Choosing the best IT support company is not easy as there are lots of companies out there looking for your business so how do you select the right one for you? How do you make sure they have what it takes to give you the support you need? Here are a few suggestions to help you decide.
Service and Support is key to choosing the best IT support company
The first thing you should look for in an IT support company is one that offers friendly and responsive support. Many IT support companies will often give to impression that you are bothering them and wasting their time when you contact them with your issue despite the fact that this is the exact service you are paying for! When you log your support call you should be satisfied that it will be dealt with in a timely and professional manner. We often hear stories that customers need to keep contacting their support company to prevent the issue being put on the long finger by the support company. Our advice here is to ask the support company for a few names of sites that they are currently supporting and then give them a call to see what their real life experience of the support is and not what is just written in the agreement.
Location
Your IT Support Company may need to visit your business on occasions to install new hardware or fix a physical problem so it is a good idea to choose a company that can get to you within an hour’s drive. If you are based in Galway for example you don’t want to be relying on a company in Dublin or Cork to drive up the M6 to fix your issues. Keeping it local can be an advantage when choosing the best IT support company.
Cost Saving
Take a look at your budget for IT and work out how much it would cost you to directly employ an IT specialist. By outsourcing your IT support to a good IT company it is usually possible to save money compared to employing an IT department yourself. They will take care of keeping their qualifications up to date, keeping up with technology and will usually have a much broader knowledge of IT systems and how to maintain them.
You need to understand how critical your IT is to your business and get a support agreement in place to match that. If your network went down for a day how much would this cost you in wages and lost productivity? You might soon realise that the cost of an IT support contract with guaranteed response times will be far less than the overall price of costly downtimes. If however it’s a case that you only need the very occasional support and that system downtime wont effect your business too much than maybe a ‘pay as you go’ deal is the way to go. A good IT support company should be able to go through all this with you an come to a recommendation on a package that best suits your needs.
Understand what it is you need
If you have a basic understanding of your IT support needs this will help you when choosing the best IT support company. You don’t need to be too technical as a good IT company will give you good honest advice and talk to you in plain English.
A useful start would be to work out what your requirements are for desktops, laptops, printers, scanner, software and other peripherals. If you have a system already, then work out what your support requirements are and maybe what changes you are looking for.
Ask lots of questions
Once you’ve compiled you list of requirements, don’t be afraid to ask as many questions as you can. A good IT support company will do its best to answer all your questions as it benefits both parties to have a clear understanding of exact services and products are being provided.
Choosing the best IT support company is extremely important as you may need to rely on them to act swiftly in a crisis. Your business will rely on them to help you in times of stress, but also they should be proactive in maintaining your system and advising you on new technologies that could benefit your business. Some companies will offer you a Free IT Health Check which might highlight potential issues with your current system and offer you advice on how to improve your IT productivity.
Galway IT Solutiions provide IT Support in Galway and across the West of Ireland. We offer a FREE IT assessment and would be happy to visit your business and give you our honest opinion on your set up. Call us now on 091-778770 and speak to Conor.