Reasons for changing IT support provider
You know that you need IT support. You know that IT problems can have a big impact on your business, but it doesn’t make sense for you to employ your own IT team just yet. If you’re reading this you are almost certainly considering changing your IT support provider. Let’s look at some of the reasons for doing this…
IT problems
The role of an IT support provider 15 years ago was to fix IT issues. Now they should be preventing them. If you are still experiencing regular IT issues, they are not doing what you are paying them for and it’s time to switch.
Stats suggest the average person loses 17 minutes per day to IT issues. The median London salary is £34,473. 17 minutes equates to only £5.36 per day, but it adds up to £1,200 per year per person. What does 17 minutes per person per day add up to for your business?
Cost Management
Gone are the days of per hour billing for IT support. Most IT support companies charge a per person, per unit or retainer figure these days. The proactive, preventative nature of IT support today means it is in our interest to not have to talk to you, at least about IT issues. If your IT support company still invoices you a different figure every month and you spend time working out what they are billing for, it is time to change IT support provider.
IT security
This is, by far, the biggest issue facing your business today. Your current IT support provider should be talking to you to ensure you have the right levels of IT security. For example, have they discussed:
- Multi-Factor Authentication – have they discussed with you how this can significantly improve the security of your network and devices?
- Impersonation and Phishing – have they discussed how much of this happens, as hackers try to get to your data?
- Ransomware – if you’re data is locked so you cannot use it, what will happen to your business? What are your options, apart from paying out Bitcoin to the perpetrators?
- Backup options – is your data backed up? Just because you’re in The Cloud doesn’t mean your data is backed up. Microsoft never backs up Office 365. Have they told you that?
These are just a few of the IT security issues facing your business today. If your current provider hasn’t discussed them with you, it’s time to change IT support provider.
Responsiveness
There will always be issues that crop up. Coming back from the Christmas break and not remembering your password (assuming no MFA at this point) is a classic. You need your password reset and it needs to be done quickly or you are losing money. If your current provider doesn’t get back to you for a few hours (still within their SLA, of course) on a regular basis, it’s time to consider a change.
Improving Productivity
Your technology should be an enabler for your business. With tech changing regularly, your current provider should be advising you on what is changing and how it can help you improve productivity. Let’s consider a few examples and you can let us know whether your provider has discussed any of these with you…
- Windows 7 – let’s hope this one has been discussed, as it is both a security issue and a productivity one. Windows 7 support from Microsoft stops on January 14th Not only does this mean your PCs and laptops will be increasingly vulnerable to hackers and other IT security issues, it means you are still running inadequate devices and your productivity is far lower than it could be.
- Office 365 – imagine if your staff could work from anywhere on, pretty much, any device they wanted to. No need to fight the trains in the snow or during the next set of strike action. They can work from client sites, from home or anywhere they want to, as long as they have an internet connection.
- Microsoft Teams – enabling you to work better, share documents easily and communicate instantly wherever you and your team are. Conference calls remove the need to travel too.
Again, just a small number of ways that you could improve productivity within your business. Has your current IT support provider discussed these with you? It may seem like they are simply trying to sell you more “stuff”, whereas these are really ways for you to save money. You may have to buy some monthly licenses or subscriptions but the productivity improvements more than pay for the additional costs.
Language
One last reason, but one that you will recognise and one that probably drives you mad. Do they talk English to you or do they talk Tech? Are the support and account management conversations about the issues you face and the problems you want to resolve, or are they about terabytes and RAID configurations, WANs and DNS issues? If they talk and you glaze over, nodding politely, that’s never going to be a good thing.
An IT support provider worth its salt will talk to you in your language and look to address your concerns. Time to change?
Click here to talk more about changing your IT Support Provider
We’ve given you six aspects of your IT support to consider how your current IT support provider performs. Are they performing to your satisfaction in all of them? If not, it’s time to think about changing IT support provider….. Give us a call on 020 7227 9700 and let’s talk about you.
