Can you evaluate our internal IT person honestly, or is that a conflict of interest?

We earn more if the answer is that you need us. Any provider who takes that question without acknowledging the conflict is not someone whose judgment you should rely on here.

What we can do honestly is report facts rather than render a verdict. Are systems patched. Do backups run and restore. Is multi factor authentication enforced. Is anything documented. Is licensing in order. Are there unresolved tickets going back months. Those are observations with dates attached, and they do not require an opinion about a person.

We will also tell you what a single person at your scale could reasonably be expected to cover, which is usually less than owners assume. Sometimes that reframes the whole question.

What we will not do is build a case. If you want a genuinely independent assessment of an internal employee's performance, hire someone who is not bidding on the work. That is worth the money and we will say so even though it costs us the easier path.