As you scramble to fill gaps in IT services for your business, you might tie yourself in a few knots. You may hire internal support to handle many things, but inevitably, you’re going to have to contract third-party providers for some of your needs. When it comes to those contracts, you’ll have a lot of questions. What needs to be in the contract, and what should you look for? To answer that, we have to dive into the essentials of managed IT services and IT contracts.
Managed IT Services: Back to Basics
Before we get into the terms, it’s important to cover the basics. What are managed IT services in the first place? For the most part, they refer to a contract or agreement that enlists a third party to take care of a business’s IT needs. These can include cybersecurity, hardware installation, management of software, cloud services, and network management. They can also involve managing printers and copiers. If there’s an IT need, a managed IT service provider can handle it.
The contracts themselves will vary to include some or all of these services. Most service providers will have pre-arranged contracts, and many of them are based on labor hours. For instance, you can prepay for 20 hours of billable IT work each month (or whatever volume of labor you might need). The contract can include 24/7 support and emergency services, for which you might have to pay a premium.
The simplified point in all of this is that managed IT service providers aim to deliver many of the benefits of IT support. They will try to save you money, lower your risk, improve your security, provide you with expert knowledge, and ultimately increase your peace of mind.
Requirements of Your Agreement
Covering the basics opens up an endless list of questions. What should be in the contract? How should everything be structured? How can a business protect itself and ensure good service?
All of these answers can be found in the agreement itself. When you are looking at it in detail, there are a few points you want to study closely.
The first is the services themselves. What services are included in the contract, and how difficult is it to change the list of services? The most essential services usually include strategic planning, security, monitoring, troubleshooting, and data management. But if your business has specific needs, it’s reasonable to include them in this part of the contract. For example, you might need print management, web hosting or any number of other IT-related items.
In addition to services, you want to cover responsibilities. There is a significant overlap between these concepts, but they aren’t quite the same thing. Just because your IT provider offers security services doesn’t mean they assume full responsibility for cybersecurity. Many IT concepts are complicated, and some of the responsibility will still fall on your shoulders. For example, if an employee downloads malicious software that brings down critical systems, who is responsible for that? Responsibility should always be clearly outlined in the agreement.
Responsibilities lead to guarantees. Whenever the service provider accepts responsibility, it should be paired with a guarantee. If your systems go down and you can’t conduct business, what can you expect from the IT provider? Will they guarantee uptime in a specific window? How do they compensate you if they fail to meet their guarantees? These questions are paramount.
In addition to responsibilities and guarantees, you also want to talk about operations. This is where you get into the nuts and bolts of how the service is actually provided. If you have 24/7 phone support, who are you actually calling at 3 a.m. on the weekend? Many managed IT service providers outsource to remote call centers, and it’s important to understand that. Similarly, you should know what to expect from operations related to everything covered in your agreement.
Getting Started: What to Look for in Your Managed IT Services Vendor
You know what should be in the agreement, but how do you find the right IT services vendor? For that, you want to base your search on a few crucial criteria.
The first is based on your needs. Every business has some amount of IT access. It’s necessary to get off the ground. What you want to look for is what you don’t have covered — the gaps in your IT infrastructure. When you focus on the areas of service that you need the most, you’ll gravitate toward the managed IT services vendors who cater to your specific needs.
From there, you will find prospects. At that point, you want to check their credentials. There are plenty of IT certifications that a good provider can list. You can also talk to their vendors. Good service providers tend to have good relationships with their vendors. You can also ask for recommendations. Countless businesses have been in your shoes before. Learn from them.
Lastly, you want to go through the service contract in detail. This is after you’ve narrowed down your list of prospects and selected the provider. Most managed IT contracts can be customized to provide a tailored amount of support for a business. Get into the fine print to make sure you and the service provider are clear on what should and will be provided.
Going through all of this will help you find a good managed IT services vendor. Still, you’ll have plenty of questions that crop up along the way for San Francisco or San Francisco Bay Area business. For that, you can always contact the team at Golden Gate Office Solutions. We’ll be happy to discuss your situation and your options so that you can make informed decisions and settle on a great IT contract.
