We have covered the importance of proactivity and personalised tailoring of the service an IT provider offers. There are other things to consider when making this all-important choice.
The provider may offer proactive solutions to problems and be perfectly tailored to your business with plenty of experience in your sector, but there are still details that can cause problems within your business if you don't ask questions before signing.
What is their technical competency?
Checking a provider is capable of keeping up with the current and future IT requirements of the business is key. A good provider should be able to guide and implement a wide variety of fundamental and infrastructural changes to your IT systems, these include; office relocations, cloud services, telecoms and network building.
Do they have a guaranteed response time?
An IT support company should offer a guaranteed response time in the case of a problem with the system. Exact response times will depend on the severity of the problem, the level of support it will require and most importantly the level of support you are willing to pay for. Not having a reasonably low response time can have serious ramifications to the running of your business depending on the severity of the problem. This Potentially leaves you unable to use your computer systems or access important data for hours or days at a time. Most have statistics to answer questions such as; How quickly could I expect on-site support? How quickly are support tickets typically resolved? And, what is your average response time? All of which will help you gauge the quality of service provided and whether you think this is adequate for you.
How and when will you be charged?
Terms vary for different providers, ‘pay-as-you-go’ is typically a 15-30 day payment plan. But contracted work depends entirely on your agreement with the provider, this can be billed monthly, quarterly or annually, and can usually be paid in advance. But remember what we said before, the best providers don’t normally go straight for a lengthy contract.
Do you work with specific hardware and software companies?
Some IT providers will put vendor relationships over your business needs. This is a big problem if the provider recommends a system that may struggle to support your needs simply because they have an agreement with a certain vendor. If the provider is not biased toward a certain vendor then they will focus on finding the best solutions for your requirements rather than having concern about where it came from.
What ISNT covered in the IT support contract?
You would think that asking what is covered would answer this question but asking this too will provide details of what specifically isn’t covered. You can then follow this up by asking details about how much those services will cost as add ons or at an hourly rate.
Is there good customer service?
As mentioned previously, seek customer referrals! The best way to gauge a provider's commitment to customer service is from previous and existing clients. It's all well and good reading reviews online, but speaking personally with someone who has nothing to gain by lying is the best form of scrutiny for the way the provider conducts itself.
There are other ways to judge if a provider's level of customer service is more than satisfactory. Ensure a provider offers these and you’re off to a good start.
Flexibility
A good provider can offer a business-specific interface to work from and adjust the pricing structure accordingly.
Unlimited Support
It's no good if a provider places caps on the amount of support you can receive as you don’t know how much support you're going to need. You should be able to pick up the phone for any problem big or small whenever the issue arises!
Short term contracts
As mentioned earlier if a provider offers short-term contracts it means the service speaks for itself and they believe in the product they are selling. But it also means they care enough about the customer to not have to lie and leave details out of what they are offering or cant offer you.
Consultancy
The speed at which technology is evolving is forcing the workplace into changes, many fundamental. IT consultancy services may not be on your agenda right now but having a professional on hand when you need it in the future can only be a positive thing. Look for a provider that moves with the times and uses the latest methods of delivering your IT solutions. Look for terms like:
IT roadmap
An IT roadmap Is a technology roadmap that a business uses to develop and share a strategic-level plan for IT within the business, such as upgrading to a new software platform or migrating the companies data to the cloud.
Infrastructure audit
An infrastructure audit is an audit that examines the controls that the management has over its information systems. This checks the company is operating efficiently to achieve its objectives.
Strategic planning
Strategic planning Is the process of the business defining its strategy and direction whilst making decisions on where resources will go to pursue the strategy.
Do you need help with your IT infrastructure? We can help!
We are Datek Solutions, the IT infrastructure specialists. We can help with an IT infrastructure to build your business! We have a wealth of experience in advising, supplying and providing the required IT support service solutions for your business.
We're Datek Solutions
Since 1998 we have been managing IT support, solutions and strategy for a range of clients. We have won awards for our excellent customer service and pride ourselves on being transparent. What you see, is what you get.
What makes us different? We don’t use a one-size fit all approach. We get to know your business and everyone in it, what it needs and how we can support you to give the best solutions at the best possible prices.
Above all this, we are committed to keeping it simple for you. If there’s a solution that your company needs, or you already have and it’s essential we support it, we make sure we know everything there is to know about it.
Contact us on 01753 540000 or email us at contactus@datek.co.uk.
