You’ve decided to save time, improve IT reliability, and lower your monthly IT spending by finding a managed services provider (MSP). But how do you find one that provides the level of service you’re looking for? What are some managed services selection criteria you should consider?
With so many MSPs on the market, it can be difficult to choose the right one to help your business grow. Ask the right MSP qualifying questions to ascertain if the MSP is a good fit for your business and dramatically increase the value you will receive.
How to Choose a Managed Services Provider
The five questions below are a great start when learning how to choose a managed services provider. These will ensure that all your basic needs are covered before making a decision. The more questions you ask, the easier it will be to find the perfect provider for your company.
Five Qualifying Questions to Ask During MSP Discovery
- What type of cybersecurity services do they offer?
- Do they offer both remote and onsite support?
- Do they provide comprehensive cloud support?
- When your company grows, can their services scale to keep up?
- How will they react in the event of disasters?
1. How to Choose Managed Security Services
No business, regardless of size, is safe from a potential cyber attack. Ensure any MSP you plan to work with offers comprehensive cybersecurity solutions with a zero-trust policy. A few technical questions to a qualifying MSP:
- Do you offer…
- Security awareness training
- Disaster recovery
- 24/7 monitoring with real-time alerts
- Advanced threat protection
- Risk management
- And more
- How will you protect my business against the latest threats?
2. Accessible IT Support and Services
Whether your employees work remotely or in the office, you need to ensure your entire infrastructure is covered by experienced team members that can provide rapid response times for all your IT problems.
One of the questions to ask an IT MSP should be, “do you have a remote and onsite support team?”
Remote workers can handle the majority of your IT issues, while you would need onsite support to assist with cabling, installs, end-of-life replacements, tough IT challenges, and more. A complete support team is important; make sure your provider has both.
A dedicated account manager will ensure you have a single point of contact for all your needs. It also helps pin down responsibility and ensures the MSP is putting time and effort into your account (like the MSP’s sales team promised).
3. Questions for an MSP: Do You Manage, Monitor, Migrate Systems to Cloud Services?
The cloud is becoming increasingly necessary to remain competitive in today’s workforce. Even if you don’t presently have a cloud environment, chances are you’ll migrate to a cloud system at some point in the near future.
Ensuring your MSP offers migration services, ongoing support, business continuity, and enhanced cloud security should be added to your MSP qualifying questions before you choose a managed service provider.
Are You Overpaying for Your IT Services?Learn about the different pricing models MSPs offer and how you can maximize your IT budget. |
4. The Ability to Scale as Your Business Evolves
Your business is going to change, and your future MSP should have the ability to not only change but help your business grow.
Not all MSPs are equipped to handle a larger company. When asking your managed services selection criteria questions, ensure you ask if your managed services provider ensures IT support and security for a growing business.
Also find out if your potential MSP has plans to phase out end-of-life technology and keep your infrastructure up-to-date with industry standards.
5. Protecting Your Systems and Data in Worst-Case Scenarios
Unexpected incidents can occur at any time, and your managed services selection criteria should have plans contingency plans to minimize their impact on your business.
Before closing a deal, check if they have the capacity and capability to:
- Implement disaster recovery systems
- Ensure business continuity
- Protect against artificial and natural disasters
- Defend against data breaches (or other cyber attacks)
| More IT Insights: |
Most Important Managed Services Vendor Selection Criteria
The single most important criterion before you even start searching for MSPs: knowing what your business is looking for. It’s vital for you to understand your own needs (at least broadly), rather than beginning a completely open-ended search.
Let Accudata Systems, A Converge Company, take the confusion out of the equation when you start your search for an MSP. As one of the industry’s leading providers, we’ll address all your pain points, taking our time to learn your infrastructure, your day-to-day needs, and your goals so we can create a tailored strategy that gives you the services you need to succeed.