48 Questions to Consider When Hiring a Managed Services Provider

You’ve weighed your options and decided that outsourcing some or all of your IT functions is the ideal choice. How do you zero in a Managed IT Services provider that will help you manage your IT infrastructure effectively, boost your employees’ productivity, and keep your data safe?

To find the ideal IT service provider, you need to ask the right questions about their services, business, and technical abilities. Great companies will gladly answer even your toughest questions.

Here are 48 questions you need to ask when evaluating potential Managed IT Services providers.

Questions on the Managed Service Provider’s Credibility

For how long have you been providing managed IT services?
Can you name some of your current clients?
Do you have ad-hoc or dedicated staff?
How do you ensure your ad-hoc staff has developed skills that align with your clients’ precise needs?
Do clients get to meet with the members of your team who provide support?
How do you ensure that your team stays current with the emerging technology trends and developments?
By which metrics do you assess your reliability, speed, and overall performance? And, what’s your standard network uptime performance?
Do you describe yourselves as specialists in providing IT managed services? If not, how much of your business operations are dedicated to providing IT solutions and services to organizations?
What differentiates you from your competitors?
Do you diagnose and remedy emerging service issues without your clients asking for your intervention?
How much do you know about my industry’s regulatory compliance requirements?
What industry certifications and credentials do you (as a business) and your technical team carry?
Can you provide references and the contact information of some of your current customers?
Do you help clients in documenting compliance with their industry-specific requirements?
Are you willing to work with our budget?
Which RMMs (remote monitoring management) and PSAs (professional services automation) have you deployed?
How flexible are your service offerings? Can I add and remove services based on my shifting business needs?
Do you customize your services based on your clients’ goals and growth plans?
How will I retrieve my data in case we terminate our contract?
Does your billing structure incorporate the additional management costs that emerge along the way? And, when and how will I be notified of any new charges?
Is the service level agreement negotiable or is it consistent for all of your clients?
Is there a need for me to set up additional IT infrastructure for your services to be compatible with my business?
Will you evaluate my IT infrastructure before you provide me with the projected cost of service?
Will these evaluations be charged separately, and do you charge for the trip/labor?

Questions to ask on the Managed Service Provider’s Data Management and Reliability

How do you protect clients’ data?
Which redundancies do you build into your solutions?
What’s your disaster recovery and data backup plan?
Which processes and measures have you put in place to shield clients’ data from leaks and security breaches?
Who is authorized to access clients’ data?
Will my competitors by any chance gain access to my data?
Who owns the clients’ data that’s hosted in your facilities?
What will happen to my data in case you close business, or if you merge with or are sold to another company?
Do you host your various clients’ data in exclusive in-areas or do you rely on a multi-tenant environment?
Do your operations rely on data centers or third-party hosting firms? If so, can you provide further information on this?
Ultimately, who takes responsibility regarding my data’s safety? Is it you, the MSP? Is it your third-party partners? Or is it me, the client?

Questions to Ask on the Managed Service Provider’s Technical Abilities

What’s your experience with my most used application?
Having fast access to engineers, especially during our operating hours is vital for our productivity. What are the modalities of contacting your helpdesk, and what is your standard response time?
Do you get regular third-party audits to ensure your services meet the highest standards?
What safety protocols do you have in place, both for your internal network and your clients’ networks?
How do clients escalate complex issues?
What percentage of those issues are resolved on the first contact with your helpdesk?
Which channels do clients use to reach you? Do you include live chat, portal access, telephone, and email?
What kind of training will you provide to my in-house IT team?
How will you ensure that our IT infrastructure remains up and running by proactively monitoring for vulnerabilities and hacks?
Do you outsource monitoring, helpdesk, and other key services to third-party partners? If this is your modus operandi, how do you ensure that these third parties deliver the agreed-upon services effectively?
Do you allow clients to visit your office and observe how you manage your technology and deliver services?
How do you ensure that clients get a good return for their investment in organizational IT knowledge and support?
How will you help me grow my business?

Your company will gain tremendous benefits when you partner with the right managed IT Services provider. By allowing experienced IT professionals to take care of your technology needs, you’ll be able to dedicate more time to delivering excellent services to your clients and expanding your business.

You can focus exclusively on the main aspects of your business while enjoying:

Increased overall efficiency
Diminished technology-related risks
Improved service delivery and business continuity
Convenient access to IT skills, advice, and knowledge
Improved ability to adapt to technological innovations
Improved regulatory compliance
Robust cybersecurity infrastructure

Investing in managed IT services is not just another additional operating expense; the cost is smaller when weighed against the benefits. With a good managed services provider like tcaSynerTech on board, your expenses will reduce thanks to the increased efficiency. And, it will be easier for you to improve production, improve services and products, and mitigate devastating risks.