Finding the right partner can be very challenging. Our MSP Partner Checklist can help steer you in the right direction.
IT is an often misunderstood and sometimes scary topic for business owners and executives. You know what you want from your information technology, but have absolutely no idea what is involved to get you there. The responsibility to deliver the desired end results falls on either internal IT staff or through collaboration with a IT Managed Services Provider (MSP). The challenge becomes finding IT talent with the expertise to implement appropriate technology (how are you going to find that if you don't understand the underlying technology) or finding a IT Managed Services provider that can meet your needs.
The first question is "when do you know you should engage a IT Managed Services partner?"
Here are a few ideas on how a Managed IT Services Provider may be of value:
- Focus: Organizations that want to focus on their business and not IT are the best candidates for IT Managed Services. Whether they have a complex, single-location network or a decentralized network of remote offices that strains the existing IT resources, IT Managed Services can allow organizations to relieve the strain that IT can place on internal resources.
- Time: Rarely will you hear an IT professional that says they have plenty of time to get their work done. You hired them for a specific purpose and, many times, the small problems and distractions that disrupt productivity among your users keep them from performing the work that you hired them to do.
- Expertise: A growing company faces a number of challenges, including a growing IT infrastructure. Many times the existing IT support staff do not have the skills to keep up with the deployment and management of new technology required for the growth of the company. A IT Managed Services Provider can bring resources with a wide variety of expertise to supplement existing IT personnel.
- Strategy: An MSP can reduce overhead and operational cost which opens the door to investing in new, cutting edge technology that moves your business forward.
Okay, so now you've decided that you need to engage a IT Managed Services Provider to either upgrade your existing provider or supplement your existing IT staff ... now what? Finding the right IT Managed Services Provider can be very challenging. The following sample of our MSP Partner Checklist can help steer you in the right direction:
- Does the MSP have experience is designing the innovative solutions? You should be looking for a track record of success, the metrics utilized to track their service delivery, and the length of time they have been in business.
- What certifications does the potential partner hold? You should be looking for a partner that has established relationships with vendors and the associated certifications. These programs provide partners with preferred access to support resources. In addition, you should look at the certifications of the partner's technical team. A partner that is serious about technical excellence will have a growth plan for their engineers.
- Does the MSP understand your unique business requirements? Many MSPs are a group of gear-heads who understand technology, but not how technology impacts the business. Look for a partner that is able to have a business discussion with you and understand where you are, where you want to be, and the budgetary restrictions that exist. If you can't get past the geek-speak, it's not going to be a good partnership.
- How does the MSP communicate with you? Most MSPs consist of a group of engineers, but no project managers or operational support team. Look for MSPs that have a dedicated, non-technical support team. This should be the group that can understand your needs and engage the appropriate technical resources to address those needs.
If you are interested in partnering with a proven IT Managed Services Provider, we'd like to meet with you and begin by having a conversation about your company and business goals. Let's visit!