The great thing about outsourcing your IT to Managed Service Providers (MSP) in your area is the access and exposure to an entire IT department. However, there can be a downside, like not finding the right fit for your staff if you settle with a provider that’s subpar, causing harm for your business. on paper, all top-tier managed service providers appear to be the same. Maintenance, monitoring, help desk services and project development are best in class offerings, but to what capacity? To illustrate, the scenarios below represent what your current MSP relationship with your IT Service looks like right now.

On paper, most top-tier Managed Service Providers appear to be the same. Maintenance, monitoring, help desk services and project development are best in class, but to what capacity? To paint a better picture, the scenarios below may represent what your current MSP relationship with your IT Service looks like right now.

They’re With You For The Bad Times But Not The Good Times

You want your IT company to fix your issues and on time, of course. But wouldn’t you prefer an IT solution that prevents them altogether? Reactive patch management is a temporary fix to an ongoing problem. Rather than patching your problems with a technician holding your hand, your IT support should be proactively maintaining software 24/7 to stop issues before they begin.

No Follow-Up/Follow Through

Sometimes response for submitted tickets might take a few business days or maybe they’re not acknowledged at all. This is a glaring weakness for any IT service company, with a respectable Service Level Agreement (SLA), violating SLA is the biggest sign of a process weakness and an indicator that MSP is not up to par with industry standards.

Read more SLA’s from Top Managed Service Providers

“The Unplanned Incident”

Your Managed Service Provider is the conductor of your infrastructure, and the risks associated with this amount of autonomy can become significant. When is the last time you were invited into your IT provider’s office for a discussion on a new process or backup and disaster solution? Are you sure that your Managed Service Provider is backing up properly? Data loss is priceless, and nothing to mess around with. If your MSP isn’t transparent in their procedure to back your business up then is there really process in place?