How to select an #IT service provider that fits your organization

Whether you’re switching Managed #IT Services providers, moving up from a solo consultant or hiring an IT services firm for the first time, there are some common attributes and deliverables that you should be looking for in your IT support outfit. Instead of talking at a prospective client about all the services and value we provide, touting how great we are (definitely been guilty of that on occasion :), I have often taken a different tact and right off the bat asked the prospective client “if you had a blank canvas and could create the ideal #ITservices company for you, what would that look like?” I’m surprised how often the answer is not very concrete. Of course, things like price and technical abilities are sighted, but it usually does not go too far beyond that. Often clients will list specific #HW and #SW they use and want to make sure the company can handle their specific #technology stack, but this is just the starting point as most companies have pretty good #technical skills and that’s just the low hanging fruit, anyone can be trained on technology. The harder more elusive and much more important pieces to the health of an ongoing relationship are the following:

Based on the recent round of client surveys, here is what our clients were suffering from and seem to greatly appreciate/find important today:

1. Before Phoenix 2.0, we had inconsistent service, lack of understanding of our #industry needs and a revolving door of #techsupport
2. The Phoenix 2.0 team is responsive, consultative on strategy, always ready to come onsite and provide in person support which is great
3. The staff are notably respectful, kind, and unassuming in comparison to other companies 
4. When a task gets done, we have the confidence that it is done right
5. They’re very capable of both hands on work and #systems consulting
6. The whole team gets along well with our staff and we feel like they have our best interests at heart
7. “Words that come to mind when thinking of @Phoenix 2.0 are: responsive, caring, easy to work with, knowledgeable, patient, willing to go the extra mile, a stable team with longevity and flexible, consistent, knowledgeable resources who proactively solve problems”

The above consistently shows up in various forms, but the essence of the message is always the same. Here are the key takeaway:

1. The team has to be well versed in a variety of technologies, i.e. technically flexible, so beware of any strong biases on the firm’s part for or against any common vendors or platforms. A solid firm should be able to comfortably support various operating systems, #servers, #cloud platforms, devices and common lines of #business #software. 
2. What is the #culture of the firm? How are their soft skills? Most IT folks can present well for a limited time, but often the quirkiness and things like technical condescension set in not long after. What is the personality archetype they look for when hiring their techs? e.g. do they do #DISC assessments or some other evaluations? 
3. Some firms have #corevalues listed right on their website, but how are these applied in concrete real-life examples, i.e. how do they solve problems or disagreements that may arise over time when working closely with you? Some job interview type questions, such as “how did you handle your last billing dispute?” or “what if we fell on hard times and needed to cut our services back, how would you handle that?” or “what if several of our users were complaining about one of your techs?” could be useful. 
4. What is the longevity of their team? Beware of the revolving door of tech support staff. 
5. What is the health and maturity of their business? Do they do background checks on their employees? What kind and how much insurance do they carry? 
6. Are they happy to come onsite or do they have a strong preference for doing everything remotely? Conversely in the age of #COVID19, are they willing to make home office visits and support your users in their home the way they did in a corporate office setting? 
7. How will you both know that the relationship is successful? Are there regular IT review meetings during which you can review milestones agreed upon during on-boarding and objectively track progress to those goals using real #data? 
8. Is the pricing structure and contract terms and conditions transparent, easily understood and account for flexibility in the event your needs change?
9. Are they willing to invest the time to do the appropriate amount of due diligence and discovery on your environment to provide an accurate proposal? 

If you would like our help in getting a second opinion on your existing firm or help vetting a prospective vendor, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are always willing to help folks in our network, especially those that were referred by a trusted partner or colleague. 

“In the last nine years, I’ve worked with Alex at two different IT Support Managed Service Provider Companies. He’s a great guy and has proved to be an amazing resource. Contrary to my experience with other #MSPs that ultimately proved disappointing, Alex doesn’t just try to get your business, he tries to find out if your business is a good match for the services he represents. If so, he provides a very clear and detailed description of the services offered and their costs; If not, at least in my case, he recommended a competitor that he thought would be a better match for my company’s needs. His recommendation proved spot-on—a near perfect match. If you’re in the market for IT Support Managed Services, talk to Alex. He’s not out to make the sale, he’s out to establish lasting and productive business relationships, which if you work in IT, you know are invaluable.”

Lee Warren, IT Manager at MSA architecture + design

November 26, 2019, Lee worked with Alex but at different companies