So, you’ve decided to seek out external assistance with your critical business technology and its upkeep, and now you’re wondering how to tell which of your support options is going to give you the best value for your investment. While we may be biased, we still feel justified in our belief that—when compared side-by-side—a managed service provider will always be the better choice.
Don’t believe us? Fair enough… but let’s see what you say after we provide some reasons to support our claims. To do so, we’ll be going over the most important features to keep an eye out for as you seek out a technology resource.
Why You Should Find a Managed Service Provider
Managed IT Services are Different Than the IT Services You Might Imagine
Managed services take the more traditional view of IT and turn it on its head:
- Rather than waiting for a client to call in with an IT problem, a managed service provider (or MSP) will remotely monitor systems to proactively resolve issues they see coming.
- Rather than spending time traveling to and from a client’s location for every issue, an MSP remotely monitors their clients’ networks and remedies their problems.
- Rather than restricting their operations to the workday, an MSP will commonly offer 24/7 monitoring, 365 days out of the year.
- Rather than billing by the hour (also including travel costs, supplies and equipment, and other charges), an MSP’s services are all-inclusive, covered under contract for a predictable monthly fee.
These key differences make the experience of working with an MSP a much less stressful one. Just think about it: instead of hoping that you won’t encounter some expensive IT issue that throws off your entire budget, you can confidently function each day with the knowledge that someone is there to protect you from these issues.
How to Select the Right MSP For You
There are numerous criteria that you should consider when choosing an MSP to work with.
Location
Although your MSP will offer remote services, you will want to keep your chosen service provider within a reasonable distance in case an issue does warrant an on-site visit to remedy it.
Response Time
You also want your MSP to be able to rapidly react to your company’s needs, so check into what different providers offer. Time is money, so any bit of downtime that could possibly be avoided needs to be.
Contact Options
You want to have as many ways as possible to reach out to your IT provider. After all, you couldn’t exactly reach out to an email-only provider if your email server is what is acting up. Find a provider that is accessible to you through various means so that you can reach out to them whenever necessary.
Compudata is the best choice for Ontario businesses to turn to for their IT needs. To learn more about how our managed services can benefit your operations, give us a call at 1-855-405-8889.