If you’ve decided it’s time for your business to outsource the IT support you may be feeling overwhelmed at all the services which are on offer, and knowing which ones are right for you.
Obviously, you need to have a rough idea of the services that you require – no matter how vague as well as the number of users you currently have. For example, it is useful to have some idea of whether everything will be outsourced or just some aspects of your IT infrastructure.
In order to make the process easier for you, we have pulled together 5 things to look for in an IT provider that we consider some of the most important for finding a provider who will keep you feeling confident, secure and supported!
1 - Location, location, location
The first thing to look for is location. Whilst much IT support can be carried out remotely these days there may be a time – for example if your server has smoke coming out of it – where an IT engineer will need to be onsite. And quickly. This can be logistically problematic if your IT supplier is 300 miles away.
When discussing location and the catchment area of the IT support provider’s onsite visits it is a great opportunity to enquire about guaranteed response times.
2 - Diverse skills
If an IT support provider only offers a repair service, this suggests limited skills which could cost you more money in the long run if you need to go elsewhere for other aspects of IT support. This is because not all IT support is in the form of repairs.
It is preferable to find an IT support provider who offers 24/7 call out, infrastructure set-up, IT procurement, hosted cloud services, IT maintenance and security monitoring. And of course, IT repairs.
The more diverse the services available the easier it will be for the support to grow with your business.
3 - Security is a priority
Cybersecurity should be a priority for all businesses regardless of size, and therefore you want to ensure that your IT support provider has cyber security skills.
Such services should include security testing and monitoring as well as a disaster recovery plan, so should something disastrous happen – such as vandalism, servers catching fire or a natural disaster - your IT support provider will know exactly what to do with no delay and no hesitation ensuring you are able to get back online as soon as possible.
4 – Data security
Although data security is closely tied in with cybersecurity in general, a good IT support provider will offer you daily backups so should there be a network outage, or a ransomware attack you will have a back-up of your data which will help your business to keep on trading.
5 – Helpdesk Support
By choosing an IT support provider who offers helpdesk support you are more likely to get a quick response time to any issues you may have – although of course you should ask what their response time is - and a robust helpdesk service will also ensure that the engineer will have a full history of your IT infrastructure and any previous issues which should speed up any repairs.
Helpdesk support should also include responding to enquiries from users, in order to ensure they are as productive as possible in the workplace.
These are our 5 things to look for in an IT provider, but what do you think? Is there a consideration we missed?
What next?
If you are thinking about outsourcing your IT and don’t know where to start, why not speak to the team at SupportWise today to see how we could help you out.