phrase and wondered what it means. Find out more No WordPress login: how do I change my site? Owners who are used to WordPress often worry about one thing with a code site. Find out more Leave WordPress, keep your Google rankings Most owners who want to leave WordPress hold back for one reason. Find out more Do AI-coded websites show up on Google? If AI wrote your website, or you are thinking about having one built that way, you will want to know whether people can find it. Find out more What WordPress costs to run each year WordPress itself costs nothing to download. That is why the yearly bill catches so many owners by surprise. Find out more WordPress site hacked: what to do first Finding out your WordPress site has been hacked is a horrible moment. The urge is to start deleting things or to reinstall everything straight away. Find out more Stuck on Elementor, Divi or WPBakery A page builder is an add-on that lets you lay out WordPress pages by dragging blocks around. Elementor, Divi and WPBakery are three of the best known. Find out more WooCommerce: stay, slim down or move? WooCommerce is the add-on that turns a WordPress site into an online shop. It does a lot, and a busy shop needs most of it. Find out more WordPress white screen, critical error or slow Your website is showing a blank page, an error message, or it takes so long to load that customers give up. Find out more How to choose web hosting Web hosting affects website speed, reliability, security, backup, support and the business's ability to make changes. Find out more Website maintenance checklist A business website is not finished when it goes live. Content becomes outdated, software needs updates, forms can fail, domains renew… Find out more Website redesign checklist A website redesign is a business change as much as a visual refresh. Find out more E-commerce website checklist An online store has to do more than display products. It needs reliable payments, accurate product and stock information, customer communication… Find out more Local business digital presence checklist Customers need to be able to find, understand and contact a local business quickly. Find out more How to move a WordPress site to a new host The order we move WordPress sites in: copy, test on a temporary address, lower the DNS cache time, switch, then check forms, email and SSL. Find out more What is cPanel? cPanel is the control panel behind most Australian hosting: email, files, databases, domains and backups. What it does, cPanel vs WHM, and who needs it. Find out more SPF, DKIM and DMARC explained SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the DNS records that prove your email is really from you. What each does, why mail goes to spam without them, and safe setup steps. Find out more Website compliance checklist The rules your website already follows, in one plain checklist: privacy, forms, tracking, spam, prices, accessibility and security. Find out more Is my website safe? Warning signs, the free checks you can run on your own site in ten minutes, and what they can't see. Find out more Does my website need a privacy policy? Who the Privacy Act covers, the small businesses it covers anyway, and what a website privacy policy has to say. Find out more Website accessibility for small business What the Disability Discrimination Act means for your website, the WCAG 2.2 guidelines, and the first fixes worth making. Find out more

Not sure which one you need?

Talk to a real person. No call queue, no script: tell us what's going on and we'll point you the right way.

Mon to Fri, 8:30am to 5pm

Call (08) 7123 0805 Get a quote

Other areas we look after

No two businesses are the same, so nothing we do is off-the-shelf. Every solution is built around yours, and kept simple.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

How do your plans and pricing work?

Whatever suits you: a fixed contract, a monthly retainer, prepaid blocks of hours, or simple hourly rates. You pick the model that fits your business, and we keep it transparent with no surprise bills.

How quickly do you respond?

Fast. You talk to a real person, not a call queue. For urgent issues we're often on-site within the hour across Adelaide, with remote support Australia-wide.

Do you only do IT support?

No. IT & Digital, cyber security, websites & hosting, business solutions and currency equipment, all from one local team. One number to call.

What does it cost?

Managed IT is typically $80 to $200 per user per month. One-off help is $115 an hour remote or $180 an hour on site. Prices are ex GST. See our rates.

Do you support businesses outside Adelaide?

Yes. We're Adelaide-based with on-site visits across South Australia, remote support Australia-wide, and we fly in to clients in Darwin, Brisbane and elsewhere for planned work.

Will you work with our existing IT person?

Absolutely. We often co-manage, taking on monitoring, security and after-hours cover alongside your in-house team.

Why we're different

Not your typical IT company

We keep it simple, and fix things so they stay fixed, instead of patching them today.

A typical IT company
WaTo Consulting
You wait in a call queue
A real person on the WaTo team answers
One rigid plan, take it or leave it
Contract, retainer, blocks or hourly: your choice
Patch it today, deal with it again later
Fix the root cause, and what it could cause next
Jargon and over-engineering
Kept simple and explained in plain English
IT only, you juggle other vendors
IT, cyber, web, business & currency under one roof
Hosting resold from someone else
Our own Australian hosting, run by us
WaTo character, happy to help

Still not sure what you need?

Tell us what's slowing you down and we'll point you to the right fix. You're a partner, not a client.

