According to a recent study, more than 60% of organizations are expected to be dependent on managed services by 2025. Selecting a Managed Service Provider (MSP) is an important decision for your business, and the wrong provider can ultimately waste your money and time. Whether you are unhappy with the current level of support from your MSP, or searching for a new IT provider, it’s essential to ask the proper questions to determine if they can meet your specific business needs. The right MSP will be able to scale with your growing business and provide strategic business solutions, while also exceling at the level of support provided. Below discusses some vital questions to ask a potential MSP before working with them:
1. How do they provide reliable nationwide coverage?
A key factor in finding the right MSP is evaluating their support capabilities and determining if they can meet your organization’s needs. Depending on your business, you will have specific requirements when it comes to service levels, and it’s important that your provider can accommodate these. Around the clock support ensures that your IT environment is being monitored 24 hours a day 365 days a year. To provide 24/7 support, your MSP must have the proper resources to cover multiple time zones and assist you with all your technology support issues, reducing the potential risk of downtime.
2. What metrics are technicians held to? How often do they beat their SLAs?
Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) set expectations for both you and your MSP as to how long you can expect to wait for support tickets. The right provider will surpass their safeguarded response time and resolve the issue faster than stated in your contract. In order to ensure that your MSP can quickly respond to and resolve the issue at hand, it’s important to inquire about what metrics technicians are held to. Does your provider properly track how long it takes for their team to be engaged in customer issues? Your MSP should not leave you waiting for unresolved tickets or wondering when your issue will be resolved, potentially costing your business time and money.
3. Are they outsourcing support?
Another one of the essential questions to ask a potential MSP is what type of support they provide. Outsourced help desk support is a generic service, where the technician typically has no deep understanding of your system or your overall business. When your MSP has an in-house support team, the technicians will be familiar with your software and specific needs, providing a tailored approach that leads to a higher level of support. In-house support creates a more customized experience with a provider who understands your business.
4. Is your MSP presenting business solutions or IT solutions?
Your MSP should provide more than just support, they should help guide your organization to growth with a strategic technical roadmap that will help you meet your future business goals. When providing IT support, taking a holistic approach allows the MSP to fully support your business in all aspects. By knowing the company IT infrastructure completely, they can understand what your IT business goals are and how to take steps to achieve them.
“Your IT provider should present you with holistic business solutions to assess your IT needs and proactively manage and support every aspect of your infrastructure to avoid unforeseen vulnerabilities and unpredictable fees.” -Paul Thompson, Director of Support at CompuData.
Understanding the questions to ask a potential MSP will ultimately help you make the right decision for your business. Your IT provider should take a proactive approach to help your organization continuously grow and increase productivity and efficiency.
CompuData, a Philadelphia IT Company, offers best-in-class IT services for small to midsize businesses looking to increase productivity and profitability with the right technology solutions. With over 50 years as a technology innovator, CompuData’s expertise spans a wide range of services from Accounting/ERP software solutions, Cloud Hosting & Managed Cloud Services, Managed IT Services, and Security solutions to help grow, protect, and streamline operations. The CompuData team takes a holistic approach to meet customers’ needs and create technology solutions to position them for success and future growth.
