Top 4 Managed Services Provider Benchmark Qualities to Look For
Managed IT services have come a long way from the time it was first conceptualized and implemented as a viable solution for improving and maximizing business operations. These days managed IT services are a composite of different IT solutions with the end objective of ensuring increased productivity, business mobility and cost-effectiveness. True to form, quite a number of providers have recognized the significant role that managed IT services play in the business setting that competition is at an all-time high. How do you, as a business owner, determine which managed services provider to partner with? Below are a few benchmark aspects to look for in a managed services provider:
Extensive Knowledge, Skill and Experience
As a standard rule, a managed services provider should have a team of individuals whose skills go beyond the basic knowledge of IT functions, operations and elements. However, it is also ideal that collectively, the team should know how to deliver basic resolutions while specialized issues and concerns are dealt with by techs with the appropriate skill set, experience and extensive knowledge.
Proactive Management Practices
A managed services provider should deliver more than just break-fix solutions. Monitoring and maintenance protocols and procedures should be in place to ensure that there is less room for idle time caused by unexpected infrastructure or network breakdowns and glitches. There are quite a wide range of monitoring tools and practices that make extensive and in-depth analysis to virtually predict possible areas of concern. Look for a managed services provider who prioritizes prevention over intervention and resolution.
Solid and Consistent Management
Having a managed services provider as an operational business partner should translate to having consistent performance and service delivery. Consistency in management is key in ensuring that business operations involving IT functions are performing reliably on a regular basis at their most optimal level. To be able to do this, it is important to remember that both parties have to regularly set the time to touch base to better manage expectation versus performance.
Multivendor Support
As it is virtually impossible to only have one vendor when it comes to IT systems and infrastructure, your managed services provider should have extensive knowledge and experience dealing with multi vendor environments. It also doesn’t hurt if your managed services provider have good working relationships with different vendors to ensure that support for their products is easier to manage.
