Opinion: Key questions could protect IT investments

In every industry, there are mediocre, good and great companies to provide services to help your business be more successful. The difference between the companies might be better products, services, location, value or a number of other things. Whether you are choosing a plumber, a doctor or an information technology services provider, it can be confusing and stressful.

Having been in the industry for over 15 years, I have seen all types of IT service companies. To help you evaluate and weed out the great from the mediocre, I have prepared questions below to ask or consider, during your evaluation.

Managed services capabilities
The first group of questions addresses the overall topic of services provided. So these questions will help you understand how the IT service provider delivers services and how mature the company is.

• What metrics are used to assessspeed, reliability and overall performance?

• What is your average uptime performance?

• Are there “good-better-best” tiers of features and capabilities?

• Do you offer on-site hours built into the regular contractual fee?

• Is there flexibility to add or subtract offerings on the fly, based on need?  

• Are you able to diagnose problems remotely and fix them?

• If customization to the service plan is required, how is that handled?  

• Do you use commercial software platforms to run your operation?  

Data protection and accountability
There is usually nothing more important in a typical business than its intellectual property, and usually that property is in the form of electronic information. These questions address the maturity and capabilities of the IT provider in protecting your data, as well as the backup, recovery and continuity of the company’s information.

• What methods are used to protect my data?

• Who owns my data if it is hosted at your facility?

• What happens to my data if you go out of business or merge?

• Are there any guarantees to protect my data against security breaches or data leaks?

• How is backup and disaster recovery for data handled?

Support
Now we get into the “how” of IT services. Since you will be dealing with the company to fix your issues on an ongoing basis, this section should be important to your ongoing sanity.

• How is support provided?

• Is emergency support available 24/7?  

• What can I expect from your customer help desk?  

• Do you offer on-site hours built into the regular contractual fee?

• Do you offer traditional break or fix support?  

• Is there a user forum or other self-serve repository of frequently asked questions?
 
• What type of training is provided?  

Managed services expertise
A company can have cool people and a great portfolio, but it also can be lacking expertise. These questions address the need to make sure you hire a team of people experienced and trained to handle all the issues that might arise and that they can handle them effectively.

• How does your team stay current with new technology developments and trends?  

• What percentage of your business is dedicated to managed services versus other types of business models?

• How many years have you been providing managed services?  

• What team members will be working on my project, and will this change over time?  

• What relevant industry credentials or certifications, if any, does your team have?

• If I am required to provide an audit trail to demonstrate compliance, how will this be handled?

• Do you have any customers that are in a similar line of business as mine?
 
• Can you provide customer references?

Costs and contracts
A technology services provider can make or break you. Your decision in choosing one should be based on value. This section deals with the costs associated with the company and the ultimate financial value you will be getting from them.

• What is the fee structure?  

• Do you conduct an upfront network assessment before quoting a fee for the contract?

• Do you use the same service level agreement for all customers or can we negotiate or collaborate its terms individually?   

• Is there a cap on how much rates can increase?  

• What happens if I want to terminate my contract?  

• How do I get my data back?

• Do you have any case studies to help me understand your cost benefits?

• Do you have any comparisons showing the cost of on-premise versus cloud solutions over time?  

• Will I need to purchase any additional infrastructure, software, etc.?

So start asking, and good luck.

Todd Nielsen is chief strategy officer for JMark Business Solutions Inc. He can be reached at tnielsen@Jmark.com.