Your choice for an IT support partner should not be taken lightly, regardless of your business size.
There are many factors that contribute to the selection process of an IT company. A primary factor is selecting an IT support provider that understands your business needs, and can allow you to focus on your business while having confidence that your technology is being maintenance effectively. For this reason, it is important to ask the correct questions before moving forward with a support agreement. Below are some examples of these questions.
1. What is your current support team size, and what are your near future plans?
Understanding the current support team size and their future plans can help decide if the company is aligned to your business requirements. If you are looking to scale your business, and you consider the IT support company would be inadequately staffed to handle your growth, you may want to rethink if this is the correct IT support partner for your business.
2. Which services make up the support agreement?
Recently we have found the words “everything will be covered” has been used when defining the scope of IT support for businesses. Services should be clearly listed out such as ‘desktop support’, ‘managed router/firewall’ and other aspects of your business technology that apply to you. To assist in identifying a list of services required, a hardware audit can be carried out.
3. Who is my primary contact for any account or technical escalations?
Having a single point of contact that you can rely on for any escalations is essential. There are some issues that you may not want to log through the formal channel such as the service desk. This person should work with you and your team to identify improvements and provide recommendations on your business technology. Lanter Technologies places a large focus on Technical Account Management to ensure we are proactive in our support.
4. What isn’t included in your support contracts?
A detail scope for what is included and what is not included should be reviewed to ensure this meets your business requirements. For example, you may have a critical server that requires proactive maintenance 24/7. If your agreement is based on business hours support only, you may want to look at adding an exception for this one server.
5. What are my response times for incidents and service requests?
Response times are critical for any support agreement. You are reliant upon these response times to ensure your team receives adequate support within an acceptable time frame. It is recommended to have these response times in writing, including penalty rebates if the response times are not met. Speak with Lanter Technologies about our Instant Support Model where you speak with a technical team member who is able to resolve most issues without escalation.
6. What are your internal processes for managing tickets and escalations?
An IT support provider’s systems are key to ensuring your staff’s technical related questions and issues are managed professionally. Ask for a demonstration of the company’s internal systems to ensure they can demonstrate sound processes and systems that will able them to support your business.
7. Do you have a couple of references?
A reputable IT support company will be happy to provide you with references. Have a number of questions ready for your phone call or email conversation with the referees that are provided to you.
