What Makes a Great IT Company?

, , , ,
not a great IT company

What Makes a Great IT Company?

For most people, their first car was not great. It overheated in the summer, had tattered upholstery, leaked water from the windows. And even though you put up with it out of necessity, you realized with time that so much of the value of a car comes from its reliability and comfort.

Your current IT provider may be like that first car. It might get you where you need to be most of the time, but you have this nagging suspicion that it will leave you with your thumb up on the side of the highway any day now. And just like a car, it can be difficult for a uniformed person to know exactly what is going on ā€œunder the hoodā€ of their businessā€™ IT.

Signs Your IT Provider is a Lemon

Besides the obviousā€”untrained technicians, rude customer services reps, ultra-low pricingā€”it can be hard to identify a problematic IT relationship. Here is the smoke that could indicate that you are about to be stranded:

  • False promises
  • Lack of transparency
  • Poor communication
  • Overly complicated jargon in responses meant to confuse you
  • Not meeting with you regularly
  • Unexplained or unexpected downtime and interruptions
  • A deal thatā€™s too good to be true
  • Not encouraging better security

A great IT company will never make you feel inferior, confused, frustrated, or angry. Thatā€™s because there is a lot more that goes into IT support than just knowing how to troubleshoot technical issues.

A Reliable Mode of IT Support

Well-built, dependable IT providers need to be smart about IT. But proficiency is not enough. They also need to be smart about business. The difference between a rusty Pontiac and a well-equipped Toyota is not its ability to get from point A to point Bā€”it is the ability to perform safely and comfortably every single time. The same can only happen when an IT provider is proactive.

So how can you identify a proactive IT provider? Ask yourself these questions:

  • Do they deliver on their promises?
  • Does my IT provider have a clear process?
  • Are their staff coordinated and communicative?
  • Do I trust them to self-report their activities in a timely manner?
  • Do they meet with us regularly to help my business prepare for the future?
  • Is the leadership accountable when issues arise?
  • Are they budget conscious?
  • Do they encourage us to improve our security protocols?

 

If your IT provider cannot verify the work they have done for you immediately, if they do not seem to have a repeatable process for handling tickets, if they are always reacting to problems instead of preventing IT problems, then you and your employees may be on the verge of hitch-hiking. Your business is too important to be driven by a smoking engine with wobbly tires!