Top tips when choosing an IT service provider

When looking at how best to manage a company’s IT needs, more and more firms make the decision to use an outsourced IT service provider. This is a big change from a decade ago when typically companies tended to outsource if in-house resources became stretched. The delegation of network functions to a managed service provider was often done on an as-needed basis.

Nowadays, businesses have become proactive about using an IT managed service provider to help improve the bottom line. Some of the key reasons are that an outsourced provided tend to have a broader scope of expertise and can bring them to bear on given issues.

Another key reason is the cost. More often than not, outsourcing of a firms IT function can be done more economically than providing that function in-house. However, before making the choice to select an IT service provider, a business should focus on choosing a managed service provider that has the specialisation, experience, and reputation to properly handle the functions it needs to outsource.

Specialisation

The world of information technology is one of compartmentalisation. Although a computer network is the sum of its parts, most companies don’t possess expertise in each discipline of information technology. Some specialise in virtualisation and web-based applications, others emphasise network monitoring and security systems, and the list could go on.

For customers, the key is to choose an entity that specialises in the function(s) they need to outsource. Because many IT companies offer more than one type of assistance, it helps to evaluate their specialisation by determining where their core competencies lie.

Experience

Asking a company where its competencies lie may not yield a straightforward answer. After all, no business wants to seem as if some of its offerings are more desirable than others. If you are unsure of where a company’s specialties lie, ask it which services it has offered the longest.

Most businesses specialize in disciplines in which they have the most experience, as experience naturally leads to specialization. While a managed service provider needn’t have years of experience in a discipline to practice it well, a wealth of experience demonstrates something important: for years, customers have found that the company practice the discipline proficiently.

Reputation

Companies are poor judges of their own reputation, that’s why you should evaluate an IT managed service provider based on what its references and record indicate. However, even the worst businesses can have a few good references, so you should request to speak with more references than a company originally offers – preferably more than four if at all possible.

Examining the record of a company will give you an insight into how it treats customers. There are online resources where you can find out what the company’s track record is like. From a look at their social media channels to industry forums and even simple company name searches on Google, you can uncover information that will either give you confidence in the company’s ability or may just leave you cold. If an entity has unresolved complaints on its record, this means that some its customers feel they were mistreated, and have never had the problem rectified.

Conclusion

Before you outsource to an IT managed service provider, determine whether the business has the specialisation, experience, and reputation to handle the job. This can be done by speaking with the entity directly, consulting its references, and evaluating as best you can its track record.

Why not choose us? Spector Information Security Ltd is a multifaceted IT managed service provider focused on delivering comprehensive technology services and solutions. We specialise in outsourced solutions for companies with 10 or more users and free our clients of the challenges that come along with building and managing an in-house IT team. Get in contact today for a chat with one of our experts about your IT pain points.