Partnering with a managed IT services provider is a great way to offload some, or even all, of your technology planning and support work so that you can focus on activities related to your core expertise – delivering your business’s products and services. If you find yourself frequently distracted from that focus, you might be working with the wrong provider.

Here are some common warning signs that the managed IT services provider you’re working with might not be the best for your company.

Your IT Provider is Reactive, Not Proactive, in Their Approach

One of the benefits of working with a good IT provider is that they can think about not just today’s problems but issues you may face in the future. Taking steps to avoid outages and other potential problems helps keep your business running without interruptions. These steps can include putting systems in place to continuously monitor hardware performance, running diagnostic tools regularly, and much more. Proactive measures like these will help to prevent serious problems from happening in the first place.

Other things to watch out for with your IT service provider include:

  • No Regularly Scheduled Meetings
    As a customer, you should be able to discuss issues and strategies with your MSP and ask questions when the need arises. Besides being able to reach your provider via phone and email for quick exchanges when you need to, having regularly scheduled meetings also provides a good opportunity to conduct more in-depth discussions. They are essential to helping you ensure things stay on the right track and keep both parties in sync.
  • Frequent Hardware Issues
    A good IT service provider should advise you on the most reliable equipment, run diagnostics regularly, and engage in preventive maintenance to keep things running smoothly. They should also be familiar with the useful life of your equipment. While occasional hardware problems are unavoidable, they should be rare if your MSP knows your systems and tracks your hardware’s condition and performance on an ongoing basis.
  • Frequent Network Outages

Network failures and email downtime can be devastating to a business. If you frequently need to contact your IT provider to deal with network outages, that is a problem. In addition to taking measures to minimize the risk of cyber-attacks, your provider should also know how to handle the more common causes of outages. This includes identifying and correcting weak points in your network and ensuring your network hardware and connections are robust and reliable enough to support your business’s workloads. Setting up backup power systems and redundant network connections are other ways to help you reduce network downtime.

  • Poor Service

Your IT service provider should be helping your team leverage the power of technology to improve the operation of your company, not get in the way of it. If you notice that your providers are rude or condescending to your employees, that’s a huge red flag.  The best IT support personnel are patient and treat you and your employees in a professional and courteous manner. They typically love technology and derive a strong sense of satisfaction from helping people solve technical problems.

Another sign of poor service is when your team must constantly reach out for updates on previously reported issues. Once a problem or question is reported to the IT providers, it should be addressed in a timely manner. If a problem turns out to be more complex, a good IT support team member will inform you, provide regular updates on their progress, and look for workarounds for you.

  • Invoices that are Difficult to Understand

While it’s no secret that IT service providers are running a business and need to make money, this should be done in an open and transparent way. If you look at the invoice from your provider and something seems off, this may be a concern. Some providers’ invoices will be overly detailed, making them too overwhelming to look at. Others may be too vague, making it difficult for you to understand exactly what services you are actually getting for your money. A good provider will provide you with concise invoices with enough detail to make them easy for you to understand.

Are You Working with the Right MSP?

If you’re in the Bay Area or Central Valley and unhappy with your current technical provider, it may be time for a change. GSDSolutions is a well-regarded IT services provider serving the Bay Area and Central Valley that can help you ensure that your technology is working the way it should at all times. If you think your managed IT services are not being handled the way they should be, contact GSDSolutions to see how we can help!

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