Finding a reliable IT partner can be crucial if a business does not have their own in-house solutions – but it may also seem daunting, considering how many options there are on the market.
We spoke to a company that provides IT support in London – they have been around for more than a decade; with extensive experience supporting small to medium sized businesses, and a proven track record. We asked them what they feel makes a good IT partner. They listed some of the key qualities any business should look for when seeking an IT partner.
Essential Qualities for an IT Partner
There are certain qualities that you can look for, which will tell you that the IT partner in question is committed to delivering high-quality services. This ranges from the guarantees they place on fix times, to what kinds of solutions they are able to offer you. The IT support companies London businesses favour, for example, are proactive, and able to help a business future-proof their infrastructure. One of the best ways to ensure your IT Partner is going to support you in the best ways, is having one who is also a Microsoft Partner to help you. They will provide your teams with expert Microsoft 365 consulting that will help you to make use of Microsoft solutions and applications in better ways.
Below is an in-depth look at some valuable qualities:
- Fast Response Times
When an IT partner makes guarantees on response times, this is a good sign, for a few reasons. For one thing, quick response times are easier to maintain than quick fix times. It shows that the partner is committed to being attentive and prompt in their service delivery. As well as this, if an IT partner is pressed to fix issues within a certain amount of time, in order to maintain their streak, they might end up cutting corners with resolutions. A partner should take the time to implement a complete solution to an issue that addresses the entire issue, rather than simply placing a bandage over the problem.
- Proven Experience with Your Industry
Another great thing to look out for is whether they have proven experience in your company’s sector. For instance, if you work in the automotive industry, you will have specific software and systems that you use, and so you will definitely want an IT partner that has experience with those systems – that way they are not learning on the job, and will be able to support your organisation effectively from the get-go.
- Proactive Methodologies
IT support always used to be known for its tendency to adhere to a break-fix model – in other words, you don’t here from your IT support engineers very much, until your technology is experiencing issues and you have to call them up to help fix it. Nowadays, IT support has advanced to the point where proactive solutions can be implemented, so that clients don’t have to make the first move. Methodologies like network and system monitoring, and implementing modern technology solutions, means that IT partners can rule out more issues, and also detect issues independently, and get to work on fixing them without delay.
- Round-the-Clock Availability
Technology doesn’t always break at the most convenient time; it won’t necessarily happen within normal working hours – so why should your IT support providers wait until normal working hours to get to work on an issue? More and more IT partners nowadays are committing to 24/7 availability, so that they can be sure that IT issues are responded to as quickly as possible. They can achieve this by creating a rota with their support engineers to make sure that there is someone on call at all times. It may also involve implementing monitoring, so that issues that happen outside of business hours are detected.
- Technology Partnerships
A good IT partner should be able to provide opportunities for improvement to the client’s technology infrastructure. This means helping them procure new hardware and software, and helping them set it up properly. This usually means that IT partner needs to have partnerships with other vendors. For instance, one IT support company we spoke to was a Microsoft partner, as well as having a number of hardware vendor partnerships – this meant they were able to procure the latest tech solutions for their clients.
