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Many business organizations are using Managed IT services for their operations than ever because of their ease of use and cost benefits.ÃÂ And if you are also considering hiring a service to manage the IT needs of your business, you will first need to ensure that you only pick the best service provider. Below, we discuss the six things you must watch out for when choosing a managed IT service.
Only Choose Necessary Services
Most managed IT services will try to sign you up for as many of their services as possible. So, if you are looking for a data storage service, then the IT firm will try to get you on board for not only data storage but for other services like network monitoring, systems management and so on. Signing up for all such additional services may be useless for your business and will also be very costly. So, be very clear on what service your business requires and ensure that you only hire the IT firm to provide that specific service.
Experience And Client Base
Like any other service, the track record is an important factor that will determine whether to hire a particular managed IT service or not. As a rule of thumb, you should ensure that the service you are interested in has been operating in this sector for several years, preferably having experience in your industry. In addition, they should also have a large enough client base who are satisfied with their service and have been using them for many years. If you have to choose between an experienced managed IT services like voxns.com and an inexperienced company, it is better to hire the experienced service.
Backup And Recovery
You must also make sure that the managed IT service provider does offer backup and recovery of your data. Sometimes, the service company may be hit by any natural disaster like floods, earthquake, and so on. In such situation, will your data be destroyed or does the service always have a backup of your data saved on other servers situated in some other region or country? This is an important question that the service provider must answer. If they canââ¬â¢t provide any backup of your data, then you will be better off looking for other IT services.
24 X 7 Service
The managed IT service must be able to meet all your demands 24 X 7. If they have any restricted times during which you can contact them, then that should definitely be considered as a deal breaker. Imagine that you received a sudden business meeting invitation of a prospective client at 1 AM in the night. And when you reach for the meeting, you see that you are unable to access the files stored on the server. That would obviously be irritating. But even more irritating would be when the service providerââ¬â¢s support staff is unavailable because of the current time not being ââ¬Ëregular business hoursââ¬â¢. You might essentially lose a precious client in such situations. This is why it is necessary to ensure that the IT service provider always has support staff ready to solve all your difficulties 24 X 7.
Test Run
You should always request a test run of the service from the managed IT service provider. Ideally, two weeks should be enough for you to gauge whether the service quality is top-notch or not. Service providers who are confident of their quality and standards will happily oblige and provide you a limited test run of their services. As such, if any IT company seems reluctant to offer you a test run, then you should stay away from them. Only enter into long-term contracts with managed It services after you are completely satisfied with their performance.
Payment Method
You should also look at the payment options offered by the managed IT services. Typically, such services will have three payment options â⬒ pay per user, pay per device, and alert & monitoring. In a pay per user agreement, all userââ¬â¢s devices are supported by the service. In a pay per device option, the service will charge the bill depending on the number of devices it supports and manages. In alert & monitoring option, the service will signal an authority in your business when there is something wrong with the It infrastructure of your business. The service will not be solving the issues as per the agreement, but only alerting you. So, check each payment methods and select the one which is most affordable and still covers all your requirements.
