Saying goodbye to a longtime IT service provider is something that no one wants to do, but it can sometimes be the best financial decision for your company. If you are constantly experiencing issues with your managed IT provider, that can be a good sign it’s time to switch. But what should you look out for? Unless an IT provider is outright mean or not doing their job, it can be hard to tell them why you’re saying goodbye. So, without further ado, here are 10 red flags that mean it’s time to find a new IT service provider.
10 IT Service Provider Red Flags — Is It Time to Find a New MSP?
Before immediately jumping the gun and choosing a different IT service provider team, it’s important to know that they are the problem and that the red flags aren’t happening through your own company by accident. Knowing whether to get a new MSP for your IT needs can be narrowed down to these 10 red flags:
1. Problems Happen on Repeat
If you are consistently experiencing IT problems through your managed service provider and you know for a fact that no one on your team is messing things up, that can be a bad sign. Whether you are experiencing yet another security breach, tasks habitually aren’t being done, or you’re not receiving any communication from them time and again, these are all problems that keep happening and won’t stop anytime soon.
2. Your Data Has Been Breached
Data breaches have impacted many organizations, but it shouldn’t be a common occurrence. If you have been a victim of a data breach, cyber attack, or other security flaws, it could be an indication that your current provider failed to put adequate safeguards in place to protect your environment. There should be multiple precautions that your managed IT provider takes to prevent these issues, but if they aren’t doing them or are completing them incorrectly, it can be a huge deal.
3. IT Professionals Don’t Seem Knowledgeable
Consistently knowing more than your managed IT services team is usually a bad sign. If you’re telling them how to do their job, they might be lacking the professional knowledge needed to accomplish your information technology needs. Another sign that perhaps your team is doing their job inefficiently is that problems keep popping up or they don’t know how to handle issues. Your MSP IT team should be knowledgeable in every aspect of the tech world to properly support your company.
4. Scalability is Lacking
An expert IT team or managed service provider should be able to bring professional scalability to the table. If your current team is constantly not meeting the ebb and flow of demands in your business or is not ensuring upward growth in the IT department, you may want to reconsider your MSP choices. Your fractional IT team should be able to supplement your team regardless of your business needs and amplify or minimize current resources to adjust accordingly. If they can’t, you may want to find a more flexible IT service solution.
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5. Transparency is a Rarity
The best-managed service provider and IT team is completely transparent with you at all times—even when they don’t want or need to be. You should be working with someone who fills you in on their daily interactions with your company, keeps you informed when situations go awry and stays honest even when they could easily hide information. While you may not always want to hear what they have to say, value the company that is completely transparent in every way, especially when it comes to faults of their own or critiques of how you’re handling IT systems currently.
6. Quality of Service Declined
When you first began working with your IT team, they may have blown you out of the water with their skill. You should still feel that way. However, if the service has continually gone downhill since signing, you may want to work with someone willing to put in the effort consistently. The best-managed service providers offer IT consultants who will offer all of their expertise at all times—not just when they are starting.
7. Strategies Are Mismatched
Do you and your fractional IT team have separate goals and strategies in how to move forward? If you can’t see eye-to-eye, chances are that you aren’t a great fit for each other. Your ideal MSP should be willing to compromise to help you meet your goals with strategies you come up with together. If you feel like it’s far from what you want, they may not be a great team for you long-term.
8. Communication is Poor
Communication is key for IT-managed service providers. Without full transparency, it can be hard to know what your MSP is doing for your business on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. On top of that, you want to be able to get in touch with your managed service providers 24/7 in case emergencies come up. If you feel that your MSP isn’t very communicative, it can destroy the trust you have for them so you’re wary of how they’ll react when you need them most. To gain confidence that your IT team will be there for you, working with a communicative, professional team is often the best route to take.
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9. Employee Turnover is High
If you keep losing employees due to bad quality technology within your company, that’s a really bad sign. Especially if the problem is even worse and your in-house IT team is saying that your MSP isn’t providing the support you need. The best thing you can do is lay out the facts and determine how much help your service provider is offering and notice whether they are working well intermingled within your business. If the situation isn’t great in the relationship department and you’re losing people, this is a huge red flag.
10. Customer Service is Lacking
How well your IT team and managed service provider are doing is made apparent in the quality of your customer service. If problems take forever to be fixed, communication is lacking, or you feel that you can’t rely on your service provider, that’s a huge red flag. After all, your fractional IT customer service is just as important as your own customer service that your company offers. If you are a company that wouldn’t let your experience with customers lack, why would you put up with the same for yourself?
How to Find a Great Managed Service Provider for Your Business
With these 10 red flags that mean it’s time to find a new IT service provider, you’ll be able to clearly tell whether your current MSP is the right one for your business. If you only ticked off one or two on the list, you may be able to fix the problem with some communication. But if you mentally checked off a majority of the list as you read, you may want to switch to a better service provider.
If you’re searching for a great IT service provider to supplement your company, Premier IT has a surplus of experienced professionals available. Our expert team helps with technical consulting, computer and network support, and so much more. Contact us today to see if we’d be a good fit for your business needs.
Premier IT is a Minnesota based managed IT services provider with a dedicated IT support team that manages all your technology needs. We pay attention to the details so you can focus on what you do best. We provide technical consulting, hosted infrastructure, computer & network support, security, Microsoft support, repairs, network monitoring and more. If your small business needs reliable technical support, contact our team of experienced technicians and engineers.