A Guide to Choosing the Right Managed IT Support Services

Reports are showing that more and more businesses are turning to managed IT services.

This is not surprising given that managed IT support services can increase a business’s security, provide access to top-level experts, incur cost savings, and more.

Additionally, professional IT service management also protects against downtimes and failures. This is a valuable pro, considering that one hour of downtime can incur SMBs up to $100,000 in losses.

However, you will only be able to reap these benefits from managed IT support services if you pick the right provider. Land up with a fly-by-night operation, and you’re likely to be hit hard in the wallet and receive poor service.

Fortunately, there are reliable managed services providers that go above and beyond for their clients. If you want to know how to spot one of these, keep reading.

Check Reviews and Testimonials

If you are on the hunt for trustworthy and capable managed IT support services, one of the first things to check are reviews and testimonials.

To do this, you can start by googling “managed IT services near me.” From there, you make a list of potential providers.

From this list, you can start asking any potential providers for testimonials and contact details from previous clients. Of course, no provider will put you in contact with a client that had a bad experience, so you should also check online review platforms such as Google Reviews.

Check for Partnerships

Besides reviews, another great way to gauge the quality level of managed IT service providers is to check for partnerships.

Most of the reputable and reliable providers will have existing partnerships with tech companies. We, for example, are partnered with IBM, Dell, Cisco, Citrix, and VMWare.

Partnerships like these indicate that a provider is established enough in their industry to work with these tech giants, and reliable enough to maintain a successful relationship.

Find Out If Potential Providers Can Implement Custom Solutions

Once you have vetted out providers that have a good reputation in place, you also need to ensure that they will be able to meet your specific needs.

One way to do this is to enquire whether they focus on custom solutions. Good managed IT service providers know that one-size-fits-all solutions don’t work in the industry. Instead, they will be eager to explain to you how they can develop a customized solution to meet the unique requirements of your business.

If a provider does not seem very interested in talking about custom solutions, this is not a good sign. In fact, it indicates that they are likely to try and push on you a generic system that is not adapted to your business.

Get Clear on What Support to Expect

Support is a crucial element of IT service management. Therefore one of the most important questions to ask a managed IT service provider is what support you can expect.

For instance, if you have a problem, will you be able to reach someone around the clock? Or only between 9 am and 5 pm?

Ideally, you should go with a provider that supplies 24/7 support. If problems arise, you want to be able to contact your provider, no matter what time of the day or night it is.

Another thing to check is how many support calls per registered device you get. If you are being offered a capped number of support calls, this is a bad sign. Ideally, you should have unlimited support calls for every registered device.

Vet for 24/Hour Monitoring

Another area to vet for is 24/hour monitoring of your network. Anything less than this opens up the opportunity for breaches and costly periods of downtime.

Network monitoring is one of the top reasons to engage managed IT services. With round the clock network monitoring, your provider will know the instant a component is slow or failing. This is an essential part of the new movement away from the previous break-fix IT model.

Managed IT service providers who do not provide 24/hour monitoring leave you open to unnoticed failures.

Dig Deep on Pricing

When searching for the best managed IT service providers for your needs, another important area to get clear on is pricing.

Make sure that providers give you a clear outline of their fee structure. In general, complicated fee structures are a red flag. If you can’t confidently foresee how much you will be paying, you might run into unpleasant billing surprises.

Instead, favor companies that have clear fee structures where you know exactly what you’ll be paying each month. Clear, set, free structures help you to budget and accurately comparing pricing.

Check for Scaling Capabilities

If all goes well, we’re going to bet that your business is in for some growth in the future. When this happens, you need to know that your managed IT support services can keep up.

If an IT service management provider does not have the scaling capabilities necessary to meet projected growth targets and more—this is a sign that they are not for you. Switching providers can be disruptive and especially during high growth periods.

To ensure that you won’t be left in the lurch once your needs expand, select for providers that can provide effective scaling solutions.

Are You Looking for the Best in Managed IT Support Services?

To avoid costly system failures, scaling issues, unforeseen fees, and more, it’s essential that you thoroughly vet potential managed IT support services. Now that you have read this guide, you are ready to do just that.

If you are looking for the best in managed IT services, we invite you to explore our capabilities. We offer both total care services for a fixed price (no nasty billing surprises!) as well as consulting, analytics, and more.

Here at Velecor, our entire philosophy centers around customized solutions that fit our clients’ needs and budgets. Integrated seamlessly into your business operations, our solutions help you focus on your core operations. We also offer round the clock support, 24/hour monitoring, and much more.

Have any questions? Contact us today for immediate assistance.