Finding the right IT partner can be a struggle. Whether you have IT staff that needs some extra help or need an entire managed IT solution, you need to find a partner who aligns with your business goals. And that’s a tall order.
Even after thoroughly vetting providers and finally picking one to partner with, the relationship may not be all that you had hoped. The initial engagement was great, but after some time the service seems to be lacking. The honeymoon phase is a thing even with managed IT.
After enough time, some things that you thought were normal about your managed IT are really red flags that indicate a bigger problem.
Us and our partners have seen more than a few of these red flags, so we thought we’d share a few common ones.
You exceed your budget every month
If you’ve worked with your IT provider to assess your needs and structure a monthly budget, it should be easy to stick to the budget, right? If your provider is constantly trying to upsell you or tell you some version of, “oh no that solution doesn’t cover that, you need our PLATINUM package,” that’s a red flag.
How can you take control of your budget back? The first thing is to set your IT budget and stick to it, no matter who your provider is. But if the upselling is a constant, that is a big indication that your IT provider doesn’t have your business’s best interest at heart. And that’s when we recommend to move on.
You lack continuous infrastructure assessment
The right managed IT partner should perform a thorough audit of your IT infrastructure and provide the results so that your business can determine where your strengths and weaknesses are. And this isn’t a one-and-done sort of thing. It should happen regularly.
These assessments serve two crucial purposes: the first is to make sure your network is functioning exactly as it should. The second, and most important, is that it gives a complete snapshot of your security and any inherent risks your IT infrastructure has.
These assessments are extra critical when you consider that the average business experiences two network outages a month.
Make sure your managed IT partner is capable of providing a full network assessment free of charge. If they aren’t, they don’t take their job seriously enough.
Your staff experiences constant friction
Working with an IT provider needs to feel like working with an extension of your own team. This is critically important if you are leveraging a managed solution to assist your on-staff IT department.
If your staff is constantly experiencing friction with your managed IT provider, that is a big red flag. Your IT staff should be able to completely trust your managed partner to handle the tasks they are assigned. If their recommendations or methods are seen as ineffective or risk, you need to work on finding a better partner who your team can trust.
Your business doesn’t need to settle
Finding a partner to handle your IT needs is a difficult task. And telling you that your current provider may not be cutting it and you need to go on another partner search…Well, that just seems cruel.
But we don’t tell you that lightheartedly. Having an IT partner that doesn’t fully enable your business to realize your vision is more costly than it seems. What starts as subpar service can develop into outages or security risks, and we don’t need to tell you that’s unacceptable.
At KME Systems, we take our relationships with our partners seriously. We make sure that our solutions always keep your goals in mind. And we gauge our success off of your success.
If you think your current IT solution may not be cutting it, reach out. We can help you figure out what your journey looks like.
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