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IT Support and Cyber Security for Strata Managers in NSW

Microsolve provides managed IT, immutable email archiving and SMB1001 cyber certification to strata management firms across Sydney, Wollongong and regional NSW.
 
Strata managers carry a legal obligation to retain scheme records for seven years, field high volumes of owner correspondence, and hold personal data that ransomware groups have already targeted in this industry.
 
We build the systems that make those obligations routine instead of risky.
Talk to Us about your scheme portfolioBook a 30 minute strata IT review
IT solutions for professional services

What goes wrong with IT in a strata management firm

Strata firms fail on IT in a small number of predictable ways, and none
of them are about hardware.

  • Records that cannot be produced.
     An owner or a tribunal asks for correspondence from four years ago. It was in a mailbox belonging to a manager who left in 2023.
  • Scheme handovers that lose history.
     A scheme moves between managers internally and the email trail does not move with it.
  • Correspondence volume that outpaces the mailbox.
     Owners, committees, contractors and insurers all arrive in the same inbox with no structure and no delegation.
  • Personal data with no certification behind it.
     Strata firms hold identity documents, bank details and levy histories for thousands of lot owners, and are increasingly asked to prove how those are protected.
  • Nobody accountable for the strata platform.
     The practice management vendor blames the network, the IT provider blames the application, and the upgrade never happens.

​See how a professional managed service partner (MSP) should govern your cloud, not just host it:

The Role of the MSP in Public Cloud

How long do strata managers need to keep records in NSW?

Section 180 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 (NSW) requires an owners corporation to retain specified scheme records for seven years.
In practice the strata manager holds and produces those records on the owners corporation's behalf, which makes retention an IT problem rather than an administrative one.

Strata record obligations and the systems that satisfy them.
Obligation Where it breaks down What we put in place
Seven-year retention of scheme records Records sit in individual mailboxes and leave with the staff member Immutable email archiving with a seven-year retention policy
Electronic record keeping No single searchable store; records spread across mail, files and the strata platform A searchable electronic archive of all correspondence
Producing records on request Manual mailbox searches take days and miss deleted items Tamper-proof archive with evidentiary search and export
Continuity through staff change Mailboxes deleted or reassigned when a manager leaves Archive independent of the mailbox and the licence
Protecting owner personal information No certified control set; no evidence to give clients or insurers SMB1001 cyber certification via SecureStart
Managing correspondence volume Shared mailboxes with no ownership, delegation or audit trail Microsoft 365 with structured shared mailboxes and Teams

Different, Not Just Better

Microsolve partners with strata manager as an extension of the leadership team, not as a background supplier. The Microsolve vCIO function brings structure to IT decisions, balancing risk, compliance and commercial outcomes, so your business partners can rely on a clear roadmap instead of a queue of issues.

Why Choose Microsolve?

Clear IT Governance for Strata Managers

Day‑to‑day, ‘different’ feels like everyone knowing who is responsible for what. Decisions about systems, security and IT spend follow a clear governance model, not ad hoc requests, so risk and cost are controlled.

The entire Strata team all work from the same, documented playbook, with roles, responsibilities and approval paths clearly set out.

Transparent Reporting for Partners

'Different’ also means partners see what is happening, not just hear about problems. Regular, plain‑English reporting shows risk, performance and spend in a way that supports informed decisions.

Instead of digging through tickets or asking for updates, partners receive clear summaries of key metrics, issues and progress, so they can focus on direction rather than chasing detail.

Support Model for Decentralised Teams

For decentralised teams, the support model is designed around how your people actually work. Whether they are in the office, at court, on‑site or at home, they access help in the same consistent way.

Flexible work is supported, not resisted. Standardised processes, remote support and secure access mean staff can move between locations without losing productivity or compromising security.

Our mission

If it captures, moves, stores or processes data relied upon for delivering value to your clients we're all over it!

Strategic IT governance for multi-office strata firms

Strata groups grow by acquiring rent rolls and management portfolios, and each acquisition arrives with its own systems, contracts and habits. Our vCIO engagement gives your directors a single technology roadmap across every office: what gets standardised, what gets retired, what it costs, and in what order.

  • A 12 to 36 month technology roadmap tied to your growth plan
  • Consolidation planning for acquired portfolios and offices
  • Board-ready reporting on IT spend, risk and compliance status
  • One accountable party across platform, network and security vendors
NSW vCIO strategic IT advisor
How our vCIO engagement works

Solving the Strata Email Problem

Turn Chaos into Structure with Teams and SharePoint

Strata managers juggle dozens of schemes, but unstructured Teams creates lost files, compliance risks, and daily frustration. Microsolve delivers custom governance – hub-and-spoke structure, scheme channels, SharePoint retention – turning Teams into your scalable command centre.

