There are few business relationships that are as critical as the one you have with your IT Company. With this, more and more businesses are realizing that they need a good long term partner that they can trust to provide the nuts and bolts of your network and the advice you need to make the right IT decisions.
Below are the 19 things to know when selecting an IT services provider:
1. Availability of support – Make sure the business you select has qualified support engineers that are available to support you remotely at all times. Effective and available remote support is critical in today’s computing environments.
2. Qualifications – Most people use Microsoft Windows and so you should look for a company that is both a Certified “Microsoft Small Business Specialist” and is a “Microsoft Gold Partner”. When setting your network up in the first place it is critical that it is done correctly, i.e. to the “Microsoft Standard”.
3. Documentation – Before you sign on with a provider ensure:
- They will provide an adequate level of documentation
- Demand to see a Task or Project plan even for routine tasks
- Get it in writing that you will own all documentation INCLUDING ALL PASSWORDS
- Ask to see a sample of this documentation before signing! With adequate documentation, there is no need to feel “tied” to using that provider.
4. Insurance – You would be genuinely shocked at how few IT businesses get this simple level of risk coverage. There is just simply too much at stake.
5. Proactive measures – Ask what proactive maintenance programs are available for your agency. Typically very small operators are unable to afford the software to manage this effectively.
6. Ability to grow with your business – The whole point of any business tool, computers included, is to allow you to increase your productivity so you can grow your business fast.
7. Strategic vendor alliances – The questions you need to know about are what they recommend/support in regards to: Hardware, Antivirus, Backup solution, and ISP
8. Choose a vendor experienced in managing multivendor converged environments – Your managed services vendor will need proven experience working with multivendor environments.
9. Make sure your managed services provider is aligned to industry best practices – Your vendor should provide examples, define a due diligence process, and not rely on “rip and replace.” Instead they should allow you to preserve your existing equipment investment.
10. Proven Experience? – The last thing your business needs is to have a service provider that’s learning on the fly. You need an IT services provider that has direct, long-standing experience
11. Who Will Our Day-to-day Contacts – Look for tenure, both with the service provider, engineers and account management teams.
12. What Kinds of Migration Services are Provided – Look for vendors that approach this upfront process as the building of a long term relationship, rather than a one-time transaction.
13. How Strong is the Business – To work with an IT services provider and enjoy value in the long term, long-term viability is key.
14. What’s in their Data Center? – Automation, sophistication, and agility are all keys to making service providers good at what they do, and a lot of that stems from the sophistication of the infrastructure they have in place.
15. Speak with three Customer References – Talking to a managed services provider’s customers is probably the most vital step of all.
16. Business match – Find an IT Support Company that has several other similar clients and you should ask them for references. You also need to find people that you can get along with.
17. Do they Outsource Any Parts of Your Infrastructure to Other IT Service Providers – What you don’t want is to encounter an issue and start seeing finger pointing among various IT companies
18. Look at the Contracts and Service Level Agreements – What are acceptable grounds for termination?
19. Trust – Remember, this company will have access to ALL OF YOUR FILES.
