Switching to managed IT services can make life a whole lot easier for SMBs (and save them money). It can even bring security benefits by making sure that essential work (such as patches) is done promptly. Getting the most from managed IT services means working with the right managed IT services partner for your organization. Here’s a quick guide as to how to pick the right managed IT services partner in Folsom.
If you find that you’re having problems with your IT infrastructure because nobody in your internal IT team has time to undertake regular care and maintenance, then managed IT services are probably just what you need. You will, however, need to catch up on any missed tasks before making the handover to a managed IT services partner.
If, however, you find that you’re having problems with your IT infrastructure because it’s just not up to the standard you need, then you need to make the necessary improvements before you switch to managed IT services. If your own IT team doesn’t have the time or the skills for the necessary work, then you need an IT support partner in Folsom rather than a managed IT service partner in Folsom.
Once you have your current IT infrastructure working for you in the present, it’s time to think about where you need and want to be over the next 5-10 years and what that will mean for your IT systems. You’re going to need to think about what work will come under the heading of ad hoc projects and what will come under the heading of predictable maintenance tasks. Projects are a job for IT support, maintenance tasks are for managed IT service providers.
Be very scrupulous about separating needs from wants because getting this wrong (either way) can end up costing you money. If you put wants in with your needs, you’re going to end up committing to paying for services you could have lived without and if you put needs in with your wants, you could find yourself scrambling for the budget to pay for an essential service.
On a similar note, it’s generally safest to work on the assumption that there are going to be some break/fix issues you’ll need to deal with and again these are a job for IT support providers rather than managed service providers. This means that you’ll need to have funds and/or insurance set aside to pay for them.
Over the long term, managed IT services can save organizations both time and money. Over the short term, however, there is inevitably a degree of upheaval and expense in organizing the initial migration. This means that it’s in everyone’s best interests to pick the right managed IT services partner in Folsom the first time around, so you avoid putting yourself in a situation where you must do another migration after a short period.
Your long-listing process will typically be gathering the details of any managed IT service company that looks like it could potentially meet your needs and your initial short-listing process will filter this down to managed IT services companies that look like they could be real contenders for your business. Even at this point, however, you may have several companies still on your list. Be prepared to be ruthless about bringing the list down to the ones which stand out as being the absolute best.
This may seem harsh, but the fact of the matter is that responding to a request for a proposal takes up the vendor’s time, and analyzing proposals robustly takes up your organization’s time. It is therefore both polite and sensible to send requests for proposals only to managed IT services partners who look like they could be just what you need.
Everything up to and including the request for proposal stage is about checking hard criteria such as geographical location, skillset, and price. While these are all important, it’s just as important that you feel comfortable working with your managed IT services provider as they really will be a partner rather than just another vendor. Because of this, you should make a point of having at least one in-person meeting with a company representative before you sign up for a contract with any managed service provider.
If you’d like to talk to a reputable managed IT services company in Folsom, please click here now to contact Aperio.IT.
Sign up today for free & stay current with local IT news.
X