Whether it’s extra IT support, a cloud migration, a boost to your cyber security, or a complete IT overhaul, you’ll need to do plenty of due diligence before you start working with an outsourced IT support provider. If you want to get the relationship right, read on to learn what questions to ask outsourced IT support providers and how to get the right results from them before you start working together.
What’s the process for raising IT support issues?
Your provider will need to have a reliable helpdesk and a clear idea of what happens when your IT throws you issues. You’ll want to ask a variety of questions around this topic to determine things like what the average call answering time is and how often cases are solved remotely. All good IT support providers will have a solid process for remotely fixing IT issues and a solid option for onsite support if need be.
How can you guarantee the security of our data?
Since you’re entrusting an external body and possibly a cloud provider with your company data, you’ll need to have a crystal clear idea of how they’re going to look after it. All providers will offer the basics like firewalls, antivirus, etc. But you’ll need different levels of protection depending on your industry. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you have a clear idea of what security is needed so you can be certain it’ll be delivered.
Who’s my point of contact?
Quality IT service comes from great interpersonal relationships. At RAD Group we ensure all our customers have their own account manager that can serve as the primary point of contact between a business and its IT services. If your prospective IT company doesn’t offer dedicated support staff, then there’s a strong chance you won’t end up receiving the level of attention and care you need when problems arise.
How will this influence my staff?
The common answer to this question is that outsourced IT support will free up your internal IT team from repetitive, low ROI tasks and leave them more capable of focusing on bigger picture tasks that produce significant business gains. Beyond that though, outsourced IT support could affect your staff in a variety of ways, depending on what solutions you’re interested in and the nature of your business.
How do you handle feedback?
Good IT support providers relish customer feedback and act on it. Therefore, you’ll want to find out how your provider deals with both positive and negative comments; namely how responses to comments are escalated and how they influence decision making.
What are the SLAs?
The Service Level Agreement is a detailed outline of everything you’ll be getting from your working relationship. This needs to be clearly defined. The last thing you want is to find out that your contract doesn’t cover the IT work you require – especially during a time when you need it most. A particularly important consideration is what extras you’ll have to pay for beyond the scope of your core SLA. Then, even if your SLA doesn’t cover what you might need, you can budget accordingly.
Can you help us to achieve our goals?
Ultimately, out of all the questions to ask outsourced IT support companies, this is probably the most significant. At the end of the day, you’re hiring an outsourced IT support provider to take your business to a new destination. Be that removal of a certain pain point, the achievement of a growth target, optimising your operations, or something else. If you’re looking to get decent ROI from outsourced IT, you’ll want to be upfront about your long-term plans so that your provider can craft the right strategy.
This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are probably lots of other questions to ask IT support companies to qualify and avoid disaster. Ask about their references, what sets them apart from the competition, etc. But the above should serve as a solid blueprint for ensuring your business gets what it needs from the very start of the relationship. If you’re looking to outsource your IT, RAD is ready to answer all of the above questions and more.
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