Finding good Business IT Support solutions for your company.

How would you know how to choose a good computer Outsourcing company from a bad one? Are the directors of IT Support organisations totally obsessed with themselves because it certainly seems to be that way. Just about every computer support website you visit nowadays seems to include a photograph of the CEO or Director stuck on the homepage, telling you just how much more ahead of the competition their company is compared to everyone else’s. If they are not bigging themselves up then they are blogging about the latest ‘award ceremony’ they have just been invited to.

I say the term ‘award ceremony’ very loosely as it is common knowledge that most of these rubbish award ceremonies are a load of nonsense and you are guaranteed a table as long as you pay a nice lump sum upfront. Horses for courses indeed….

So where do you start sourcing a good Business IT Support company? Where is a best lace to start and what do you look for? In my experience a good place to start is with business contacts. If you have lots of business contacts that you have a good understanding with then don’t hesitate to ask them if they use any external company for their IT Support. If their company is quite big then they will have to. Ask them what their service is like and what type of service they offer, ask as much as you can without being to intrusive!!!

If you are happy with all of the answers then ask for some contact details and get in touch.
Other suggestions.

Ask for a site visit - But not from a sales person, that’s not the people you want to be speaking with. IT Support companies will always be quite happy to send a techie to site for a meeting if they want your contract so take advantage of this and get them to visit you. Pick their brains and try to find out just how they work. Important questions include;

What sort of service level agreement do they have? Give examples of issues and ask what sort of response time you could expect for this sort of issue. Ask for a contract containing the standard SLA terms and definitions.
How many people are working for them, in particular how many engineers do theyhave on the books and what level do they work at, i.e. how many remote, onsite project managers etc. etc.

Technical knowledge. Think about your own IT Supportnetwork and what systems it contains. Does this IT Support company have the technical expertise to look after your computer Network properly and would you trust them to upgrade your network in the future?

Always remember, IT Outsourcing companies are looking after many other companies just like your one so they will be booking in new jobs all day. Because of this, you won’t always get an instant response to your queries and jobs may be entered into a support desk. This doesn’t apply to every company out there as some are big enough to have a dedicated first line support team that are able to tackle the most basic of issues.

To summarise, the best IT Company may not be the biggest one you find. At the end of the day you need to get your issues fixed quickly, and its not always the IT Companies with ‘awards’ that can offer this.