More and more organizations are realizing the value of outsourcing various IT services to managed services providers (MSPs). The benefits alone listed in our last blog post, demonstrate multiple reasons to leverage the services of these expert providers. The next question is how does an organization know what MSP is right for them?
The following are areas that should be considered when selecting an MSP.
- Service Offerings – make sure you understand what services are included in your agreement and what are offered at additional costs.
- Proven Experience – the MSP should be able to share relevant experience of similar services they are providing other organizations.
- Robust Infrastructure – make sure they have the latest technologies in place and they meet necessary industry and governmental regulations for security and availability. Do they offer 24x7x365 services?
- Longevity and Future Growth – selecting an MSP that has been in business for a while will demonstrate financial stability and asking them about their future growth plans will help ensure they will be there in the future when you need them and are planning to scale their infrastructure as they grow.
- Problem Resolution – make sure they have a plan in place in case there is a system failure of some type. Where are their systems backed up?
- Service-Level Agreements – SLAs will guarantee uptime, problem response time and provide you with an understanding of the expected performance.
- Reference Customers – request to speak to their customers about response times, up-time and any challenges they have had with the MSP.
- Day-to-day Contacts – make sure there will be a day-to-day contact to call with questions, concerns, etc.
Addressing these types of issues ahead of time with help ensure you are selecting the right partner to deliver high quality IT services to your organization.
