Metro Detroit small business owners continue to discover the benefits of managed IT: cost savings, expert management, 24/7 support, access to the best and latest in technology, and more focus and room for growth from your own IT team. The success of your IT outsourcing depends on several factors. Your managed IT vendor or provider is one of them. How do you shop around properly for managed IT services?
Once you’ve settled your goals and objectives within the company (How to Do A Successful IT Outsourcing), here’s what you should look out for and ask providers:
#1: The Service Level Agreements (SLA)
When you ask for a quote, you should be able to see a version of the SLA, a.k.a the fine print. The SLA is the contract between you (the client) and your service provider. The SLA–or the detailed information document you get if they don’t give you the SLA yet–should contain:
- The service tier and price you’ve opted for
- All the services you are paying for
- Accountability details
- Response times
- Completion dates
- Maintenance and service entitlements, etc.
- Penalties if the terms of the SLA are not met
It pays to know and be able to compare all the above while you’re shopping around before you sign anything.
#2: What type of security do they provide?
Access control, encryption and backup protocols, physical and network security.
#3: What are their recovery procedures? Disaster happens. What’s next?
What can you depend on in their suite of services? This should help you decide about what recovery and backup procedures you should retain internally, just in case.
#4: Do they do background checks on their employees?
This is a legitimate question and don’t hesitate to look it up on their website or ask it to your point of contact. They’d be handling your company’s and your customers’ information after all.
#5: Look up their transparency, on-site and off-site, beyond the glowing testimonials.
See if they responded to negative feedback, and how they’ve handled missed deadlines or unkept promises. Ask them outright about their procedures to avoid those mistakes now. Ask them about their processes and to what extent those are transparent to clients.
About Simply Technology
Simply Technology has been providing technology solutions for businesses in the Metro-Detroit market since 2010. We understand that technology can sometimes be very complex that’s why we believe in technology at its simplest form. We show this by offering our Voice and IT Services with all the features and industry leading customer service your business deserves.
We believe in thinking differently, we believe in people and what we can collectively achieve. We go to work every day to help our customers succeed!
248-885-5515
20750 Mack Ave
Grosse Pointe Woods, MI, 48236
info@simplytechnology.com