It’s difficult to find the best IT support service, especially when you have so many competitors bidding on your contract IT Support. Many IT support companies now offer 10 for 1 service, making it more difficult to select the right company. Here are a couple of tips which may prove useful.
To begin with, you should spend some time doing research on companies located in YOUR region. This is very important if your company will need to provide regular support onsite. You can choose from thousands of IT service providers if on-site support is not a priority. Any company that’s worth its salt should be able provide complete remote and phone support. Although I’d still choose a local company if someone else in your business is familiar with IT hardware, should something go wrong.
Many companies offer remote-only support. They charge a fee per call. I recommend avoiding this and using it only in an emergency. Imagine you were based in London. Then you would be spoilt with choice. You can choose between literally hundreds. There should be no catch to unlimited on-site or remote technical support. They should help you regardless of the issue. This includes problems with Microsoft programs and even hardware. There may be some exceptions to this rule, for example 3rd Party software that’s supported by the manufacturer.
Make a decision about whether or not you would like adhoc support. Don’t get trapped in a contract that is too long. If you find yourself needing help every day or have frequent problems then I recommend a fulltime service. The best way to go is with rolling contracts, so that you can cancel the service if necessary. Ad-hoc service contracts can be more affordable if only you need help occasionally. They will cost more, however. This is common practice in many companies, so you shouldn’t worry about it. Make sure they follow the correct procedure to track tickets. Make sure to ask about how time is allocated. Most businesses deduct at least 15 minutes per support call.
Most importantly, I want to emphasize that it is vitally important for you to read the SLA. Nothing is more annoying than waiting for an engineer to call you about a project you started 8 hours prior. SLAs of no more than four hours are acceptable. no more. It is important to “haggle” next. Do not pay for the advertised price. I assure you that there is so much rivalry in this world, most businesses do not expect customers to pay their advertising rate. Then, if they are insistent that no negotiations can be made then you should insist on moving elsewhere.