A Guide to Selecting Your Most Important Small Business Partner

You must ensure your business enjoys reliable & hassle free IT...

Here are common pitfalls that occur when business introduce IT systems:

Your IT is critical because it underpins the day-to-day operation of your business, hence a trusted IT partner is key for successful it operations. But there are two kinds of IT solution providers. 'Helpers' and 'sellers'. A 'seller' can drive your business into the ground because he recommends solutions promising the greatest possible commission and revenue for himself. But a 'helper', on the other hand, can lead your business straight to a world of reliable and hassle free IT. He knows the real money is to be made long term as a result of delivering a trouble free solution. Fortunately, you can tell these two types of provider apart based on how they approach your requirements...

1. Initial Engagement
Find out what the person sitting down with you really knows about technology. Are you dealing with a qualified technical consultant with many years experience delivering end-to-end solutions? Or are you staring down the barrel of a sales person with who has no technical skills or qualifications? Please beware! Your contact must take the time to really understand what the expectations of your IT solution will be - both now and in the future. They should not be motivated by a quick sale and meeting ambitious targets handed down from above.

2. Tailoring Design
Your solution must be robust and consider the end-to-end picture. Avoid like the plague IT companies immediately attempting to sell you an 'off the shelf' solution without examining your existing structures, your existing business model, and considering how your users are going to utilise the technology proposed in practice. Of course, any IT provider worth its salt will have established relationships with key suppliers such as Microsoft, Citrix, VMware, Cisco, Trend Micro, and HP. But they will also look beyond these most obvious partners and think outside the box for you too.

3. Competitive Pricing
Remember you not only have to pay for the cost of your technology but also for consultants' time to deliver and install that technology! Be on your guard for extortionate consulting fees which are the direct result of unnecessarily retaining multiple experts with individual areas of expertise. Always clarify exactly what your return on investment will be in each case. Cost is inevitably a key issue, of course, and now is a good time to reflect on what is being proposed to determine whether or not your prospective IT Company is telling you want to hear and cutting costs to “get the papers signed”. This can lead to problems fast. Believe it or not, clients frequently 'sack' their IT partner within just three to six months, as the horrible reality begins to dawn that the solution delivered to them is not at all fit for its intended purpose. Severe problems. Downtime. Loss of revenue. Sadly, all of these issues are commonplace.

4. Solution Implementation
Who will be implementing your IT solution? What technical accreditations do they have? How many years experience delivering end-to-end solutions? Make sure those implementing your solution plan to do more than read the vendors' technical documentation and take a “next next” approach. Seek assurances they will go beyond the product 'technical' and 'best practice' documentation and maximise the solution for your business. Often vendor paperwork has little correlation to what needs to be done in the real world.

5. Day-To-Day Support
Who will you speak with when you pick up the phone to your IT Company for support? Demand a high level consultant who can help immediately because multiple tiers of contact can lead to messages being miscommunicated. Under the wrong conditions problems can take days to be resolved rather than minutes or hours. That means unnecessary downtime in your business. Find out: what is the average time of call resolution once logged and how are Service Level Agreements guaranteed?

6. Optimisation And Disaster Recovery
A trusted IT partner will take over the task of managing your IT and keep finding new ways your technology can deliver even more for your business. Reflect on what advice have you been given for business continuity and disaster recovery. What measures are in place and have they been tested?

So Who Is The Best?
Netpros are proud of its own track record. We deliver IT solutions in a unique way which means over 85% of day-to-day problems are resolved 'remotely' in less than 10 minutes (with no need for an on-site visit). But there are a number of IT solutions providers with an equally impressive track record. We just happen to be one of them. If you are dissatisfied with your current IT provider, or if you are just starting out, you can call us on 020 8643 6644. It would be our pleasure to help or, at the very least, direct you to the business that can.

This article was written by NetPros - A London IT Support Company.