When your managed services contract is up for renewal, you shouldn’t just sign on for another year because it’s convenient. Take a moment to consider whether your managed services provider is still meeting your needs or whether it’s time to break up and switch to another provider.
Here are a few reasons to consider looking for another IT services provider:
1. The provider is unresponsive.
Whether you have an outage that needs to be resolved or you have a question about the best future technology direction for your business, your provider should be able to respond to your inquiry quickly.
2. You’re experiencing IT failures.
Not all problems can be avoided, but you should see a clear decrease in the number of problems once your provider takes over maintenance and support. If there are unplanned outages, incomplete backups, security breaches, or complaints from employees about help desk services, you might get better results from a different provider.
3. Advice sounds like a sales pitch.
Discussions about IT strategy should focus on the best technology, not who will implement and support it. If your provider’s advice sounds more like it’s about drumming up business for them and not improving how your business functions, look for a provider who’s truly willing to be an advisor.
4. Your managed services provider isn’t a good manager.
You rely on the managed services provider to manage the work you allocate you them. If they aren’t able to effectively manage plans and inform stakeholders of schedules and status, they aren’t living up to their end of the deal.
5. Your business has changed.
If your business has changed, whether in scope, in scale, or in its client base, your current provider may no longer have business insight to go with their technical expertise. If your technology needs have changed, they may no longer have the technical expertise you need.
The biggest reason to consider changing managed services provider?
Your provider doesn’t communicate with you. When things are going well, they should be communicating with you about progress. When things are going poorly, you should be communicating with them about the problems and attempting to find a resolution. You may be able to realign their efforts with your needs and avoid the disruption of switching to another managed services provider.
If you’ve tried working things out with your current provider and are ready to make a change, consider switching to Prescient Solutions. Our managed technology services provide a complete remote solution to your IT needs. Our team handles everything from backup to help desk to infrastructure. Contact us to learn more about how Prescient Solutions IT consulting and managed services help Chicago and Schaumburg-area businesses achieve more.
