How To Choose A Businesses Computer Support Provider?
Selecting an IT Support company is a challenging task because the core functioning of your business might depend on it.
Even though many executives think about their IT as an expensive head-ache, their business would probably fold within days without a reliable network and server architecture.
So how do choose your trusted provider than? Consider the following key points: What are your needs?You will have to look at your organization and decide about your expectations.
How many employees are in your organization? How many servers are you running? How many computers? Answering these questions will help you decide whether you need a company that can have a technician or an engineer on-site all the time, or a regular maintenance contract is sufficient.
In my experience companies with more than 40 employees should have at least a technician on-site.
ResponsivenessThe most important thing is to select a company that will be there when you need them the most.
Depending of your contract a 4 hour response time to your incident is common and anybody who has more than a day response is not worth considering.
This might not mean, that your problem can be fixed in that period, but the service provider should start working on the issue within that time frame.
ReliabilityAsk for references, find out as much as you can about the company, make sure they will respond and they will be there when problems arise - be it at the middle of the night or at Christmas Eve - your business might depend on it.
(For responding on Christmas Eve they might charge quite a lot, but the fact that they can be reached and address the problem is vital) Personal contactDepending of the size of your company you could expect to have the same person visit your business or at least have a dedicated account manager who knows exactly your network, your systems and your previous trouble tickets.
Working with the same person saves you a lot of of time and explanation.
Remote support and help deskMany small IT related problems can be solved over the phone calling a reliable and knowledgeable tech support (this is not the average tech support in Bombay, reading a script) or having an engineer remotely log in to your screen and fix the bug for you.
Find out if your contenders have this kind of service, since it can save you time and money.
PricingThere are different options from prepaid packages to service contracts and individual service calls.
In top of the added security, you could save significantly using a service contract or prepaid service, because relying on incidental support calls might cause that you the support company doesn't have available staff.
Even though many executives think about their IT as an expensive head-ache, their business would probably fold within days without a reliable network and server architecture.
So how do choose your trusted provider than? Consider the following key points: What are your needs?You will have to look at your organization and decide about your expectations.
How many employees are in your organization? How many servers are you running? How many computers? Answering these questions will help you decide whether you need a company that can have a technician or an engineer on-site all the time, or a regular maintenance contract is sufficient.
In my experience companies with more than 40 employees should have at least a technician on-site.
ResponsivenessThe most important thing is to select a company that will be there when you need them the most.
Depending of your contract a 4 hour response time to your incident is common and anybody who has more than a day response is not worth considering.
This might not mean, that your problem can be fixed in that period, but the service provider should start working on the issue within that time frame.
ReliabilityAsk for references, find out as much as you can about the company, make sure they will respond and they will be there when problems arise - be it at the middle of the night or at Christmas Eve - your business might depend on it.
(For responding on Christmas Eve they might charge quite a lot, but the fact that they can be reached and address the problem is vital) Personal contactDepending of the size of your company you could expect to have the same person visit your business or at least have a dedicated account manager who knows exactly your network, your systems and your previous trouble tickets.
Working with the same person saves you a lot of of time and explanation.
Remote support and help deskMany small IT related problems can be solved over the phone calling a reliable and knowledgeable tech support (this is not the average tech support in Bombay, reading a script) or having an engineer remotely log in to your screen and fix the bug for you.
Find out if your contenders have this kind of service, since it can save you time and money.
PricingThere are different options from prepaid packages to service contracts and individual service calls.
In top of the added security, you could save significantly using a service contract or prepaid service, because relying on incidental support calls might cause that you the support company doesn't have available staff.
