Engineer-led. Built in Sheffield.
NorthMSP was founded by Sean Parkin, an engineer tired of seeing SMEs treated as second-class customers — reactive support, junior escalation, weak security, and advice shaped more by margin than merit.
Doing it differently, on purpose.
NorthMSP exists to do the things most providers say they do but don’t: senior technical ownership, secure foundations, clear communication and long-term relationships. We’d rather build something a smaller number of organisations genuinely rely on than a sales machine.
You get direct access to senior, certified expertise from the first conversation — backed by clear standards, automation and documentation that keep the quality consistent as we grow.
Senior people, directly involved.
You won’t be passed down a chain. The people who scope your work are the people who own it.
Sean Parkin
Founder & Principal Consultant
Most managed IT is sold by people who have never had to recover it. Sean has spent 25+ years on the other side of that.
- Started hands-on — a systems engineer building, migrating and supporting real infrastructure.
- Ran an IT department — six years as IT Manager for an aerospace industry body: strategy, budgets, a team and suppliers, and advising member businesses on their technology.
- Moved into senior consultancy — owning cybersecurity, compliance, Microsoft 365, Azure and infrastructure, as the final point of technical escalation.
- Led live ransomware incident response — which is why tested restores and identity are in the standard here, not the upsell.
- Now runs NorthMSP — the same work, done properly: security-first, engineer-led, and accountable for the outcome rather than the ticket.
Helen Blundell
Operations Director
Helen looks after the operational side of NorthMSP — finance, administration and the day-to-day organisation that keeps work moving and nothing quietly slipping through.
She came to it from two careers that turn out to be better preparation than they sound. Years in the special educational needs sector, supporting children and young people with severe and complex needs — where every pupil has a plan of their own, and structure, patience and getting the detail right is the job. Then the outdoors industry, as a qualified Hill and Moorland Leader, Rock Climbing and Climbing Wall Instructor and paddlesport coach, leading Duke of Edinburgh expeditions. Which is risk assessment, logistics, and keeping a group of teenagers safe and calm when conditions turn.
Both are operations. Ours just happen indoors.
Certified across the stack we support.
Certifications don’t fix servers — but they do prove the knowledge is current, examined and real. Ours are listed, because “highly certified” means nothing without the names.
Security & identity
The Microsoft security stack, end to end — from hardening identity to running security operations.
Microsoft 365
Tenant architecture, messaging and governance for the platform most businesses run on.
Azure & infrastructure
Building and running Azure properly — administration, networking and the hybrid estate beneath it.
Certification is a floor, not a ceiling — and it doesn’t stop. More certifications are in progress.
Built to be employee-owned.
NorthMSP is being built as an employee-owned technology business — with profit share, development roadmaps and continuous learning at its core. The goal isn’t scale at any cost. It’s a company where good engineers do excellent work for clients they know well.
That long-term mindset runs through how we work, too — wasting less kit, energy and money, and being honest about it rather than greenwashing. More on our approach to sustainability.
In twenty years of working with network engineers, I’ve not met anyone who troubleshoots like this.
He’s been an incredible support through a difficult period — we’re genuinely grateful for the hard work and dedication.
Career feedback from our founder’s client work. Identities withheld to respect confidentiality. References available on request.
Let’s start a conversation.
If you value senior people, secure foundations and a long-term relationship over the cheapest possible helpdesk, we should talk. We’d like to understand your business.