You decided you want to hire a local IT company to manage and fix your IT problems, but you can’t figure out how to choose the right one. Technology will continue to evolve into the future, and many businesses outsource their IT to make things easier for their business. Unfortunately, many IT companies look the same, making it hard to choose. Let’s take a look at how to pick the right IT company.
Choose Local for Convenience
In general, we recommend that you hire one of the local IT companies. Let’s say that you choose a remote IT company. While they can often handle issues remotely, on-site help becomes difficult without assistance. In most cases, they will send a technician through a third-party vendor. Nothing wrong with that except that this can take days depending on availability.
Choose Industry-Specific Companies
Every industry uses varying technologies, and they will need to do different things to stay in compliance. For that reason, you may find it helpful to seek a company with experience in your industry. Google “local IT services near me” to find one specific to your industry.
You don’t necessarily require a specialist. Instead, ask if they have ever worked with a business in your industry or if they carry certifications. The experience of working with another company like yours will make them more knowledgeable. At the same time, it ensures that they know how to handle the potential issues that can arise in your industry.
What Size Businesses Do They Commonly Serve?
Occasionally, you will see an IT company brag about how it worked with a Fortune 500 company. That may lend them credibility, but it won’t help a small company. Managed IT companies that work with large corporations will differ greatly in needs from small businesses. For example, Walmart earned $600.11 billion in 2022.
They have a limitless level of resources that small companies won’t have. IT companies that work with that sized company may not grasp how limited your budget is. As a result, their recommendations will have limited effectiveness because they won’t know about the best technologies for small businesses.
If you’re a small business, you want a company that works with small businesses. This is because they will know the best technologies for small business owners.
Understands Your Technologies
Your IT support should know how to handle the applications that your business needs. Even tech professionals will need time to learn an application, so you want someone familiar with it from the start to speed up solving your IT problems.
Many companies mistakenly think that software development professionals will understand IT infrastructure problems. We emphasize that software development and outsourced IT will differ completely. They are not the same profession. Software development helps you develop products and applications, whereas IT support will fix your technology problems.
Responsive: A Must
Never settle for someone who waits lengthy periods to respond to your tech problems. When your business has a problem, you need it solved immediately. Few businesses can handle their technology going out for long stretches at a time. This can cost you tens of thousands of dollars.
How can you ensure that you hire a responsive IT company? First, do your research and check the reviews thoroughly at different sites. Next, ask plenty of questions about the response time. Ask them how quickly they typically resolve a problem. Check to see how long it takes for them to send out a technician for on-site support.
Along with this, check the service level agreement (SLA), which will contain important things in it like availability, responsiveness, quality, guaranteed uptime, and communication. The SLA will describe the services and lay out the metrics that they use to measure the services. At the same time, it will show what penalties will be agreed upon if they fail to meet those conditions.
Who They Partner With
You can check to see how reputable an IT company is based on who they partner with. Your typical reputable companies will partner with bigger manufacturers like Dell, Microsoft, and HP. You may want to check to see if the staff hold certifications of their own since this can indicate further value for your business.
Never worry about asking for a list of their partnerships. Most IT companies will gladly provide this information because they feel proud of their partnerships. Not only that, but if you hire this company, these are the businesses that will support your technology.
Communication Matters
Communication is the foundation of a good IT company. When you send out emails or call and they don’t respond quickly, take it as a warning sign. If they can’t answer your simple inquiry, how do you think they’ll respond after they have your money? When your IT systems freeze, you deserve better support than this.
Google “local IT support companies near me,” and you will see plenty of companies come up from the list. Never settle for a company that doesn’t provide you with dependable IT services. When you have your customers waiting on you due to the IT system, it looks bad if you can’t resolve it quickly. The issue with someone else’s company will make your own company look bad.
Look for professionals who respond fast and remain conscientious about how they respond to questions. They should be focused on resolving your IT problems quickly and effectively.
Conclusion
At PCH Technologies, we offer premier IT support that will support your daily business operations. We will save you time and money, which translates to better business growth for you. When your technology runs smoothly, everything else will run better. We all depend on technology to keep our business operations running, and business has now become a 24-hour game. Our technicians will ensure that your IT infrastructure is as free from problems as possible. If you’d like to learn more, call us at (856) 754-7500.