Winning Your IT Management Bracket

For IT management, you want to make sure you pick a winner. When it comes to following the NCAA March Madness tournament, half of the fun lies in never knowing who the winning team will be. The tournament sees incredible upsets, exciting games featuring underdogs, and a final game that keeps people on the edge of their seats. However, you do not want that much excitement when picking your managed services provider.

You want to find a candidate who, you are confident, will take you to the top of the leader board. In other words, you want to know how to clearly identify the company that will fit best with your business. We have developed a great system for picking that winning team.

What Should My Business Look For With IT Management Services?

As you start to examine your managed services provider options, one of the first categories to explore is the breadth of the MSP services. Some might offer just basic protections, such as anti-virus capabilities. You want to see if the company also offers additional capabilities that your business will need, such as:

• Enhanced anti-ransomware protection
• Employee security training
• Customer service
• Network support

A managed services provider should have the capabilities to provide you with the support and expertise to help your business growth. For example, it is not enough to know that an IT provider offers customer service, you also want to know about their response times and the level of service they offer.

At Compass Computing Group, we set up a client on our help desk one day, and they needed to call for support the next day. Our team was able to resolve the issue within 10 minutes. Other organizations without this level of service could easily have had this same customer waiting hours or days as they worked to find a time slot to “fit” the customer in.

In other words, as you look for IT management, you want to find a company that does not just check certain boxes as a pure IT commodity, but a vendor who can provide your business with genuine protection and support to help your business grow.

What Should My Business Look For in Terms of Experience?

Experience is also an important question you want to examine when considering your managed services provider. Experience and expertise should be examined in 2 key ways:

1. What is the overall level of experience these providers have with cybersecurity and IT management? This includes looking at how established the business itself is.

2. What is the experience this provider can offer in my specific industry?

Looking at the overall experience of the business can help you determine their understanding of the complexities of network security, including balancing productivity and safety. You also want someone who can provide thorough IT security consulting and help you develop a system that will protect your business while adapting to your needs and budget. The maturity of the business and how long they have been around can help you determine whether this business is stable and ready to support you in the long term.

You also want to make sure that the provider has experience with your specific industry. For example, accountants want to make sure that the vendor they work with understands the flow of their business and the critical nature of the tax season. Tax season is not the time to change anything within their system, and it absolutely cannot go down during that time. A doctor’s office, on the other hand, wants to be confident that their chosen provider is familiar with HIPAA regulations and how they will impact the business.

You want to fully trust your MSP and feel as though you can build a relationship. Therefore, you want to find an organization with the credentials that can help lay the foundation for that trust and inspire your confidence. When you feel comfortable with your provider and know you can move forward with the suggestions they make, it improve the entire working relationship.

What Should My Business Look For in Terms of Customization?

You want to familiarize yourself with options for customization. Many IT providers will offer cookie-cutter solutions, such as 3 levels of plans and cloud services that customers can purchase. However, this forces an organization into a preset box, which might not actually meet their business needs.

Instead, IT consulting partners like Compass Computing Group offer greater customization options. We offer a core group of services and then a variety of different options for layering on to create a complete solution a la carte. This allows us to customize a solution that fits your business needs and budget while maximizing protection.

Every business has unique IT needs based on factors such as their industry and budget. You need to look for a managed services provider who can work within this paradigm and create an IT package that is just as specialized.

See what some of our other customers have to say about our customization and customer care in this testimonial video.

What Should We Look For as We Compare MSP Providers?

As you evaluate your different provider options, you do want to keep in mind that often you will not compare providers in an “apples to apples” scenario. Different vendors will have various services and structures. However, the key lies in understanding the importance of investing in your IT management. Looking only for the cheapest option will not return the best results. A wise investment, however, can provide you with the support you need to grow.

As you begin your search, make sure you know your business needs and goals. Use this information to help you find an IT provider that aligns specifically with your business.

What Compass Computing Group Can Do for You

Compass Computing Group offers you a one-stop shop for your IT needs. We focus on building genuine relationships with our clients so that we can support their business development and growth. We believe that your energy should be focused on growing your business; we will focus on your IT. You do not want to waste your time fixing someone’s machine with a virus. You want to focus on closing your next deal.

We offer not only traditional managed IT services, we can also offer project management IT services, such as helping a client with a short-term project. Our dedication to customer success sets us apart. Come learn more about our Managed IT Services in the Portland region.