4 Considerations When Choosing a Managed Service Provider (MSP) for your Business

It’s no secret, modern businesses rely on technology. Business security, efficiency, and productivity are all influenced (if not controlled completely) by your IT environment. That’s why many small and medium-sized business owners have turned to IT managed service providers (MSP’s) for their IT support and services.

Whether you need traditional helpdesk and user support and server management or vCIO and cloud planning services, an MSP can help these organizations

One of the main reasons businesses turn to MSP’s is because they’ve outgrown the traditional “break-fix” model. As the name suggests, this situation is where a piece of technology breaks, and an IT contractor comes and fixes it. In this model, the IT provider is incentivized when the technology breaks. For an MSP on a monthly recurring model, the incentive is for everything to run as smoothly as possible, and to catch issues before they arise.

Even business who have an IT department but are overtasked and understaffed can benefit from leveraged a managed IT service provider.

Choosing The Best IT Managed Service Provider for Your Business

Expertise and Experience: All MSP’s should at least have the ability to work beyond basic installations, maintenance, and upgrades. Great managed service providers will be able to work with your business on growth tactics like virtualization, backup and disaster recovery planning, and cloud advisory services.

Service Consistency: What does your service level agreement (SLA) look like? What are the service and response time windows? Do you have a dedicated account technician? Does your MSP have the ability to help you grow your business?

Broad Services to Meet Evolving Needs: A great MSP will have expertise in a range of services – a suite of solutions that can be used to respond to any issue that may arise.

Finance & Reputation: One of the greatest assets of an MSP is the predictable pricing model – you know exactly what you’re paying every month for superlative service. What is there positioning in the marketplace? Do they have references that match your industry or your business situation?

The right MSP can be a great asset to your organization. A managed IT service provider like SSI can free your business to achieve new levels of mobility, security, and efficiency. Contact us today for your free business IT assessment.