Read more on Electronic Strata file retention

Stop Losing Emails with Staff Turnover

When strata team members leave or schemes get reassigned, critical email history often vanishes with their personal inbox. Immutable email archiving keeps every message searchable and scheme-attributable, regardless of who handles it.

See how to protect your strata emails from staff turnover losses
Can strata managers meet NSW’s new electronic record‑keeping rules without drowning?

Can strata managers meet NSW’s new electronic record‑keeping rules without drowning?

Yes! An immutable email archiving captures every message before it reaches any mailbox, automatically encrypting, indexing, and storing it in an unchangeable cloud archive so correspondence is retained for the required seven years, easily searchable by scheme, and defensible in audits—even when staff leave or emails are deleted locally.

Explore an Email Archive Solution designed for Strata

Do strata managers need cyber security certification?

Increasingly, yes - and the pressure is coming from clients and insurers rather than regulators. Strata firms have been directly targeted: in April 2026 a NSW strata management firm was allegedly breached by a ransomware group claiming to hold 441GB of firm data, including identity documents. Committees now ask how their owners' data is protected, and "we take security seriously" is no longer an answer.

SMB1001 gives you a certification you can show them, at a cost that suits a strata business rather than an enterprise. Our SecureStart program takes you to Gold over 36 months, with Bronze and Silver certified along the way.

Lessons from recent attacks on Strata managers

Dive deep into how recent attacks were launched and the protection strategies needed to protect your key digital assets

Understand the Ransomware dangers

Proven Outcomes for Strata Firms

2600+
Monthly active users
000's
Application Upgrades
14
Sites Migrated
1800+
Endpoints Supported

Services that Enable Your Staff, Residents & Community

Device Support

Support of your IT infrastructure to agreed Service Levels - network, servers, desktops, laptops, thin clients and mobile devices.

Coverage options from 8x5 to 24x7.

Support Options

Cloud Migration, Hosting & Support

Mitigate the risk posed by onsite servers through migration to the leading cloud providers without the need to upskill your IT team or increase headcount.

Cloud Service Advantages

Cyber Security & Consulting

Integrate pragmatic, standards based Cyber Security practices across your Organisation using the SMB1001 and Essential Eight programs and Microsolve advisory services.

Cyber Security is my #1 Worry

Application Integration

Activate seamless data flow and communication between disparate care systems, electronic health records, and care management platforms, ensuring efficient  delivery of resident care.
Explore Integration

Site Onboarding

Rapidly deploy and operationalise new IT infrastructure, applications, and systems with minimal disruption to resident care, providing structured implementation processes, staff training, and technical support.

Successful Migrations

Infrastructure Design & Build

Deliver robust, scalable, and secure IT foundations tailored to Aged Care environments, encompassing network architecture, server systems, security frameworks, and compliance-ready infrastructure.
Infrastructure Design
Explore Our Services

Latest Technology Insights

Frequently asked questions

How long must strata records be kept in NSW?

Section 180 of the Strata Schemes Management Act 2015 requires an owners corporation to retain specified scheme records for seven years.

Because the strata manager holds and produces those records, the retention obligation lands on the manager's systems in practice.

How email archiving meets the seven-year requirement

Is email archiving the same as an email backup?

No. A backup is designed to restore a mailbox after a failure and is usually kept for 30 to 90 days. An immutable archive keeps a tamper-proof, searchable copy of every message for the full retention period, independent of the mailbox, the user licence and the staff member.

What happens to strata email records when a manager leaves?

Without an archive, deleting or reassigning the mailbox takes the record with it.

With an archive, the correspondence stays searchable regardless of who held the mailbox or which scheme has since been reassigned.

More on staff turnover and strata email records.

Do strata managers need SMB1001 certification?

It is not a legal requirement - but it is increasingly a commercial one: committees, insurers and larger clients ask strata firms to evidence their cyber controls, and SMB1001 provides a recognised Australian certification proportionate to the size of a strata business.

SMB1001 levels, cost and timeline.

Which strata management platforms do you support?

Any platform!

We take responsibility for the environment it runs in - be that on-premise or cloud.

Can you support a strata firm with several offices

Yes. Multi-office and post-acquisition consolidation is the most common
reason strata groups engage us - standardising systems across offices that
arrived with different platforms, contracts and support arrangements.

Talk to someone who knows strata

Tell us how many people are in your team, what platform you run, and
what your last record request cost you in hours. We will tell you what to
fix first.

Book a 30 minute strata IT review