While the idea of running your business with just a skeleton team and using third parties to fill in other roles may have sounded far-fetched a few years ago, it is now becoming an increasingly valid option for all kinds of businesses. In addition to minimizing the impact of situations like COVID, it also allows your business to avoid some of the complexities of supporting a large in-house team.
As you know, keeping your IT system going is an enormously important aspect of running a company, so it makes sense that an increasing number of businesses are choosing to outsource to experts. Because IT requires a large amount of specialization, it can be useful to start working with a company that can provide a range of highly qualified technicians. But that doesn’t mean finding a good provider is simple, and because IT is so important, you want to ensure you can trust who you choose to work with.
That’s why we’re here to tell you about some of the different things you should look out for when looking for the right managed service provider for your business.
Top 4 Factors to Choose Best Managed IT Service Provider for Your Business
1. Finding A Good Company
Once you’ve settled on the idea of outsourcing your IT needs to a third party, how do you begin the search for a provider? Although you might think that you can just put ‘IT provider’ into a search engine and trust the first few results you see, solid SEO doesn’t equal a solid company, and being more visible doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to provide you with the best service.
That’s why you should talk to other companies about the external providers they’re trusting with their IT systems - rather than talking to a provider and having to awkwardly back out if you aren’t sure about them, you can just get some testimonials and make a choice before you take the plunge. It’s also useful to bear in mind that the most relevant testimonials are those from companies similar to your own.
However, if you don’t have a wide range of business contact details at your disposal to assist in your search, you can take advantage of business networking websites like LinkedIn. By searching for companies similar to your own via the search bar or through your own connections, you can then look at any IT connections they might have - even if you choose not to directly contact them, you can get an idea of who other companies are trusting with their IT needs!
2. Creating A Solid Foundation
Lots of business owners take a special interest in IT, and pride themselves on staying up to date - others completely avoid the subject and prefer to leave it in the hands of others. No matter where you fall on this spectrum, your provider should be able to meet you and your team’s level of IT understanding. Their communication abilities are usually pretty easy to discern early on in your chats - if you can’t understand what they’re saying because of an excess of technical terms, then you can safely expect future discussions to be equally as confusing.
Rather than meaning that you’re required to learn more about IT, it actually means the exact opposite - you shouldn’t need a degree in computer science to be able to discuss your basic business needs with your managed service provider. They need to be able to get on your level of knowledge and clarify the complex topics they’re talking about if you’re investing your own money into their expert assistance.
3. Deciding on a Service Level Agreement
If you’re making a tech purchase like a new tablet, you probably won’t need to change the standard contract to suit your needs. This certainly isn’t the case with managed service providers - if you’re working with one, you need to make sure that their services are tailored to your exact business needs.
You need to discuss the exact promises of your contract with any company you consider working with. While they might have some standard packages that seem to suit your needs, you’ll likely find that mapping out a bespoke service is more beneficial for your company. Consider some of your own requirements: do you want 24/7 monitoring and maintenance, or to achieve certain uptime figures? You can bring up needs like this in early talks.
It can make things more clear to see everything you need laying out in a document; the provider is there to fulfill your IT needs, not to put you into a box. The immediate convenience of a pre-made plan might seem beneficial, but make sure that you don’t settle for a plan that isn’t right for your business. If the provider isn’t willing to create a bespoke Service Level Agreement (SLA) for you, then you should move on and look at other companies.
4. Expanding and Growing In Unison
It’s important to consider the fact that any provider you work with could be alongside your business when you achieve some major milestones - whether that means making your first $3,000 or your first $1,000,000, you need to make sure that they match your level of ambition.
This is where asking the right questions can be vital. Your IT provider isn’t the same as the company that sells you your office chairs - once you’re in with them, it’s tough to switch to another. That’s why you need to find a provider who wants to grow with your business and push you forward rather than hold you back. Here are some of the questions you could be asking:
● Would you be able to keep pace with our current goals?
● Can you provide quick infrastructure changes if necessary?
● What are your own business goals?
● What would you do if we landed a multi-million dollar contract?
A provider might be reluctant to admit that some of your goals are beyond their own, so you’ll need to make your own judgment on their answer and decide whether they’re the kind of company who’ll support you as you continue to grow.
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