Close Menu
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing & Mental Health
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
Trending
  • European Businesses Facing Increased Costs Due To Supply Chain Disruption
  • Dementia Advocate Shares Tips For Supporting People With Dementia When Flying
  • SME Today talks to Sa’ed Anabtawi, Product Director, WOLF
  • The Truth Behind ‘Sickies’
  • Five ways to monetise your business EV chargers
  • New book on conquering fear of public speaking
  • 1 in 3 employees anxious about lack of first aiders at work
  • What SMEs risk when their IT provider gets bought out
X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • News
  • Home
  • In Profile
  • Finance
  • Legal
  • Technology
  • Events
  • Features
  • Wellbeing
  • Marketing
  • HR & Recruitment
SME Today
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Events Calendar
  • Business Wall
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • 0843 289 4634
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • RSS
You are at:Home»Technology»5 questions to ask a prospective IT provider

5 questions to ask a prospective IT provider

0
Posted By sme-admin on April 15, 2024 News, Technology

For growing organisations, finding the right level of IT support can be something of a headache. Having to outsource help every time a laptop gets a virus or the server running your customer database makes strange noises can be time-consuming and unreliable, while committing to an in-house team may be an overstretch.

Rich Nelson, senior technical consultant at technology provider Probrand.
Rich Nelson, senior technical consultant at technology provider Probrand.

Managed IT support can be a happy medium – one that allows you to ramp up and down, safe in the knowledge that you can call on help whenever it’s needed. But how can you find the right fit? After all, finding the right partner can be the difference between a smooth, safe IT environment and hours of unexpected downtime. Here, Rich Nelson, technical architect at Probrand, outlines six questions to ask your prospective IT support partner.

1. What IT resources do you cover?

Get the support provider to specify exactly what they cover. Are printers and other peripheral devices included in the contract, for example? What about printers and storage devices attached directly to the network? How about software applications? Equally, make sure that they explain any limitations on service, so that both parties are clear. That way, no one will call the company to replace a laser printer cartridge only to be told that it isn’t part of the contract.

2. What levels of support do you offer and how much do they cost?

A provider might offer different levels of support based on different customer needs. This could include break-fix support where you pay for things on an hourly or fixed-cost basis, or managed support where a company watches your systems and carries out preventative maintenance to stop unplanned outages. Hourly break-fix support might work for companies with small numbers of relatively new machines and an educated workforce where downtime doesn’t matter that much, but in the long term, managed support will be the cheapest, most convenient option for many.

3. How do you anticipate problems?

If your prospective support company provides proactive, managed support, then how does that work? Do they provide remote monitoring services that watch for problems on your equipment? Do they send someone out to conduct preventative maintenance checks on your gear or use metrics like mean time between failure (MTBF) to estimate when equipment might need looking at?

4. What are your response times?

How quickly can the company respond to a problem? This doesn’t just mean acknowledging receipt of the ticket; it means getting back to you with a fix. Think about the different kinds of IT support interaction that you might need. These go beyond a simple support telephone call from an engineer, to encompass software fixes. Does the support provider offer remote access so that they can log into an affected machine and fix a software problem quickly?

Also consider how they deal with hardware failures. Some may only offer a break-fix option, taking equipment away and returning it repaired within a certain timeframe. Others offer a swap-out service, where they replace a device with a new one to minimise customer downtime. This is more common with managed service contracts that include some form of hardware leasing.

5. What is your process for logging and handling support tickets?

Ask what the support experience will be like. How do you log your tickets, and what happens after that? Like anything, this experience can vary. Some smaller companies might rely on phone-based problem reporting with manually managed tickets. Others offer more streamlined workflows, attaching a unique ID to each supported machine that the customer can enter as part of a problem ticket through a self-service portal. Look for a provider that has processes in place to follow up and ensure that a fix has worked, and that the problem hasn’t recurred. This should be a part of their standard process.

By getting clarity on these questions, you’ll be able to enter a partnership with more peace of mind. The more thorough this conversation is now, the more protected you’ll feel later. No one wants any nasty surprises when an emergency occurs, and the best IT support providers will work with you to help ensure that emergencies are a thing of the past.

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email

Related Posts

Dementia Advocate Shares Tips For Supporting People With Dementia When Flying

SME Today talks to Sa’ed Anabtawi, Product Director, WOLF

What SMEs risk when their IT provider gets bought out

Comments are closed.

Follow SME Today on Linkedin and share all the topics you find interesting

The Newsletter

Join our mailing list for the best SME stories, handpicked and delivered direct to your inbox every two weeks!

Sign Up
Personal Pension offer
Events Calendar
    • Marketing
    August 29, 2025

    OneMetric forms strategic partnership with RevOps expert to drive UK growth

    August 28, 2025

    The Seven Phases of Festive Shopping and How to Target within Each Effectively

    • Finance
    September 3, 2025

    Five ways to monetise your business EV chargers

    September 1, 2025

    Are you flying blind on your most important business decisions?

    • People
    August 14, 2025

    A Life Worth Saving – A Tribute to Dame Stephanie Shirley CH, 1933–2025

    August 12, 2025

    Finance Director Returns As Judge For National Business Awards

    • Health & Safety
    September 2, 2025

    1 in 3 employees anxious about lack of first aiders at work

    July 1, 2025

    Temperatures Soaring: Is Your Workplace Becoming Unsafe?

    • Events
    July 22, 2025

    South West Expo Delivers Outstanding Event at Swindon’s STEAM Museum

    July 4, 2025

    £20k grant for female-founded SME up for grabs

    • Community
    July 11, 2025

    Building community, one cause at a time

    June 23, 2025

    Celebrating One Year In Fairford Supporting The Community

    • Food & Drink
    August 22, 2025

    How to get stocked by major retailers as an SME

    July 18, 2025

    Warning to Small Businesses Over New Food Waste Regulations

    • Books
    September 3, 2025

    New book on conquering fear of public speaking

    August 7, 2025

    Learning to Leave a Legacy in Business

    About

    SME Today is published by the same team who deliver The Great British Expos’. We have been organising various corporate events for the last 10 years, with a strong track record of producing well managed and attended business events across the UK.

    Join Our Mailing List

    Receive the latest news and updates from SMEToday.
    Read our Latest Newsletter:


    Sign Up
    X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    Categories
    • Books
    • Community & Charity
    • Education and Training
    • Environment
    • Events
    • Features
    • Finance
    • Food and Drink
    • Health & Safety
    • HR & Recruitment
    • In Profile
    • Legal
    • Marketing
    • News
    • People
    • Property & Development
    • Sponsored Content
    • Technology
    • Transport & Tourism
    • Wellbeing & Mental Health
    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Editorial Submission Guidelines
    • Privacy
    • Contact
    Copyright © 2025 SME Today.
    • ABOUT SME TODAY: THE GO TO RESOURCE FOR UK BUSINESSES
    • Editorial Submission Guidelines
    • Privacy
    • Contact

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.