Salient IT Support › IT Support Woodland
Even though IT support partners in Woodland provide short-term support for specific issues, many SMBs will find themselves working with them regularly. This is because IT support companies are the people you need to help with projects as well as the people who deal with break/fix issues. With that in mind, here are some points to keep in mind when choosing an IT support partner in Woodland.
Think carefully about what sort of support you need
Any time you’re thinking about choosing a new IT services vendor is a good time to (re)assess your current position and define your needs and wants both at the current time and going into the future. Ideally, you should aim to look at least five years ahead (the longer the better, but very long-term planning may be too much for the average SMB).
In particular, it’s a good idea to take a long, hard look at your break/fix history and be honest about yourself about what caused the issues. If they were genuinely ad hoc events, such as projects gone wrong or the result of IT infrastructure being unexpectedly overloaded (for example due to a special promotion), then using IT support to deal with them is likely to be the best approach.
If, however, you’re experiencing problems due to a lack of regular care and maintenance, then it would usually make more sense to hire a managed IT services partner to deal with the maintenance issues, thus reducing (or possibly eliminating) the outages in the first place and making life easier for everyone.
On a similar note, if you’re planning project work to take your company forward, then getting the right IT support partner in Woodland on board could be a huge gain. If, however, you’re implementing projects to deal with recurring problems with your infrastructure, then you need to be sure you’re clear on what’s causing those problems. If it really is an issue with the IT infrastructure itself then IT support is probably your answer, but again, if it’s a lack of maintenance then you probably want to speak to a managed IT services provider.
Decide what “IT support in Woodland” actually means for you
If you just do an internet search on “IT support in Woodland”, then the chances are your results will contain a mixture of IT support companies in Woodland, IT support companies near Woodland and IT support companies that offer services in Woodland but are actually based elsewhere.
The further you are prepared to stretch your definition of “IT support in Woodland”, the more choice you will have and, in principle, choice is good, but the more chance you will have of bumping up against a couple of points which could have serious implications for your business.
First of all, the further away an IT support partner is based, the longer they will need to reach your site physically. In fact, they may not offer on-site support at all. You may be prepared to live with this since the vast majority of IT support is now delivered remotely. You may, however, want to think carefully before you make a final decision on that, because the ability to get someone on-site quickly can make a real difference in an urgent situation.
Secondly, contracts for services generally contain a clause which states that the applicable law is the one in the vendor’s locality and that you agree to settle any legal disputes through the vendor’s local courts. If you choose an IT support partner in Woodland (or at least local to Woodland), then the vendor’s local law and courts will also be your local law and courts, so, for practical purposes, this clause will be irrelevant.
If, however, you choose an IT support services who is based elsewhere, then you may find yourself struggling with the cost and inconvenience of dealing with an unfamiliar legal system and, what’s worse, you may find you do not have the legal rights you thought you did.
Check the payment terms as well as the pricing models
In the real world, cost is unlikely to be the only factor behind a decision, in fact it may not even be the main one, but it will almost certainly be a factor in the decision-making process. The key point to keep in mind is to look beyond the headline price (or, more likely prices, as most IT support partners will offer a range of IT services at different price-points) and to check the payment terms as well. For example, you might be happy to accept a slightly higher price if you get longer to pay it.
If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced IT support vendor in Woodland, please click here now to contact Salient IT.
Loading...
