Managed IT services providers or MSPs offer everything from IT consulting to cloud management to cybersecurity, practically serving as IT departments to non-IT firms. If you’re currently availing of managed services, how do you know that you’re getting what you’re paying for? Here are the signs that will tell you to switch to another MSP:
1. The light at the end of the tunnel always seems to be dim and far away
In other words, your MSP keeps failing to assuage your fears that stem from IT-related concerns, such as cyberthreats and poor IT performance. you trust your MSP to be there for you as soon as an issue arises.
However, if you’re always the one reaching out to your MSP to raise a concern, you’re already in trouble. A good MSP always monitors your situation and should more often than not be the one to notify you of trouble brewing.
What makes matters worse is not knowing who to convey your concerns to in the first place. You want your MSP to assign you a dedicated account manager as well as have a 24/7/365 support desk for all of their clients. If you’re always assisted by a new person, they’ll have to burn time familiarizing themselves with your account instead of hearing you out and tackling your problem immediately.
To illustrate, imagine seeing your eCommerce website slow down to a crawl during Black Friday. Every hour your site is unresponsive means thousands of dollars in lost revenue. Since you don’t know who to talk to at your MSP, you dial the number you used to contact their marketing department, and it takes a while before they patch you through to the service department. The line’s always busy, but you let the call waiting jingle loop on repeat anyway (because you’re desperate) until someone finally answers it. The respondent has no clue who you are or what their company does for yours, so they pull up your files before asking what they can do for you. Clearly, they haven’t been monitoring your website’s performance, so they need even more time to look into the situation before they can come up with a proper course of action.
As you wait, you make rough calculations in your head. Based on previous years’ sales performance, you know that hundreds of potential customers have already jumped to your competitors’ websites by now. At this stage, even if the MSP is already on your case, it still feels like there’s a long way to go — that the light at the end of the tunnel remains dim and far away.
The good news is that you never have to feel this way again — just switch to a more communicative and reliable MSP like Safebit .
2. Your business keeps suffering problems — and these are often the same ones
The longer an MSP serves you, the shorter your list of trouble tickets should become. That is, your organization may have a long IT to-do list — which is why you partner up with an MSP in the first place. As proof of their effectiveness, that MSP ought to chip that list down faster than it grows. However, if problems keep on recurring, then the MSP’s solutions aren’t working, which ought to make you wonder whether you should continue to pay them.
3. You suffer bill shock
A good MSP keeps you apprised of the services it renders to you so that you always know what you’re spending on and that you’re able to always remain on budget. If an MSP ambushes you with blown up or unexpected charges, they’ll likely bleed you dry unless you cut ties with them first.
4. Your MSP can’t keep up with the times and your growing needs
If you’re the one who alerts your MSP of new data regulations that affect your company, you need to find another MSP, stat.
If your MSP insists that your organization use password managers when you’ve long indicated that you’re going passwordless, then find another MSP that can help do that for you.
If your business is growing rapidly and your current MSP has no knowledge or experience in building IT systems for enterprises, we highly recommend that you do not stick with that MSP, for they’re only likely to stifle your growth. You need a partner that can fulfill your current needs and also help you scale up along the way.
Any of these signs is a dealbreaker. Thankfully, you can rely on Safebit for practically all of your IT needs. Tell us more about your business requirements by dropping us a line today.
