As a Managed Service Provider, we often get the common question- what do you do?
And truly- that鈥檚 a question anyone looking to outsource their IT to.
And as an IT provider, we want to challenge you to think differently about what it is your IT provider should be doing for you.
It may sound strange, but most people engage/buy Managed IT the wrong way. Here are three things that you should be thinking about, and asking about, that will help you actually get an ROI on your investment.
Most IT companies will say things like-
Frankly, when people are looking for an IT provider, this is the pain point they are trying to fix. Maybe who they are currently working with isn鈥檛 doing it fast enough or well enough鈥here鈥檚 a consistent problem and they鈥檙e at a point where they need to do something different.
Those things are important. But instead of looking for an IT provider who closes all your tickets, start asking questions about they are doing to reduce the number of issues you have. And then how they handle an issue with care, compassion, kindness and speed when an issue occurs.
It鈥檚 the biggest thing on business owner鈥檚 minds when it comes to technology these days.
Instead of saying cybersecurity- we say 鈥渕aking a customer a hard target.鈥 An IT provider鈥檚 job is to make our customers a really hard target and then minimize the damage and recover quickly in the event that something does happen.
This is the piece that differentiates the great companies from the good companies.
How do you use technology to gain leverage in your company?
IT providers know a lot about technology. But they should know and understand your business too. By investing and spending time knowing your business so they can help you utilize technology to be more efficient. To be more effective. To close more deals. To onboard new customers faster.
A great IT provider doesn鈥檛 just answer the question 鈥渨hat do you do?鈥 with 鈥渟upport and cybersecurity鈥.
A great IT Provider answers the question 鈥渨hat do you do?鈥 with 鈥淩educe the number of issues you have, make you a really hard target, and helping you find the places where technology isn鈥檛 functioning properly- workflow, process, the way you operate as a business- and helping you gain leverage over all these assets (that you are already spending money on and using) and use it better, faster, more efficiently to be even stronger and even more successful.鈥