The cost of cybercrime is expected to reach $6 trillion globally this year. With many businesses moving to a digital-first approach, finding your first or next managed service provider (MSP) can be challenging. Fortunately, there are many capable and trustworthy MSPs in the marketplace today. Here are three things to consider when doing your MSP shopping.
3 Ways to Find the Ideal IT Service Provider for Your Small Business
As you navigate the IT service provider selection process, there are 3 proven steps you can take to shorten your journey to hiring the best candidate. Every small business’s needs are a little different, and the way you’re structured as well as the industry you serve can help determine the types of IT support you’ll need. When evaluating IT service provider options:
1. Consider Location
With most services available virtually, you could technically hire an IT service provider located just about anywhere in the world. Hiring locally, however, has benefits beyond supporting your local economy. These include:
- The opportunity for on-site hardware installation and optimization.
- Operating in the same time zone.
- A unified account management experience.
- Consideration for security and operational regulations unique to your area.
While many MSPs provide 24/7 help desk services, timeframes outside normal business hours are often covered by a remote team that’s likely less familiar with your account. If not having consistent access to your primary service team is going to be disruptive to your business, a local provider might be your best option.
2. Look for a Holistic Service Offering
Some IT service providers might deliver top-notch cybersecurity or productivity solutions, but those are small pieces of a larger puzzle. When evaluating service providers, make sure they’re able to help you build and protect your entire technology ecosystem across a broad range of current and emerging technologies. These offerings can include:
- Application development
- Data warehousing
- Web services
- Testing solutions
- Security monitoring and management solutions
- Offshore outsourcing
- Consulting services
Choose an IT service provider that can not only deliver holistic support for your technology infrastructure today, but also build a roadmap for future advancements. By tasking this to your MSP, you can spend less time worrying about technology and more time building your business.
3. Seek Industry Knowledge
Working with an IT service provider that knows your industry saves time and minimizes the likelihood of important security or filtering measures being overlooked. This is especially true for highly regulated industries like healthcare and finance, where HIPAA or SOX violations could cost companies millions of dollars. Avoid unwanted surprises by choosing a technology services firm that specializes in serving your market.
Start With an IT Assessment
Once you’ve found the IT service provider you’d like to hire, begin with a complete IT assessment. This is a scan that reviews every part of your IT network to determine vulnerabilities as well as mitigation responses. Think of it like an annual physical exam, but instead of assessing your own health, it’s assessing the health of your IT network and infrastructure.
Get started now by taking Convergent's 5-minute IT network assessment.