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So, you’re looking to partner up with an outsourced IT support provider to help with business? We don’t blame you! There are a whole host of benefits to getting the professionals on board. For example, IT support providers can cut costs and save valuable staff time. And, what’s more, your business can enjoy the most up-to-date technology, managed by experts around the clock.
In light of these benefits, more and more businesses are recruiting professionals to help manage their business' systems and digital infrastructure as the commercial world becomes increasingly competitive.
But if you want to join them, what should you be asking your outsourced IT support provider? Aside from the everyday concerns, there is a long list of important questions that you should raise with your prospective contractor before getting on board with them.
Read on to find out what they are.
Can you accommodate large, medium, and small businesses?
One of the first things to establish before working with an outsourced IT support provider is whether they can actually accommodate your business.
If you are a particularly large firm, do they have enough staff and resources to assist you with the level of support you require? And, are their services scalable? Equally, if you’re an SME, can you expect tailored services or just a loosely adapted ‘one size fits all’ approach? Are they used to dealing with the software — however complex — that your particular organisation relies upon? There are all things to find out early on.
It might be worth investigating for yourself by checking out their accolades and accreditations on their website. These are likely to give away the areas that they specialise in. ITRM, for example, was awarded the Best SME Business and Best Technology Company in 2016 at the Bexley Business Excellence awards. What’s more, we were highly ranked in Channel future’s 2022 MSP 501 list of the industry’s most prestigious MSP’s worldwide. These accolades prove that we are both experienced and capable in assisting SMEs with their IT.
You can browse our other accolades here.
Can I be sure my data will be protected with you?
If you’re working with a cyber security expert, you’d like to think they’d have their own cyber security practices in place, right?
So, it's best to ask early on how exactly your managed IT service provider plans to keep your data safe. Reputable providers will offer firewall configuration, remote backup, and managed detection and response services to put your mind at ease.
You can see our data privacy policy here.
Do you have the services that I need?
Another factor to establish early on is the actual services that your managed IT support provider can offer.
Your service provider needs to have extensive knowledge of the systems and software so that you can hit the ground running when you first partner together. However, don’t be disheartened if they have not had experience working with the exact software your business runs on. As long as can adapt and learn quickly, supporting your core systems.
Another thing that a managed service provider should be able to do is to work with your 3rd party vendors to resolve your IT issues.
Lastly, it is crucial that you voice your needs early on regarding the services you require. Any reputable IT support provider should be able to offer you any of the following services:
- Network cabling services
- General IT support services
- Communications services
- Assistance with cloud computing
- Relocation services
- Cyber security services
- Website design & development
- And IT consultancy & advisory services
You can find our complete list of services here.
What level of support can I expect from you?
Whenever you are partnered with an outsourced IT support provider, the process should be as pain-free as possible, and you should feel supported from all angles.
In the wider scheme of things, however, you should be made aware of the different packages and levels of support available to your business in particular.
Say, for example, you are a small non-profit organisation. Can the managed IT service provider you had in mind still accommodate you? If you’re considering partnering with ITRM, you’ll be guaranteed IT support tailored to your needs and your business’s sector.
Aside from this, there may be resources or training courses that your IT support provider can offer you to help improve your systems and processes yourself, as well as provide you and your staff with an essential base level of IT knowledge. Our blog is one such resource.
What are your SLAs?
Above anything else, though, you should be asking about SLAs. An SLA — or Service Level Agreement — determines how long your partnership with your managed IT support provider is. As well as this, an SLA will outline a series of metrics that allow you to measure performance.
Feel empowered to ask about flexibility and making changes to your SLA further down the line in a review-style approach. Say, for example, your business expands, then your SLA will need to be scaled up too. At the end of the day, an SLA helps both parties remain on the same page by ruling out misinterpretation. Hence,it is important to get it all out in the open early on in your partnership.
While agreeing on an SLA with your IT support provider, you might like to consider asking them the following things:
- How long do they take to respond to incidents?
- How do they prioritise different cases?
- Is there a procedure to escalate cases? If so, what is it?
Choose ITRM as your IT Support Provider
If you need a flexible, reliable, and scalable IT support provider for your business, choose ITRM. Simply get in touch with our team of experts to start the process today.
