Depending on your service level, an MSP can be responsible for virtually all the technology your company uses. This is why it’s important to approach the selection process very carefully and find a trustworthy managed IT vendor that has your best interest in mind
What To As An MSP Provider
Your choice of a managed services provider (MSP) is critical. Think about it, you’re turning over major functions of your business to an outside company. This includes:
- Data backup
- Internal communication
- Security of client information
- Hardware
- Cloud migration services
- IT consulting
Here are some questions to ask before you turn these important functions over to any external business.
- What is the company culture? – Meet with the actual staff, not the salespeople, if they aren’t one in the same. A good fit starts at the roots, and the best indication is the personality of the business and its employees.
- How will they reduce your company’s workload? – This depends on your expectations and what aspects of your business you need to have managed.
- How will they reduce your costs? – The results you get with the managed services provider should be less than doing it yourself. This means you should have some idea of what your current IT situation is costing you and how much you expect to spend in the future.
- Will they help with strategy? – You may not need this, but if your priority is to build your business, you might want to concentrate on that and not your IT.
- What is included in the price they quote? – Transparency is key. Do they charge a flat fee or do their rates depend on the services you need? What happens if your business volume doubles in the next year? The answer to this will expose any gaps in their pricing model and avoid any confusion down the road.
- How scalable are their services? – If you have big plans for growth, you’ll want to make sure your goals align with your vendor’s capabilities. A company with 20 employees is very different from a company with 200.
- What are they best at? – Managed IT service providers can do a lot of things, but they tend to be specialists in one or two technology aspects. Find out what they do best and how they got there.
- What compliance frameworks do they support? – This depends on your business, but if you’re in healthcare, you’ll want an MSP that is familiar with HIPAA. If you take credit card payments of any kind, they should be familiar with PCI. If these are requirements they are familiar with, they should be forthcoming about that capability.
- Do they have references? – Any case studies or sell sheets, or even a list of current clients, will be valuable when making your decision.
- Do they have an exit procedure? – This may be difficult to ask, but it brings up something you should know and indicates if the business is honest.
Reverus is the Right Provider for Your Business
Every business needs to be flexible and adaptable to the changes of time and growth. Reverus brings that kind of flexibility to every client. We structure our service bundles with the methods you need, and no job is too big or small for us to tackle. Even if you don’t know where to start with your IT services, Reverus will be there to build your infrastructure from the ground up.
