Your IT Needs Are Changing. Is Your IT Company Keeping Up?

Your IT Needs Are Changing. Is Your IT Company Keeping Up?

As a business owner or IT manager, you ensure your technology is available and operational at all times. You expect your IT support company to be as proactive in helping you achieve this. But what happens when your network constantly crashes, your email goes down, or worse, your systems got hacked?

The first thing that comes to your mind, “I thought the IT team had this under control!”

Regardless of the scope of your organization, IT is a fundamental part of your day-to-day processes and transactions. A failed IT is no different than a failed enterprise. Dealing with an IT service provider that does not adequately address your support needs, limits your efficiency and ability to scale.

Is Your IT Support Firm Meeting Your Needs?

After three weekly downtimes for the last couple of months, you are probably wondering why you hired this firm. Of course, you know the reason; they were offering the best prices you could find at the time but were they fully qualified was never discussed.

In the first few months, they were not bad, would you agree? Then something changed. It seemed like some IT issues were not getting addressed. The question I would ask, did you consider scalability and the IT support firm’s ability to grow with your business? If not, that’s where the first mistake was made.

Not explaining what you expected from the IT supplier as your business grows, and your IT needs change is vital. Unfortunately, now you’re stuck with a service provider that applies outdated methods to address a totally different set of IT needs. The result is a dysfunctional network and you’re a dissatisfied customer.

What Are The Warning Signs It’s Time To Switch IT Companies?

Even before delving into other reasons; if you no longer trust your current IT service provider, it’s time to find an alternative. IT management partnerships are based on trust. You trust your IT service provider with your systems; they have access to everything in your networks. It is their duty to uphold this trust and act in a manner as devout, and honest as possible.

Are you suspecting the support company is occasionally orchestrating downtime to charge you extra for maintenance? Or you cannot explain how your competitors were able to access some very sensitive company information. Could it be that someone from the support company leaked it to them? In this, there are no two ways, it’s either you trust each other, or the agreement needs to be terminated to protect your organization.

Aside from a gut feeling, here are equally crucial pointers that should trigger red flags for you that you need a new IT supplier:

• Baffling Hikes in Service Bills: When you continuously get notifications of unexplained increments in your IT service costs, you are probably dealing with a nickel and dime operation. It is the responsibility of any reputable IT support company to help you save on cost while maximizing business value. Most of the time, it’s a systemic issue, service providers with the culture of extortion will always be profit-oriented — with nothing substantial to support the hikes.
• You Are Doing Most of the Work: When was the last time your IT supplier sent a specialist to come and assess your systems on-site? When you call for help, do they make an effort to fix the problem from their end, or just guide you through lengthy procedures over the phone. If you are simply being helped to carry out most of the tasks by yourself, you do not have an IT support partner — you have an IT consultancy firm. The right IT company should make you feel like they want to be fully engaged with your business, as well as understand, and identify with your goals.
• The Service Provider Only Fixes Problems: The primary responsibility of outsourced IT support is not to repair your computers or solve breaches, but to come up with ways to prevent or limit such mishaps. A break-fix service provider is very risky. The next successful cyber attack may just be too sophisticated for them to solve, or cause your business to close permanently.
• Breach of Contract: Did you hire an IT company to provide specific solutions but it turns out they are not able to supply? There are many unskilled service providers popping up daily and has become a widespread phenomenon. You should do a thorough background check before contracting any IT support company.
• Miscommunication: Before signing the contract, personnel from the IT supplier were easy to reach for clarifications even during odd times. But now they are not available during regular working hours. Your staff and employees are struggling with the intricacies of navigating the systems set up by the service provider, with barely any help. The chances are your IT supplier is avoiding your calls to escape being accountable to you for their lack of training and experience.

With proof in hand, you are convinced that you need to switch IT companies, but you don’t know where to begin or who to call. Don’t worry; we will guide you step-by-step through the entire process.

How Can You Successfully Switch IT Companies?

Will it be time-consuming? What if I lose essential data during the migration? How about protracted downtime amidst the transition? These questions are common among executives thinking of switching IT companies.

The process of changing IT providers is tedious and can be devastating if due diligence is not observed. Here is a number of steps to follow for a successful transition:

• The first step is to find an established IT support company to replace the current one.
• The firm should substantiate history in successfully facilitating transitions in the past. (It is not advisable to disengage the services of your current supplier until the new one is in place.)
• Ask your current partner to grant you full administrative access to every section of your networks.
• The new supplier should then proceed to carry out a thorough review of your systems.
• Once everything is ready, inform the current supplier of the intention to switch.
• Create new logins credentials once you have switched over to the new provider.

During the entire transition process, keep your staff fully informed and updated on any and all new developments.

Need help switching to the best IT company across New England and Rhode Island? Contact Technology Advisory Group now, call (401) 228-6400.