Q: My business is being impacted because the IT Company is not responsive enough when I need them.

A: In short, you need to check you have a Service Level Agreement in place. If your IT Company is falling short of this or does not work to one then you need to work with an IT Company who does.

Given the current climate, an increasing amount of
businesses have become so dependent on IT that when issues
arise they cannot afford to be impacted for any unnecessary
amount of time. In the main, most businesses are now run via email and/or the internet. Any loss of these business critical services will in most instances result in lost business.

Setting aside the "friend of a family who helps out", many
businesses rely on companies who have at best 4-5 engineers
who are constantly out on site. Calls are diverted to mobiles and there is no help desk to acknowledge and resolve calls at the first attempt. Such companies don't want to offer a Service Level Agreement as they know they will never be able to deliver against it.

When selecting an IT Company you should look for industry
recognised certifications; how many technical staff are
directly employed, not sub-contracted; what pro-active work
is performed and review their Service Level Agreement. You
should also take the time to visit their office to see at first hand the company you are dealing with.

If you are looking for a business technology partner then
the above are reasonable points to raise as part of your
due diligence. If you are just evaluating the marketplace
to then drive down contract rates to send a shot across the
incumbent IT Company's bows then beware.

In the short term, your IT may cost you less; there may be an improvement, but over time this will drop back to previous low levels because the resource is just not there. This then takes you back to where you were, but by then how much can your business take of poor responsive IT support?