Are you a business looking for an IT company to provide support for you? Outsourcing IT support is becoming a more common solution, as small and medium sized businesses have realised that they can get much better support from partnering with a service provider, as opposed to hiring their own department (which can be costly and time-consuming). You can choose any IT support company out there, but how do you separate them from the duds? There are certain qualities that you should look for when shopping around for an IT company to partner with.
Depending on the size of your company, the industry you’re in, and the technology you use, some IT companies will be more suitable for you than others. Here are some of the things to look for:
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Industry Experience
The first thing to look for is whether they have experience in the sector you are in. Perhaps they already have clients in that industry?
No matter what sector you’re in, there will be things unique to it compared with other industries. For example, the types of software and applications used, the structure of the organisation, the network configurations, etc. Knowing that an IT company has likely encountered the challenges you have experienced due to your sector is always encouraging.
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Diverse Plans
When it comes to IT strategies, there is no such thing as ‘one size fits all’. Organisations usually have different needs – e.g. different tools they work with, different numbers of staff, different hours of operation, etc. There are lots of ways in which organisations vary, and a good IT support company will have different types of plans to fit the needs of each client.
An IT company may have a standard / flagship plan that they offer, as well as a number of other plans that either omit certain services, or include additional ones. They might have plans for supporting specific types of software, or cost-saving plans that have caps on certain services.
As a business, you don’t want to be paying for things you don’t use, so if a company offers diverse, or configurable plans, that is a bonus.
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24/7 Availability
The most frustrating thing in the world is when you are experiencing a problem, and you have nobody to help you with it at that present moment. This is something that can happen often for businesses experiencing technical issues.
This is why looking to see if an IT company offers 24/7 support is a good idea. They might charge extra for this, and you might not even need those extra hours of access, but it is always good to know that they offer it.
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Fast Response Times
Sometimes IT companies boast about have fast resolution times, but this isn’t always a good things. A better claim is that an IT company has fast response times.
If a company is claiming they have fast resolution times, it probably means they are prioritising time over attention to detail – they might be cutting corners to save time. On the other hand, if a business has fast response times, it demonstrates that they prioritise service – these companies are more likely to go above and beyond the call of duty when supporting clients.
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Account Management
When you’re looking at outsourced services of any kind, you want to be sure that the provider is prioritising your business. If a company offers account management, this usually means they are committed to building a long-term business relationship with their clients – ensuring that the client is satisfied with the service they receive, and taking on feedback so that they can tweak and improve the service the client is getting.
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Scalable Services
As mentioned in the previous point, an IT company should be committed to building a long-term relationship with their clients; and part of that is offering services that can be scaled up when the client’s needs grow or change.
Oftentimes, IT support companies are also managed service providers as well. The two services are quite different. For instance, the managed IT services London based provider, TechQuarters, specialises in is aimed at larger SMBs and enterprises; whereas, their IT support services are more suited to smaller organisations. Some of their clients have graduated from their IT support plan, over to their managed IT services plan.
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