It is vital to ask yourself and any existing or future IT partners these 10 critical questions…
1. What Are Their Response Times?
Ask yourself, how much downtime can your business afford? How much does it cost you per hour when your staff can’t work? Or how many orders could you lose if you were unable to process them? When you consider the impact on staff productivity and your company’s bottom line, you need to feel comfortable with the amount of time it would take someone to respond to you – i.e. pick up the phone and fix the issue.
When an issue arises, you should consider the size of your partner’s team. How is their team structured? Do they have both in-house and field-based engineers? Will you get the help you need with just one phone call?
2. Do They Have A Proven History Of Delivering Fast Fix Times?
Just like response times, f ix times must be considered when reviewing your potential IT partner.
Of course, no-one can guarantee to f ix an issue until it happens. Any IT support provider trying to gain your trust regarding their reliability and consistency to deliver premium f ix-times should be able to provide the evidence to back this up.
As well as their team size and structure, ask about their accreditations and escalation procedures. You need to understand the ability of the team and the methodology they use to resolve IT issues.
3. How Do They Cope With The Unexpected?
We all know that IT can go wrong. This is why you have a dedicated IT Support partner. But what happens when things go really wrong?
If your server stops working, your backup device fails or you lose your internet connection you will, of course, rely on the response and f ix times of your provider.
It is important to understand precisely how prepared they are for these sorts of problems:
- Do they carry stock of critical components that can be swapped out easily?
- How quickly could they get to your off ice to replace some faulty equipment?
- What relationships do they have with key suppliers to get replacement equipment delivered quickly?
4. How Will They Be Proactive In Supporting You?
Ultimately, a partner should be able to resolve an issue before it becomes a problem, through the constant monitoring of your network. 24/7 remote monitoring is a proactive service that maintains and performs health checks on your systems to minimise the risk of network-critical issues ever occurring.
Proactive support can also be delivered through patch management, which is an ongoing strategy that updates and fixes vulnerabilities in a network by installing ‘patches’ as part of an agreed plan.
5. Are They Experts In Cyber Security?
Cybercrime is the number one form of organised crime, with the perpetrators highly unlikely to ever be caught or punished. The damage that can be caused to a business after a cyber-attack can be beyond repair for some companies, with their reputation and finances never recovering.
If your IT provider does not see network security as an essential feature to your infrastructure solution, then do not even consider them.
Regardless of the size of your business, every organisation must ensure measures are taken to secure and protect data. Unfortunately, not enough SMEs (small and medium enterprises) appreciate this, which consequently makes smaller businesses a target for cybercrime due to their expected network vulnerability.
6. Are They Big Enough?
You will know just what impact holidays and sickness have on your business, but have you considered the effect this has on your IT partner?
What happens when your IT provider experiences a staff shortage? Your partner is responsible for the smooth running of your network and any issues with their staff count is not your problem, but it could become one if your partner is not a substantial enough size to properly support you. For example, if the team consists of only 3 or 4 engineers then what happens when one of them is on holiday and another is sick? This could massively impact the quality of service you receive.
You need to ensure that they are big enough to deal with any situation that could impact their staff numbers. Do they have a contingency plan in place if something were to happen?
7. Are They Prepared For Your Future?
What about the future? Your IT partner should have the ability to grow with your business, whether you are expanding to multiple sites, adding new users or experiencing a change within your industry. Not only that, they should be asking you about these potential changes so that any IT solutions in place, or about to be put in place, are ready for future developments.
A forward-thinking IT partner will assign you a dedicated account manager, with experience in the IT industry, who will help you to embrace these technical changes whilst ensuring that your solution is future-proofed and adaptable.
8. How Are They Going To Help Manage Your Costs?
What about the future? Your IT partner should have the ability to grow with your business, whether you are expanding to multiple sites, adding new users or experiencing a change within your industry. Not only that, they should be asking you about these potential changes so that any IT solutions in place, or about to be put in place, are ready for future developments.
A forward-thinking IT partner will assign you a dedicated account manager, with experience in the IT industry, who will help you to embrace these technical changes whilst ensuring that your solution is future-proofed and adaptable.
9. Will They Help You To Manage Your Cash Flow?
Your IT partner should be able to help and advise you with different payment options for your IT solution. Unlike traditional lenders, many IT companies work with specialist finance companies that can fund more than just your equipment. Financial help can also include the costs of IT support and installation combined into a single package with monthly payments.
IT can be a huge expense for any organisation, so flexible payment options allow you to free up cash that can help you to grow your business.
10. Will This Be A Partnership?
The chances are that there will be times when you need to contact your IT partner when you are not in the best-frame-of-mind. Whether your entire network has just gone down or you cannot get into your emails. When you have a business to run either can be detrimental. Your provider should be there to help and reassure you more than ever during downtime, and answer any questions that you have whilst they fix the issue.
It is essential to work with a provider who truly understands and respects your priorities, values and business drivers. They should not only tailor your infrastructure to support your requirements and facilitate growth, but provide a quality of service to give you complete confidence in your system.
Given that IT expenditure has grown exponentially in the past decade, it is imperative that you also have absolute confidence in your IT provider.
By choosing a partner that implements thoroughly tested systems, invests in their staff and offers exceptional customer service, you can almost guarantee that they will answer positively to all of the other questions in this guide.
So, How Does Your Current Partner Measure Up?
If they are not cutting it, or simply cannot answer some of the questions, then it is time to move on.
You are not being harsh. This is your business, and your IT Support is integral to you making money now, and making even more money in the future. If you are still unsure, then for some free advice – talk to us.
