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7 SIGNS THAT YOUR I.T. PROVIDER HAS DROPPED THE BALL
Technology is evolving rapidly. So it makes sense that the IT (Managed Services) provider who was right for your business ten years ago is no longer the right fit for you today.
Perhaps your business has secured an internal technology expert, so you are not contacting your IT’s Help Desk support as much as you used to. Or maybe you have gotten savvier and discovered you could do away with traditional fixed-fee IT. Whatever the reason, they say change is as good as a holiday.
Here are the seven signs that indicate your IT Provider is no longer giving your business the care it promised to deliver many years ago:
1. You don’t know who to talk to
Who is my Account Manager? Who works on the Help Desk? How do I even contact them? If these guys haven’t been touching base with you regularly, it means they haven’t been proactively monitoring your systems or keeping an eye out for ways to improve your technical infrastructure.
2. You receive non-itemised billing
Still paying fixed fees? In 2021? Bye-bye. Support fees should be scaled based on consumption. And then your invoices should outline in granular detail and plain English exactly what work was included to justify these prices.
3. They treat you like a ticket, not a person
It takes them HOW long to get back to you? You are a customer, not just a number sitting in their queue of requests. Engineers should always consider the urgency of your request and respond to you in a kind and timely manner.
4. They are reactive, not proactive
They never inform you of outage periods or software updates. Instead, they wait until you call and claim that everything’s gone up in smoke before they attempt to put the fire out – one that never needed to burn in the first place. Have they ever heard of overnight outage windows?
5. Technology is slowing you down
This is a huge one. You should have the technology in place that speeds up your business- making it more efficient, productive and intelligent all around. You wouldn’t believe the amount of revenue that is lost by simply having slow devices (time-wasted). Remember that if you need to upgrade your devices, you should consider it an investment because of its enablement capabilities, therefore not an expense.
6. You have no idea where any of your data is stored
Does it feel like you spend the majority of your day searching for files? And what happens in an emergency – is your data saved in a public or private cloud? When you want to change providers, will they let my data out of their cloud? While it may fall upon your provider to manage this, they should at least be transparent with you regarding where everything is backed up.
7. Cybersecurity is just a buzzword
Cybersecurity breaches are becoming more prevalent in SMB’s every day. Your IT providers should be ahead of the game – offering resources and training that will make your business (and employees) less vulnerable to attacks. It’s also critical that you have up to date antivirus on all of your devices.
FINAL NOTES
Did your current provider make you sign a lock-in contract where you are obligated to pay fixed fees? Ask yourself: why would they have done this unless it was because they knew the quality of service delivered would decline over time?
If one or more of these signs have resonated with you, then we’re suggesting it’s time to shop around. Look for a new provider who can align their technology strategy with your business goals, not the other way around.
