Can You Properly Evaluate Managed Services Providers?

Vendors are a vital part of every business regardless of what products or services they offer. Aside from the commonplace, like cleaning or coffee and food services, what vendor does every business need? Information Technology.

Whatever you use for your IT services, even if it’s your nephew Timmy, IT is at least as important as any other vendor – if not more so. Your IT provider keeps your office and business moving forward. A failure on the part of your Managed Services Provider (MSP) can result in a work stoppage, missed deadlines and potentially lost clientele.

Short of a basic business license, people don’t need any other licenses to open an IT company. There are certifications of expertise that can be shown, but they are not necessary to set up an IT shop. Information Technology is an unregulated industry, so anyone can ‘hang out a shingle’ claiming mastery of the IT universe, but we at ITFIRM.COM have come to the rescue of far too many of these slapdash ‘IT guys’ to take that seriously.

What makes a good MSP?

We can attest to the fact that the number of ‘technicians’ who apply for employment with us, know next to nothing. It is truly staggering.

Do you know how to sort through the chaff to get to the wheat? You have to dig through a lot of dirt to get to the diamonds.

When interviewing for an MSP, the first step is to pay attention: Watch and listen.

If you get a long-winded, one-sided ‘tell-sell,’ be on your guard. The Best MSPs will certainly talk about their capabilities, but they will concentrate on you and your business. If the IT candidate is pushing Plan A, B or C on you, based only on the number of users, they are more than likely hacks. Any MSP that treats your needs as fitting into one of their programs does not have your best interests in mind.

Here are qualities of a Top-Notch good Managed Services Provider:

They Listen to You

They want to hear about your business, your goals and how work flows through your workplace.
A litigation attorney is geared toward the steps between the initial client consultation and the entering the courtroom with a winning case.
A manufacturer is geared toward the steps between an initial order and transporting the final product.

On a fundamental basis, businesses are similar, but they all have one commonality: computers need to work. The best MSPs want to understand your workflow, any frustrations you have, and how that current model will support the company processes as the business grows.

MSP’s Ask Intelligent Questions, such as:

Where are your workflow ‘logjams’?

What currently happens when your staff experiences network downtime?

How do you go about creating and handling increased production?

What ‘new ground’ are you planning to break in terms of their products or services?
How would you like to improve customer service?

Depending on your responses, new questions will follow - and they are listening.
The Best MSPs create a custom plan just for you based on what they’ve learned about you.

Proactivity

This is a word everybody bandies about, but don’t actually do it. Proactivity goes well beyond merely exhibiting core competencies: the proper experience, skills, and certifications necessary to do the job. THOSE attributes had better be a given, but they are just a starting point.

Dig deeper. Do not just listen to a canned and rehearsed presentation. Ask about the availability of both onsite and Help Desk remote staff with specific skill sets that are pertinent to your business. Have them explain their Proactive versus Reactive methods of support.

Have the MSP describe their written internal policies and procedures and their mandate as to ‘Best Practices’. If these items are not in writing, you’re not talking to a decent MSP.

The best MSPs will have these in writing and will not be shy or hesitant about sharing them with you.
If the ‘IT services Guy’ sitting across from you looks bewildered and falls into basic selling ‘talking points’, like “We promise a one hour turnaround time”, then you are talking to the wrong guy. Get a Pro in there.

Great MSPs are a world away from the ‘Break/Fix’ (B/F) IT guys who overpopulate the industry. B/F doesn’t work for you, and if they were truly proactive, these IT guys would know it doesn’t work for them, either.

The best MSPs will earn your attention by sharing the consistent vision they implement every day: The same forward-looking practices that keep you up and running; that solve an issue the first time; that prevents foreseeable issues within your network; that keeps their hours on your network to a minimum. This mindset allows the MSP to save money, and this allows you to save money.

Consistency
If any IT support entity cannot immediately spell out and show you their Best Practices and procedures, there’s no way you can comfortably expect consistency from them. Consistency of quality is based on having a set of rules they live by, which are ingrained and come as ‘second nature’ to the entire staff. A Top-Notch MSP never ‘wings it.’

The are Your Virtual CIO

The best MSPs should be acting as your virtual Chief Information Officer. Proactiveness goes well beyond knowing the storage capacity in your server or the dates when hardware and software will become obsolete, it’s about how to recognize, test, and implement new technologies which can improve every aspect of your company, just those areas dealing with IT.

It’s crucial to think of your Managed IT services firm as always being on hand, as if they’re just down the hall from your office. You need to have both repair/maintenance-based communication, but casual as well. If you see an emerging technology on the news that looks like it could help your company, you need an easy conduit to toss the idea around with your virtual CIO.

There is no such thing as going ‘above and beyond’ for the Best MSPs – it’s all part of being your technology partner.

The services an MSP must offer (At a Bare Minimum):

All of these need to be included in a fixed price per month, the MSP:

Unlimited Help Desk

Unlimited on site for troubleshooting and repair

Network & Server Optimization

IT Budgeting & Road Map

Cybersecurity Strategy based on current equipment and any necessary upgrades

Vendor Management

Proactive monitoring

Reporting

The above items need to be precisely spelled out in a Master Service Agreement (MSA).

What is ‘Vendor Management’?

Vendor management is what it sounds like. No matter who the vendor is – Internet, VoIP phones, printers, or the specific software programs your company uses, they all fall under the Big Tent of Electronic Communications, and we, the MSP, are the Ringmaster We take over, getting to the root of the issue. You no longer have to juggle vendors when a technology issue appears.

We manage all of your vendors under our umbrella when necessary to keep the network humming along. The internet’s out? WE make the calls and keep you informed. No more staff members caught in the middle, juggling phones, not knowing what to do next. We speak your vendors’ lingo, and we will sort issues out much faster.

No matter what technologies you use in your business; the MSP must manage your entire multi-vendor and multi-device environment. The Top MSPs will never tell you “That’s not our problem. You have to call them.” WE will call them.

It is imperative to ask a prospective MSP if they are truly ‘vendor neutral.’ The best MSPs have many relationships with their own ‘behind the scenes’ technology vendors but will forgo any of these pre-existing relationships to bring you only the technologies that will provide the best results for your company.

ITFIRM.COM partners with both Microsoft and Google, so if you’re trying to figure out if Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace suits your business better, we have both ponies in that race, and the best one will win - based on your needs.

Not a ‘hired gun’ – a Technology Partner

To make this partnership truly work, it takes two to dance this Technology Tango.

One you choose an MSP that you trust, have faith in their abilities, work practices and advice. This trust builds over time. As they say, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” If you are considering closing a deal with an MSP that you have a single reservation about, your work is not done.

Your chosen MSP must be upfront, open, and honest, with every fact at their fingertips: from their ‘Company Culture’ to their Policies, Procedures and ‘Best Practices.’ They need to know where you are taking your company and be enthusiastic about being an integral component in helping you achieve your goals - now, and in the future.