45 Questions To Ask Your Next South Florida Managed IT Services Company

45 Questions to Ask Any Potential South Florida Managed IT Services Company

Finding an MSP is a Tedious, Time-Consuming Process… We Get That. But You Need to Do Your Due Diligence and Ask the Right Questions Before Signing an Agreement.

It’s a lot of work – finding the right MSP to suit your unique needs, isn’t it? Technology plays such a critical role in virtually all businesses nowadays. You simply can’t function without your email, phones, software, and other tools that make your day-to-day work much smoother and more seamless. The choice of who is going to manage all of your information technology systems, processes, and procedures is an incredibly important decision. Before you sign an agreement, it’s important to do your due diligence and ask the right questions.

This way, you’re able to make sure all of your requirements are covered. Here are the top 45 questions we recommend asking before signing an agreement with any South Florida Managed IT Services company.

10 Questions About Contracts and/or Fees

1. Does my data belong to me if the contract is terminated?
2. What is the process for terminating the contract?
3. How do you qualify your employees? Do you do background checks?
4. Do you have a cap on yearly rate hikes?
5. Will you notify me when new charges above and beyond the agreement apply?
6. Do you include an assessment of my environment that is not charged as a project?
7. If not, what is your hourly rate for projects?
8. Do I need to purchase any specific hardware to get started?
9. Can you provide a comparison detailing the cost of managing on-premises vs. cloud?
10. Do you have any case studies or technical spotlights that are similar to my situation?

10 Questions About Service Development

1. What is your average network uptime performance?
2. Do you include onsite support hours in the contract?
3. If not, how much will I pay per hour?
4. What metrics do you use to assess reliability and performance?
5. What can I expect in terms of reliability and performance?
6. How flexible are you in terms of adding or removing services later on?
7. Will you be fixing most issues remotely?
8. If so, is this included in the contract or an extra charge?
9. Will you be meeting with me on a regular basis to discuss strategy?
10. What remote monitoring management solution do you use to monitor my network?

10 Questions About Data Management

1. Who will have access to my data?
2. Are you compliant with the industry-specific regulations I need to adhere to?
3. Will anyone outside of your organization have access to my data?
4. If so, can I get a list and confirmation of their data privacy standard?
5. What redundancy is built into the environment to keep my data accessible?
6. How do you plan on backing up my data?
7. Will you be testing my backups on a regular basis to ensure recoverability?
8. Who owns my data if it’s hosted at your facility?
9. What happens to my data in the event that you go out of business?
10. How will my data be safe against data breaches and/or leaks?

8 Questions About Qualifications

1. What is your hiring process for new employees?
2. How many years have you been providing managed IT services?
3. Will I be able to meet each team member who will be working with me?
4. Do I have a dedicated account manager assigned to my company?
5. What industry credentials and/or certifications do you or your team hold?
6. Will I be working with local experts?
7. What percentage of your business is dedicated to managed IT services?
8. Do your team members undergo any sort of regular training and/or certification process?

7 Questions About the Support Model

1. What are your hours for emergency/after-hours support?
2. How do I request support?
3. What can I expect in terms of a response to support tickets?
4. What about resolution time for support tickets?
5. Do you have any current statistics on satisfaction levels for your help desk?
6. How are support tickets escalated and what does the process look like?
7. How often are issues resolved at first contact by your help desk?

Like we mentioned, it’s a tedious, time-consuming process. There’s no getting around that. You can’t rush the decision because it’s a HUGE one – an important one that’ll make or break your ability to operate efficiently.