Choosing the right I.T. support for your business is just as difficult as choosing the right partner for your personal life. You need an organisation that’s ready to help you today with today’s issues but also thinking ahead to how you can grow and develop next week, next month and for years to come and, as with love, if your only consideration is price then you might want to reassess your priorities.
So you’re going on your first date with tech support, you’ve got that nervous feeling, butterflies in your stomach and the little tingle of excitement but what questions do you ask? Well firstly, can they handle your business? The girth of your organisation should be the first consideration for any partner, if they’re unable to support your business and give it what it needs then it’s not worth the first conversation. Equally they shouldn’t be intimidated by growth, it’s size now isn’t the size you want it to stay in the future and anyone serious about their potential for the future will want to be the biggest they can be in their industry. Their I.T. Support might be enough to accommodate you now but you need to be sure that they can grow with you and keep pace because no one wants to switch partners mid-stream.
Secondly, what’s their history? Take a good look at their past, look for testimonials from their clients, even go so far as to look them up on Companies House. An organisation that looks sleek and professional on the surface could be hiding some dirty financial secrets meaning a headache for you when they inevitably come to light. I.T. Support with a proven track record and stable, continued growth over a number of years is a lot more attractive that an organisation that promises the world without the assets to back it up.
When selecting tech support the first and foremost concerns have to be compatibility and reliability. The whole point is that when disaster strikes you can pick up the phone and get someone straight away. Consider the offering you’re being given. Do they cover out-of-hours or is that being farmed out to a call centre? When it’s 3am and the server room has flooded will you get an actual engineer on the other end of the line, someone based locally with service time targets to meet? Paying for the cheapest option means getting the cheapest service, a pyrrhic victory at best and a tragedy when things go wrong.
