What to Look for in Choosing an IT Support Provider

Will the Honeymoon With Your IT Support Company in Atlanta Continue?

We recently posted an article about how choosing an IT support provider in Atlanta is a lot like dating. You can read that post HERE, but to summarize, you’ll want to take some time to get to know them before signing on the dotted line. How long have they been around? Who makes up their leadership team? Does their culture mesh with yours? Is the help desk outsourced? Will you have to deal with someone who speaks broken English and is difficult to understand? What is their standard procedure for dealing with issues? How soon can you expect a response when reporting a problem? Is there a money-back guarantee? What kind of service can you expect?

In turn, have they taken the time to listen to your IT wants and needs? Do you feel they truly understand your company’s culture, vision and the direction in which you want to go? Do they have a plan to help you get there? Are they equipped to guide you in making technology decisions or are they simply going to maintain your network? Only after all the boxes have been checked during this courtship phase should you consider taking this relationship to the next level and make a commitment.

But it’s been said, dating behavior is usually as good as it gets. Is there really any way to tell if this new relationship with your managed services provider (MSP) is going to work out? Did they merely put on an exceptional dog and pony show to sell you? Will the honeymoon last or will you find yourself left with nothing but IT headaches and heartaches?

An operationally mature MSP should be able to provide you with several references who can vouch for their expertise and track record. If not, run! And if they can’t provide you with a detailed timeline with deadlines and deliverables of your project’s execution, your onboarding could drag out much longer than expected.

MIS Solutions has a proven process that seamlessly takes its clients from the initial discovery call all the way through to service and management of their technology environment. That process includes keeping clients in the loop about what to expect from the very first meeting and guarantees that they’ll never be left in the dark wondering what is going on with their project or network. Clear and constant communication is the very foundation for building healthy relationships with our clients, which is why we map out and document every step in onboarding new clients. Not only does the MIS team communicate with our clients, we communicate internally so that every person touching your account is on the same page. This team approach is what ensures your onboarding experience will be as smooth as possible.

MIS’s Sales-to-Service process looks like this:

Internal Briefing. Once the agreement has been signed, the MIS sales team meets with the projects team to review all notes, audit results, recommendations, hardware and licensing documentation, and the services that the client has selected. “We go over every item that was discussed and promised so that our team is brought up to speed on what our deliverables are and what the customer expects,” said Rich O’Connell, Vice President of Technology Services. “No detail is left out; we go to such great lengths to avoid any surprises during the onboarding process.”

Project Charter Meeting. After the projects team has been thoroughly briefed, a project charter meeting is scheduled with the client to review the services that the client has chosen and go over the onboarding process. During this meeting, the client will meet the project manager and lead engineer who will be working closely with the client during onboarding. The client will be presented with a project timeline that includes deadlines and dates that major milestones should be completed. The project lead will also provide a detailed list of what information is needed from the client and their current vendors in order to keep the project flowing smoothly.

That’s not to say that there aren’t occasional hiccups along the way. But even in those instances, our team never leaves a client guessing what the next step is or how we are addressing the issue. “We are a highly accountable MSP which means we are going to take ownership of the project and deliver exactly what we promised. Keeping the client informed every step of the way helps assure them of that,” said O’Connell.

User Acceptance Testing. Before the cutover is made, the client’s subject matter experts – those employees most familiar with key components and applications used to run their business – will test them. “Especially if a client is migrating to MIS’s Greenlight Cloud solution, we want to be 100-percent certain that the application will work exactly as they want it to in our private cloud. For example, if a client uses special accounting software, we will have them test it thoroughly in our cloud environment before switching over.”

Cutover Date Scheduled. Once the client is comfortable that everything is going to work exactly as it’s supposed to, a cutover date is set and then implemented. A meeting is then scheduled to introduce the service team and account manager, which sets in motion, the next phase of the MIS Solutions’ proven process. The service team is responsible from here out for troubleshooting any issues that might pop up in addition to adding new end users and deleting old employees from the network. The client’s account manager will be the main point of contact and will continue working with the client to ensure MIS is meeting their technology and business needs.

If you are concerned about your network or have security issues, we would like to show you how our proven process works first hand. CLICK HERE to get started!

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We’ll discuss your IT requirements and assess whether we’re the right fit for you.

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