Call (08) 7123 0805 Email info@wato.com.au
Why clients choose us

Trusted by Adelaide business since 2001

The WaTo team
Real people in Adelaide, not a call queue
  1. SA Construct · client from day one
    Our whole IT structure is with WaTo Consulting for the simple reason that there's no sales spiel, no waiting in line on the phone, and always an effective, quick result when needed.
  2. Wato

    From day one and still going 🤝

  3. Enzo's at Home · client since 2001
    WaTo has been assisting our company since 2001. Always punctual, trustworthy, honest, and can be relied on to get the job done.
  4. Wato

    Time flies when you're having fun 🙌

  5. Real estate business · client from 2010
    WaTo looked after IT for our property management business from 2010. We grew dramatically in that time and WaTo was instrumental in keeping all our IT in order, with smooth upgrades.
  6. Alyx

    Loved being part of the growth 📈

  7. Hospitality venue
    In a busy, large hospitality venue with constant IT issues, WaTo is an incredible asset. If WaTo's called with an issue, they're often here within the hour.
  8. Lee

    On my way 🚗

  9. Accounting practice
    WaTo has been invaluable in moving us from Outlook to Gmail and teaching us the other Google products. Friendly, approachable and easily understood. We've even brought WaTo in to help one of our own clients migrate.
  10. Lee

    Happy to help your clients too 🤝

  11. CRS · client since 2011
    Our data is the backbone of our company, and we sleep easy at night knowing it's safe and secure. Whenever we have an IT problem, WaTo understands how crippling downtime is and is quick to act.
  12. Alyx

    Backups checked. Sleep easy 😴

  13. Lasers in Medicine
    WaTo's IT expertise streamlined our medical practice, reduced operating costs and simplified our backups. 100% quality customer service to small business.
  14. Wato

    Small business is our thing 💪

  15. Engineering company
    Wato, or "DJ WaTo" as he's known to us, has become like family. He always goes above and beyond, with a few good solutions to our ever-demanding needs.
  16. Wato

    🎧 DJ WaTo, at your service

  17. City cafe, multiple locations
    WaTo set up our point of sale and internet. They always answered my calls and could even troubleshoot problems over the phone. Very professional. Thank you, WaTo!
  18. Lee

    Always happy to pick up 📞

  19. Printing industry · client since 2013
    Our business relies on discipline and attention to detail, which is exactly why we've relied on WaTo since 2013. Their knowledge and personal attention give us peace of mind in every area of our operation.
  20. Alyx

    Detail is our thing too 🔍

  21. Genmed 480
    We feel extremely lucky to have WaTo look after our computers. Easy to talk with, explains things in plain terms instead of jargon, and never pushes us to upgrade to the latest and greatest.
  22. Lee

    No jargon, promise 🙂

  23. Alex, 30 Acres · client since 2021
    If you're anything like us, IT is very daunting! WaTo took away the hassle and stress of setting up our brand new restaurant and installed our point of sale. Timely, efficient and a reasonable price. Highly recommended!
  24. Wato

    30 Acres, still the freshest food ever! 🍽️

  25. AV industry
    WaTo delivers for our standard office admin and as a consultant for integrating audio, visual and lighting products into the IT world. Problems are dealt with swiftly to avoid downtime.
  26. Lee

    Lights, camera, uptime 🎬

  27. Cummins Allison (CPI) · client since 2014
    Their ability to grasp and apply product-specific technical process has allowed us to meet all customer KPIs and offer value-added services.
  28. Alyx

    KPIs met. Keep counting 💵

  29. Allied health practice
    When the medical diary crashes, that's an all-out emergency. It happened three times in one year, and each time WaTo fixed it in under 10 minutes. Personal, reliable and fast.
  30. Alyx

    Diary's back up ✅

  31. Sports industry · client since 2015
    We've used WaTo since 2015. Before that, other providers made things difficult. WaTo is prompt, upfront and very reliable, and has saved us heaps!
  32. Lee

    Glad we could save you heaps 💸

  33. Sole owner-operator
    WaTo moved my site to a new server and set up secure, reliable email and hosting, so I could get on with what I do best. I'd send anyone to WaTo for all their wizardry needs.
  34. Wato

    Wizardry on tap 🪄

  35. Recreation industry
    WaTo did an amazing job setting up the audio and visual in our new business, and fantastic work migrating email accounts and managing our domains. Service is A+.
  36. Lee

    A+ right back at you ⭐

  37. Small home business
    Doesn't matter how small your business is, we all need help with IT and digital. WaTo makes me feel like BIG business.
  38. Alyx

    Small business, big support 🚀

  39. Mike Roberts
    As a non-geek, I appreciate that WaTo's always got my back and never makes me feel I'm imposing when I ring out of hours. Looking for someone local and reliable? WaTo's who you call!
  40. Wato

    Anytime, Mike 👍

Who we work with

Our story

Built in Adelaide, since 2001

WaTo Consulting was founded by John Watson in Adelaide in 2001. Over two decades it's earned a name for tailored work across a wide range of industries, helping businesses of every size run more smoothly, work more efficiently and grow steadily, without blowing the budget or disrupting the day-to-day. Rumour has it the story starts much earlier, with a young Wato on his grandfather's knee in front of a Commodore 64, learning to code in BASIC.

Emma Watson (née Dickenson) was part of the story for a stage along the way. She brought real estate and property management expertise, and a clear view of where the business could go: growing it, bringing in new systems and fresh thinking, and lifting the standard of how things are done. WaTo has been through plenty of shapes and stages since, but one thing she helped sharpen has never changed: being consistent for the client is a must.

Today it's all tailored, never off-the-shelf: IT & Digital, Business & Web Hosting, built around what each client actually needs. Over the years those areas have come together under one roof: our IT & Digital, Currency, Business and Web Hosting work now all sit within WaTo Consulting. One team, one standard, looking after the lot.

When you work with us, you're a partner, not just a client.

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