Sandyford

IT

Questions to ask when looking for a Managed Services ProviderManaging your IT infrastructure is not getting any easier.

IT risks are increasing, compliance requirements and IT complexity are growing and experienced people are becoming harder to find. So how are companies dealing with this challenge?

A lot of companies are moving towards a Managed Services Provider (MSP) model. Contracting your IT to a third party MSP offers a number of significant advantages for your company:

  • ]Increased security
  • Reduced risk and improved compliance
  • Easy access to latest technologies that benefit your business
  • Improved efficiency and user experience
  • On call trained, experienced and qualified staff

To help you know what you don’t know, here are the

Questions to ask when looking for a Managed Services Provider partner

  1. Does the company have the technical expertise as well as trained, experience staff to provide maintenance, deliver support services and carry out managed-services responsibilities?
     
  2. Will your MSP support your business strategy now and in the future?
     
  3. Do they fully understand your current requirements and provide a roadmap for future requirements?
     
  4. Will they become trusted advisors and act as an extension of your IT department?
     
  5. Does the Managed Services Provider have a portfolio that covers the entire IT infrastructure?
  • Managed IT as a Service
  • IT infrastructure and cloud
  • Data security and managed security services

6. Is your potential partner compliant with ISO 27001 Information Security Standard?

7. Does your MSP have the staff and the experience to ensure a smooth deployment?

8. Does your proposed MSP offer you access to a portal where your team can see real-time information about your IT assets, security, users, corporate compliance and service performance?

9. Does the MSP comply with ITIL best practices?

10. Does your potential partner provide a single point of contact that has immediate access to experts to quickly resolve an issue?

11. How does your potential MSP deliver services?

12. What technology partners does the MSP use?

13. Can your potential partner provide references within your industry?

ITIL

It is important that your MSP uses the ITIL framework. ITIL is a set of detailed practices for IT service management that focuses on aligning IT services with the needs of business. It is used to demonstrate compliance and measure improvement. The components of a typical ITIL based MITaaS (Managed IT as a Service) are:

  • Incident management
  • Problem management
  • Release management
  • Event management
  • Change management
  • Configuration management
  • Service management
  • Vendor management
  • Infrastructure healthcheck

Finally

But above all, do you like the team? People buy from people after all. What your gut tells you and how you get on with the team both play a huge part in your decision making when looking for a Managed Services Provider.

By Trilogy Technologies.