Why you Should be Cautious of an IT Support Company

You probably didn’t expect us, as an IT Support company in Suffolk, to title a blog warning you why you should be cautious of companies like us. Although, you may be even more surprised to hear that the IT support industry is unregulated – meaning there is no governing body that people must pass through to label themselves an IT support company. Therefore, you need to ensure that you know exactly who you are dealing with and that they are a credible IT support company…

As I’m sure your aware, IT can be a risky game, especially in the event that something goes wrong. When there are complications in IT, it has the potential to be fatal – especially with the recent increase in cyber security crimes and phishing attacks.

That is why you need to ensure that your IT support partner knows what they’re talking about and has the correct knowledge, tools, and systems in place to better your business. This blog outlines some of things you should be asking your new potential IT support partner to ensure you can make the most out of the partnership and maximise your potential…

Problems Getting Fixed

The reaction time of a problem from your IT support partner will depend on scale of the problem. Although your business should seek to ask for the details surrounding this.

It’s important to understand how long it will take the proposed IT support partner to acknowledge the issue in the first place, and then how long they will expect it to take for someone to work on it. This will give you a gauge as to what their capacity is like as a company and if they will be able to successfully take you on.

If they have an approach in place for different problems, it can provide you with reassurance that they are in fact not winging it. The way in which they respond can also tell you about their professionalism and ability to stay calm when something goes wrong.

Proactively Ensuring there are Less Interruptions

We all want to operate as effectively and efficiently as possible in order to maximise capabilities, and when our IT goes down it is a waste of time as much as it is resources. This downtime can have major implications on productivity and other operations.

Even small minor complications can result in the office going into a frenzy and wasting even more time. That’s why you need to be sure that your IT support partner is working closely in the background to prevent any of these minor… or major, complications occurring.

Additionally, it is good to propose the question when the majority of updates and maintenance will be taking place – you would ideally want this to occur outside of traditional working hours. Are there any other solutions they will have in place to ensure your teams productivity is protected?

Who Will be Looking After You?

Surprisingly, a lot of businesses overlook this, despite it being one of the most crucial factors. It is really important that you have a strong understanding on who it is you will be working with in your IT Support partners company.

Different IT support companies will take different approaches depending on their resources and skillset amongst the team. Whilst some partners may assign you a specific account manager, others may combine a range of personalities to maximise capabilities. It is important that you are asking this question, as well as what will happen in the instance you are on holiday or who you should speak with when you have a problem. Ultimately this is going to give you a greater understanding of the company you are looking to work with and help guide your decision on if you think they are a good match for you.

Explaining Technical Terms in English

Another good thing to do to test how a potential IT support partner may communicate with you is to ask them to explain something that is highly technical to you. This may seem a strange question to ask considering you may be looking for an IT support partner due to not understanding highly technical processes yourself. But what it will do, is indicate to you whether or not they will describe it in simple terms to educate you and help your understanding.

Ensuring you understand the processes your IT support partner is undertaking, is a crucial part of making the partnership work. If the partner can explain it to you without any confusion, by breaking it down into simple terms – it should indicate they are worthwhile.

Keeping on Top of Change in your Business

Change is inevitable within any successful businesses, from HR related changes, to tweaks in your product or services, it is change that is undoubtedly the way we grow.  

You need to ensure that your IT Support partner will be able to adapt to the changes that are occurring in your business. It is crucial they do because when working with a partner, they need to be able to proactively make recommendations to security for example, in alignment with how you’re working. They should be aware of how many people you are working with so that you can stay up to date with security and the latest software.

You should seek partners who actively take an interest in the changes that are being made across your business and who regularly want an update, as this will indicate their interest and ability to follow through with it.  

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Are you Considering a New IT Partner?

Ipswich based Corbel Solutions will work with you as a proactive Business IT Support partner, offering you responsive support and solutions to help better your business. Communication is the key to success within a partnership and we value our customers asking us questions to improve the nature of the partnership.

Feel free to give us a call on 01473 241515 or email us at info@corbel.co.uk for further information and to have a chat with one of our team members.

Corbel Solutions offer IT support across Ipswich, Felixstowe, Stowmarket and the surrounding Suffolk area. Offering a range of services from Cyber Security, disaster recovery and IT consultancy services – Corbel can help to protect your business and prevent any issues from occurring. Check out our Google Reviews to see what others have had to say about us.