With ever-increasing technological requirements in every business industry, it gets difficult for an organization to handle each and every complex aspect of a business infrastructure on its own. Hence the business owners end up looking to hire a specialized IT Managed Services Provider that can look after their various business processes. It is usually not very easy to choose the right MSP that would match your needs, so it’s always wise to thoroughly assess what your requirements are first and then look for the right Managed Services Provider that can fulfill those requirements. For this, it is important not to simply see if a certain MSP is providing certain services, but rather look for all the alternative MSP providers available, make comparisons, and pick the most suitable one after you are totally satisfied they are the ones you wanted. Some of the primary solutions or services that you mightbe needing can mainly be data migration, data backup & recovery, cybersecurity, data protection, network monitoring, and management, and other services like availability of on-site support.
Now regarding the question of how do you compare the different Managed IT Services Providers, well you can set some parameters to make your analysis such as the following:
Ask what the MSP offers before Telling your Requirements
First, ask the IT Managed Service Provider what services it actually offers and see if their answer satisfies you. It is always a good idea to inquire about what they have in store to offer you rather than asking them “do you provide this service?”; because then the predictable answer is usually a “yes!”, and that does not allow you to evaluate the MSP properly.
The Track Record of the Managed Service Provider
You might want to get more insight regarding the managed services provider by inquiring from some of the clients it has worked with before. Ask those clients about how their experience was with the particular MSP and did it fully meet their expectations in terms of providing them with the perfect solutions for their IT needs. This would give you a fair bit of idea about the service provider.
The Costs
While you must be aware of all the services that an MSP offers but at the same time it is crucial that you should be clear on what your exact needs are limited to and if any services exceed your needs then you must cross-mark those and make sure you do not avail any extra or unnecessary services that you don’t even need in the first place. And as such keep your budget in control by smartly circling up the right choice of solutions as per your priorities. Before this step though, you would also want to make sure to check if any other MSPs are providing the same services at costs that are more compatible with your budget constraints.
Experience of the MSP
It greatly helps if the MSP you are going to hire has some degree of experience in the IT Managed Services Industry. Usually, it is safe to be availing of the services of an MSP that has been in the business for at least some 4 or 5 years because that would mean the MSP is familiar with most of the problems a client can potentially encounter, and most certainly it has developed ways to accordingly manage those problems in the best possible manner in all these years of experience. While it can be argued that experience is not everything but it is certainly a Plus Point when you are evaluating an MSP.
Skills
You must make sure whether the MSP truly has the expertise and skills that it boasts of. A few questions should be:
- Is it resourceful and equipped enough to handle the latest tools and technology, especially Cloud technology?
- Does it have a certified team of experts that you can rely on 24/7?
- Does it offer effective on-site assistance?
The above are just some of the many queries you should unhesitantly make from the IT Services Provider and ask them to give a bit of a demonstration of its offerings in some capacity to satisfy you if possible so that you can fully trust it to be your partner.
Finally Clarify the Terms of the Contract
Although this does not in any way mean that you shouldn’t be optimistic about the new partnership. It just implies you should expect the best results while treading cautiously, so be fully open about the nature of your contract with the MSP. For instance what if it is a long-term contract but you are not satisfied with the service and as such want to opt out of the contract to look for a new Vendor? Because let’s admit it, sometimes we can all make an error in judgment, and the same applies in the case of business too. We can make decisions that may not at times turn out to be as good as we expect in the long run. Therefore, even after all the background checks about the reputation of the Service Provider, their lucrative offerings and costs, impressive credentials, etc., there is still a chance they might not be able to deliver up to your expectations or perform the intended tasks as effectively as required. So it is smart to revise the terms of the deal before officially entering into a contract with the MSP.
Conclusion
An effective Managed Services Provider manages the business IT tasks assigned to it with full efficiency, allowing the in-house staff of the organization to be more productive and focused on core business functions like centering their energy towards optimally performing the operations such as strategizing to expand the client base, using their time & energy in ways that would result into better growth and development of the business enterprise. So selecting the right IT Managed Service Provider for your business is an extremely important decision that must be made with utmost caution. A perfect MSP has the potential to do wonders for your business.
