How to Choose a Great IT Provider

Being in the industry for over a decade, Contango has supported many businesses on their way to success. We provide end-to-end service from consulting services to supporting your employees. One thing we notice whenever we reach out to business owners is that there’s always some type of confusion on how to choose a great IT provider. 

Managing a business and having to worry about your company’s IT needs can be a grueling task to manage at the same time. This is why you need to start looking into partnering with an IT provider. However, there are a lot of IT service providers in the market claiming that they are what you’re looking for, but what are the criteria you need to look for when picking a provider for your business?

Here are our Top 7 Things to Consider When Deciding on an IT provider:

1. Experience
   How long have they been in business? What is their expertise? Are they knowledgeable in your line of business? Have they worked with other reputable businesses before? Do they cater to businesses the size of your company?
   
   These are some of the first few questions you want to consider when looking for your IT provider. You want a company that has an excellent track record in providing its services to reputable companies. That way you know they are legit and that they know to walk the talk. It will also help you identify if they have enough proven experience in resolving issues that are particular to your industry.
   
   There are significant differences between managing a 20-workstation setup to a 200-workstation setup. So is supporting employees of said workstations, they will have different needs and requirements too. You want to make sure that your chosen IT provider can take care of that for you, and will be able to continue supporting you as your business grows.

2. Budget
   What are their pricing options? How much are you willing to pay for an IT provider? Do they have a plan that is both within your budget and meet your business needs? How do their pricing plans compare to other companies offering the same features? 
   
   The second most important thing to decide on is your budget. When it comes to IT providers, there are always different pricing options. Others pay by the hour while others are on a month-to-month subscription basis.
   
   Oftentimes these price plans have different features, so it’s best to get an idea of which ones your business needs. From there you can pick a plan that suits your budget while still getting all the features that you need. 

3. Support
   What types of servers and operating systems do they use? Do they support the current infrastructure that your business uses? Are they knowledgeable about the technologies that your business has? 
   
   These things are crucial as each company has its own set of various technologies they use. Their workstation setup can be starkly different from each other too. When picking your IT provider, you want to make sure that they are familiar with what you have and they have actual experience with setting it up and supporting it. Make sure that they are experts in supporting the software or applications that are critical in running your business. Another thing you can look out for is if they have partnerships or certifications from established manufacturers and software vendors.

4. Reliability
   What is their SLA? Is their support available 24/7? What is their support framework? Do they have backup plans in case of outages or peak season when there’s a high influx of tickets?
   
   There’s no use paying for an IT provider if they will not be able to provide you with the support you need when you need it. Time is of the essence! A service that’s not working is money that your business is losing. Therefore, you need to ask for numbers. Anybody can claim that they are the “fastest” IT provider in the market so you want to make sure they can prove it with numbers and/or feedback from their existing clients.
   
   Another characteristic of a great provider is that they take ownership of their actions. They know what their role is and have a full understanding of your expectations of them. They are responsible, which means you can rely on them to always be on top of any possible issues that may occur. This involves having backup plans, including a large team that allows for backup manpower in case of emergencies like outages.

5. Location
   Make it a priority to choose a local IT provider whenever possible. It will make onsite support a lot more convenient whenever you need it. This will also make for faster response times if in case you do need somebody onsite to fix an issue for you. If the IT support company you found isn’t in your area, they will have to hire a third-party vendor to help with issues that require onsite technical support. This means you will have to wait for their availability and might cost more than if it was included with your IT provider.

6. Data-driven
   Do they base their decision-making strategies on actual data? Do they use collected data to improve their services as well as the customer experience?
   
   You want an IT service provider that doesn’t base their actions out of thin air but instead makes realistic decisions from reliable data. These are collected through tickets, client feedback, and other data collection strategies. From there, data is analyzed and is then turned into reports, solutions, and strategies used to better the service they provide. This shows that they are continuously improving their level of support and making it more efficient. 

7. Proactive
   You want an IT service provider that’s always one step ahead of you. Growing your business? They got you. They know what you will need when you need it. They can support you throughout the whole process and can help implement the changes and improvements too. 
   
   Do you need to make changes to your service structure? Nothing to worry about, they’ve already planned it for you. Timeframe and everything. This is where combined experience and data come in handy.

All things considered, a good place to start is to focus on your company and what it needs. Everything else follows, ask as many questions as possible during their pitch, it shows how prepared they are and how invested they are in being a part of your success.

Here at Contango, we stand true to our name and core values. We aim for constant improvement and as a result, we are always one step ahead of our competitors, we are pioneers in cloud computing in 2008, we remain data-driven, and are still consistently proactive over a decade later. There are over 50 people on our team that are experts in cybersecurity and compliance. Thus we provide reliable, proactive, and efficient support while still meeting our clients’ IT budget.

We understand how important it is that we are the right IT provider for your business and prove it with numbers. We will evaluate your needs and have a sit-down talk with you to understand what you’re looking for, as well as your budget, and go from there. We stand by our core values to give the best customer experience and make sure that your company grows with us.