How can you tell if you are receiving substandard service from your IT support resource? How do you know if your current IT support person or team is doing what is necessary to secure your network from down-time, viruses, data loss, and other frustrating, expensive, and potentially catastrophic situations?
Take the below “quiz” to find out!
If your IT support resource does not score a “yes” on every one of these points, you could be paying for substandard support.
- Do they respond to emergencies in 1 hour or less?
- Are they easy to get a hold of and responsive, even for non-emergencies?
- Do they offer ongoing maintenance to keep critical security settings and patches updated?
- Do they offer monitoring to watch over your network 24/7 for developing problems?
- Do they proactively offer new ways to make your network perform better, vs just waiting until you have a problem to make any recommendations?
- Do they provide detailed invoices with clear explanation of what you’re paying for?
- Do they explain things they do and answer questions in terms that you can easily understand?
- Do they finish work on time and within budget, as opposed to projects always ending up costing more or taking longer than expected?
- Do they offer guarantees on their services?
- Do they have other technical resources who are familiar with your network in case they are not available and you need assistance?
- Do they maintain current vendor certifications and participate in ongoing training and programs?
- Do you feel as though they’re doing their learning on the time you’re paying for, as opposed to making sure that ongoing learning is done outside of what you pay to receive from them?
- Do they take calls from other clients while working on your network (on your dime)?
- Are they adamant about backups and having tested disaster recovery planning in place?
- Do they meet with you regularly to review your network status, business plans, and their own performance in support of your company?
- Do you have to step in to manage progress on their work and do you have to ask for status updates and followups?
- Do they offer a flat rate or fixed fee for projects, monitoring and maintenance instead of giving themselves an open field for “time and materials”?
If you answered “not sure” or “no” to any of the above, it is important that you evaluate whether you have alternative options, information, and considerations for your business.
Best-in-class support and partnership at a reasonable cost is possible, and your business deserves it!
Learn about the advantages of working with a managed technology partner like us. Here are just some of the ways you could benefit:
- Always available: 24x7x365
- 1 number to call for all IT issues and questions
- Predictable fixed-cost invoices
- Partnership and open communication
- Outsourced IT at a fraction of the cost of an internal hire
- Adaptability and scalability
Get in touch for an evaluation of your business technology, or just to learn more about how we might be able to help you.
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