What Should You Expect from Your IT Services Provider?

Managed IT Service Provider

When technology isn’t working, your people aren’t working. Technology downtime reduces productivity and ultimately affects your business and your clients. So what do you do?

It starts with the right IT partner, whether that is a combination of internal and external support or a fully outsourced set of resources.

Finding the right support means knowing what you need – and what you should expect – from an IT partner. What is your reasonable response time? How much and what type of experience is do you require? How does the right partner work with your team to ensure that you minimize downtime and risk, with maximum cost-effectiveness?

Here are five things you should expect from your IT partner.

1. Rapid Response & Resolution Time

Four hours, while often an industry standard response time promised by many IT companies,

is too long. No business can afford to lose a half day of productivity every time there’s an IT issue.

IT issues should be diagnosed within 15 minutes so they can be quickly resolved or triaged.  Most IT issues should be resolved within an hour from the initial diagnosis unless an outside technology vendor is involved (especially internet and phone system providers).

2. 360 IT Management

Look for an IT partner who is willing and able to manage all of your technology, including but not limited to managing your software vendor-related problems, saving you time. This will allow you to focus on your business and minimize the amount of wasted time dealing with all those various IT vendors.

At Go Technology, we specialize in getting technology vendors to deliver what they promise. No matter what their track record of responsiveness has been, we will get the answers – and the service – you deserve. In other words, we cut through the technical jargon and get results.

3. Data Ownership

Reliable IT support should not conflict with the ownership of your data. The data belongs to you and a trustworthy IT partner will respect and manage that data accordingly. Otherwise, they’re not working in your best interest.

If your IT company – or anyone else – has hijacked your data, we have options for getting it back.

Tip: if you don’t have it today, ask your IT partner to provide you with all of your critical administrative system and software passwords.

4. Ransomware Protection

Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of “if” but “when” your data will be hijacked and held for ransom. Many businesses have had to pay $100,000+ to get their data back.

With the right combination of online offline backups, and various security measures, we can safeguard your data cost-effectively, with a system that takes your risk tolerance into account.

5. Get Off That Old Phone System

Analog phone systems and even digital PBXs are costly, offer poor quality and put undue constraints on how your team communicates with the world – especially in the days of COVID-19 when many are working remotely.

With voice over IP (VOIP), you’ll benefit from added functionality and higher voice quality for a fraction of what you’re paying today.

White Glove Service

Technology is there to let you get more done and keep your focus on what you do best. But while many large “IT partners” make big promises and charge big fees to deliver on them, the actual service falls far below.

You deserve white glove service for what you’re paying, and you may even be paying too much, especially if your technology is old and costly. We’ll handle it all – including warranties, renewals and unresponsive technology vendors – and protect your data against ransomware and hacking. Then we’ll make sure your phone system functions exactly as you need it to. You’ll not only work better, you’ll feel better, which is why our services are sometimes described as “IT Therapy.”

If your business could use some IT Therapy, let’s meet to discuss your current technology problems and what the opportunity will look like when they are gone.

Contact us to learn more about our managed IT services