IT outsourcing is a big money business. There will always be a requirement for the service and there is never a shortage of takers in the world of IT Contracts. I sometimes liken the industry to a lake full or crocodiles, with the crocs being the sales guys ready to snap at you via telephone calls and endless follow up emails, and eventually one of them will get you….
I have worked for a company in the past that asked me to recruit a new IT Specialist, but when we did the math it simply wasn’t feasible to pay someone a wage of 30K+ just to look after their IT. No matter what angle I looked at it from, I couldn’t get the figures to add up, so an alternative solution was required.
Many administrators or office managers have been in the same situation. You need to get support but you are given peanuts to work with. So you have to think about alternatives. You can employ an independent IT Engineer on an ad-hoc basis, which is great financially, but this does have its setbacks. For example you are at the mercy of their calendar, these people have other clients and if they work independently the chances are that they will already have slots taken on their calendar. Not great if you need something done ASAP or you have an IT emergency.
So the alternative is Outsourced IT Support company. There are plenty of companies out there so finding one isn’t a problem, but finding a good one can be. I would suggest taking the following steps:
Choose a reputable company – By this I mean ‘choose a company that has been around for a while’. When you trust someone to look after your network then the last thing you need is for them to be unreliable, or to one day disappear. Remember that you will be giving them FULL access to computer network and they will have full access to everything including your servers, network security and remote access to your desktops. My unwritten rule is to that the company must be fully Microsoft certified company employing at least 20 members of staff. The company must be in existence for at least 10 years and referrals must be freely available.
Get a second opinion on the contract – If an IT Company has faith in its own ability then they will not have any issue working to a rolling contract. Be suspicious if they try to tie you into a long term contract. This can sometimes be sales staff trying to up their commission or companies trying to ensure a certain amount of turnover for the year, but either way it is of no benefit to you. A three to four month rolling contract should be the maximum you should sign. The contact of that contract is paramount. The contract should be clear to define what level of support you will receive, and what Support services are included and exempt from the Service level agreement. Be aware of companies that do not offer transparent contracts.
Finally, don’t judge a company by a trial period. They will be all out to impress and you have no idea if the level of support will continue once you take out a service contract on a full time basis. IT Outsourcing can be a godsend, just don’t jump in at the deep end with the first company that comes along.