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Hiring an IT partner for your company?
When looking for an IT partner for your business, we all want the preferred IT partner to propel our company to the next level of growth.
Selecting the right IT partner is critical, as enhancing your company’s IT infrastructure has the potential to significantly boost operational efficiency, add to customer delight, and improve the bottom line.
Almost every aspect of your business is driven by technology, and any flaws in existing technology can cause severe disruption, jeopardizing customer experience, productivity, and, ultimately, your reputation and bottom line.
In this post, we have compiled a list of the top 7 questions that businesses should ask before hiring an IT partner.
1. Could you describe how your team is qualified to handle the IT challenges at my business?
Please be aware that technology partners, or MSPs, come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and capabilities. As a business leader, it can be challenging to determine whether an MSP has the experience and expertise your company requires.
Among the follow-up questions that could be asked while trying to identify and evaluate an IT partner’s competencies are:
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How do you keep your team up to with the most recent technological advances and best practices in the industry?
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How many team members are you willing to dedicate to my company?
Some businesses (particularly those in highly regulated industries such as healthcare) have unique requirements, and not all MSPs have the same degree of expertise. Using the questions above, you can quickly decide whether an MSP has the expertise your company requires.
2. How quickly does your team address problems?
By asking this specific question, you can learn more about how the IT provider handles problems and what to expect if you face one.
A few follow-up inquiries could be:
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How soon after we contact an engineer with a problem can we expect them to start working on it?
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Could you describe how you'll keep us updated on the status of your resolution?
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What service level agreements do you have?
A reliable technology partner will be transparent about the timeline and processes they use to resolve each technology issue.
3. How can we be sure you're carrying out your stated intentions?
Your IT partner should always ensure that you are kept informed of all project updates and that you have the last say in all decisions affecting your IT network. This ensures that you are never left in the dark as to why your MSP is taking a certain action or how long a project might take.
A few follow-up inquiries could be:
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How frequently do you speak with your clients?
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What steps do you take to make sure there is transparency?
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Can you explain how you'll let people know when something needs to be revised, updated, or changed?
The right IT partner will hold themselves accountable to you and give you a roadmap for each project that includes specific dates and budgets.
4. How do you provide your services?
There are several ways to provide IT support, including over the phone, in person, remotely, through a ticketing system, or a mix of all of the above. The best IT partners promote open communication that establishes clear expectations. Additionally, they will explain in detail how you and your team will be contacting them.
Some possible follow-up inquiries include
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Do you outsource your help to a different organization or nation, or is it local?
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I'd like to understand more about your processes. Can I visit your facilities?
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Will you designate a dedicated resource for my account, or will I have to speak with a different agent each time?
The fewer hassles you’ll have to deal with if something goes wrong, the more streamlined their operations are.
5. How will you collaborate with my existing IT staff?
Your MSP must be prepared to work with any existing employees, whether you have a team of IT specialists on staff who just need a little extra assistance or only one team member who is doing everything alone.
You don’t want ambiguity to result in assumptions and loss (such as your company going out of business after a server crash because your IT staff believed the MSP was in control of backups when they weren’t, for example).
A few follow-up questions could be:
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How will you get in touch with our IT department?
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How will you work with our IT team to complete a project?
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Can you describe how you'll let my team know about your efforts?
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What can you do to improve the performance of my current team?
Make sure to inquire about how they have previously collaborated, what they have seen succeed at, and how they have seen collaborations fall short.
6. What processes do you follow in the event of an IT emergency after regular business hours?
Even though there is never an ideal moment for an IT issue, dealing with a breach or outage after business hours can be disastrous if your supplier isn’t available.
A few follow-up questions you may make while determining how prepared your IT partner is for emergencies include
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Will you offer a recovery plan that is tailored to my company's requirements?
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How quickly can you bring my system back online if my network goes down?
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Are you equipped to deal with problems when they arise, like in the middle of the night?
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Do you employ proactive IT strategies or do you mostly employ reactive ones?
7. Do you have any references we can get in touch with?
Selecting an IT partner is similar to hiring someone: you wouldn’t do it without checking references.
You might want to ask the reference the following questions:
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How well do they respond to your needs?
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Is the engineers' skill set sufficient?
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How was your experience with customer service?
Ask the MSP if they have any case studies or client success stories that they’d be prepared to provide in addition to references. You can see their degree of service and the kinds of clientele they serve from this.
While selecting an IT partner, understanding their strategy, skill set, culture, communication style, collaboration procedures, and other factors is essential if you want to select the best partner.
Although no two MSPs are alike, asking these 7 questions will enable you to reduce your list of potential candidates and ultimately select the best one.
Why Choose Us
At Demor Consultants, our technical expertise ranges from basic troubleshooting to advanced network administration. Partnering with us is a great way to improve your organization’s security, networking, and communication capabilities.
We maintain transparency with our methods, tools, and processes to ensure better visibility and seamless collaboration. Partnering with Demor Consultants means receiving regular updates on your IT requirements, such as servers, workstations, and disaster recovery plans, to help you make better technology decisions.
Demor Consultants put proactive measures in place to ensure proper data and IT framework security. We assist and support businesses in leveraging the most recent technological advancements and are constantly looking for new opportunities for innovation and optimization once we collaborate.
Rather than providing a one-size-fits-all solution, we take the time to understand your unique requirements, challenges, and needs. And, as your requirements change, Demor Consultants can always scale up or down to provide you with the appropriate IT assistance and services.
We offer round-the-clock assistance and monitoring services through a team of on-call technicians who can handle tech-related emergencies and provide prompt on-site service whenever needed. At Demor Consultants we believe in constant communication with our clients, taking the time to check in regularly, as well as providing and seeking input.
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