The story is common among small businesses: You’re growing and have increased need for IT help. Maybe you’ve worked with a managed IT provider, but soon after the partnership started, you realize that expectations are not in line on both sides – the provider doesn’t respond quickly, and you don’t have enough time to get them all the information they’re asking for. It ended up with you managing a managed IT provider – who’s not even providing the IT services you thought you were getting.
This is when you know it’s time to find the right IT provider.
The unique challenge to finding managed IT services in Austin, TX, is that there are so many options in the area. With private equity money buying up so many IT providers and the cost to get into the industry is very low. The classic story is they worked at IBM and now they are in IT. Narrowing your initial search down to a couple and figuring out the difference in pricing and services can be challenging. Austin’s technology community is growing so fast, though, that some businesses are giving up on finding an IT partner and resort to managing their own technology if they want to continue serving their customers. This can be downright dangerous when you consider all the risks you’re taking when you “go it alone,” including compromised data, faulty hardware, cyber attacks and dozens of other scenarios that could be very costly to your organization.
Another risk is that of your reputation. We all know a major company that has been hacked and they lost credibility and clients. If you’re not serving customers well because your technology is not optimal, you could disappoint (or outright fail) your customers…who will gladly jump on review sites and tell their peers.
Keeping your processes and technologies up-to-date and secure is imperative for your continued success. And the best way to do that is by leveraging with commitment, experience and expertise of a reliable managed IT provider. But not just any provider will do. Ask these two questions of prospective partners to help you identify the right partner for your organization:
- Do you have experience with my particular business type or industry? If the provider is familiar with how you run your business and the needs you (and your customers) have, they’ll be much more likely to have a quick solution to the challenges you face, and the answer will come more quickly than a provider that has to “figure it out.”
- How many people do you have on staff? The more techs a provider has on its team, the more responsive they’re able to be – no waiting days for a fix that would take a larger team just hours (or less) to resolve.
- How do you stay on top of trends, updates and standards? It’s absolutely critical that the team you engage with his concrete processes in place to ensure that everyone on the team has leading-edge knowledge that helps ensure that clients’ systems, hardware and processes are optimized at all times.
These are exciting times to be running a small business in Austin – but the strides you’re making could quickly erode if any part of your IT system fails you. Give your entire team confidence in the company’s ability to satisfy customers, bring new customers in, and grow the company by partnering with an IT provider that has your best interests in mind. Follow the simple guidelines above to make the selection of the right partner simple.