Whoever it may be—guy, girl, company—whoever holds the keys to your IT kingdom had better be someone you can trust, and someone who is doing a good job. You just can’t afford to get this wrong.
Your IT guy is the one with the most access to your valuable network—the heart of your business—and thus the most power to wield for good or evil.
Think about it—if this person were to disappear, would you know where all your passwords, software license, disks, etc., are stored? Do you have complete network documentation should you require another person to step in? Scary. Don’t leave yourself vulnerable.
Here are some questions to ask yourself about your IT provider. You should have all YESes. If you answer NO to any of these, you might want to think about finding someone who can do a better job for you.
- Are they available for live phone consultation? Do they respond in an hour or less when you’ve got emergency tech support issues?
- Are they keeping your network remotely monitored nonstop, and up to date on security settings, patches and viruses?
- Are they vigilant about offsite and onsite backup monitoring, or do they not care if you are still using unreliable tape backups?
- Do they periodically conduct test restores of your backups to make sure they’ll work in the event of a real disaster?
- Have they give you full documentation of your network, including network passwords, software licenses, and hardware info, or are they the sole keeper of the secrets?
- Are they always looking for ways to improve your operations, offering suggestions and new ideas? Or are they only there when you have a problem?
- Are the timely and proactive it responding to your inquiries, providing status reports and progress without you having to hunt them down?
- Do they explain things in regular people language and not tech talk? Or do they sort of enjoy keeping you in the dark about what they do?
- Do they bill you at a fixed rate or is it open ended to cover their time and materials?
If you can say NO to any of the above, we’d like to give you a free IT assessment to set your mind at ease. It’s your right and freedom to get the best IT service possible, with someone you trust. We’ll check the “health” of your current operations and look for any places where improvements can be made to help you avoid data loss or other costly errors. Contact Techno Advantage today, and rest easy.
