Technology is quickly becoming the most highly prioritised investments among businesses. This indicates how important it is to the way we do business in the modern era. With more consumers spending the majority of their time online, businesses need to be utilizing technology at a granular level.
But what are the implications of this? As the usage of technology among businesses increases, so will the need for high-quality support of said technology – which many people choose to outsource. We spoke with a company who’s outsourced IT support London businesses have been using for the better part of a decade.
When looking for the right outsourced IT support partner, it is worth looking out for some key traits.
- Prompt Communications
As a business, when you’re experiencing a technical issue, and you log a case with your IT provider, you want them to respond as quickly as possible. You don’t want to be waiting around for them to find the time to help you.
Some IT support providers will make claims regarding the time it takes them to fix problems, but look out for the providers that make solid claims on how quickly they respond to their customers problems. If an organisation is working to maintain a specific rate of turnaround for cases, it could be that they are cutting corners, or not taking the full amount of time to investigate the root of an issue. On the other hand, prompt communications and competitive response times are just as valuable as quick fix times, but demonstrates a better commitment to detail.
- They are an SMB
There is definitely an ideal size for a service provider to be, and small to medium-sized may well be the ideal. Generally speaking, the smaller a service provider is, the more personal the service they provide is. In terms of the client-provider relationship, you can really get to know the people who are providing the service to you. There will be more transparency with a business relationship like that. Comparatively, a service provider that is too big will not be able to offer the same personalised service.
There are benefits to having a larger, or more accurately a medium-sized service provider; their resources will be much greater, their staff will be more stable (holidays and sick days won’t affect productivity like it might in a smaller business), and they will be able to offer longer term growth – there is less chance your business will grow out of the service.
- Proactive Support Methodologies
Proactive methodologies is very important for any service provider to be practicing. What separates the company we spoke to from other London IT support companies is that they are committed to delivering the most proactive support service possible. This includes remote network monitoring that enables them to log cases automatically and start work on issues more quickly. They also give customer proactive technology recommendations to help with problem prevention, and hold quarterly business reviews to ensure the service is always fitting the clients needs, and ensure that they are aware of new solutions that might help them.
- They Act as Your IT Department
A lot of businesses choose to outsource their IT needs because it is cheaper than hiring and training their own in-house IT department. But with that said, the best outsourced IT support providers will feel like they are an extension of your business.
Like we mentioned earlier, prompt communications is a necessity with an IT provider; and transparency into the service is equally important. Both of these qualities help to guarantee seamless co-operation between your departments and the IT service provider – which means they can perform as well as any in-house provider.
