Salient IT Support > Managed IT Services Yuba City
Choosing a managed IT services partner in Yuba City
Thanks to the managed IT services industry, many SMBs are now able to organize the effective care and maintenance of their basic IT infrastructure without the hassle of having to recruit, retain and manage an in-house IT team to deal with the many tasks this involves. A good managed IT services partner can become an invaluable asset to any business, so it makes sense to do everything you can to pick the right one for your organization. With that in mind, here are some tips on how to pick the right managed IT services partner in Yuba City.
Start by working out where you are now
It’s tempting to say “start with the end in mind” and while there is a lot of truth in that, you can only work out how to get where you want to be if you actually know where you are now. In particular, you want to work out what is working well and what isn’t and then determine what needs to be done to rectify any existing issues.
You’ll need to put your system in good working order before you hand it over to a managed IT services partner. In fact, you may even need to upgrade it to meet their standards. Ideally, you’ll sort out any issues with your infrastructure at an early stage so that you get clear oversight of how your systems perform when they are working at their current best. This will become your baseline for any subsequent decisions.
Check for likely changes to the law and compliance programs
Both laws and the requirements of compliance programs change over time and changes are usually signaled long before they become mandatory requirements. It, therefore, makes sense to use the hiring of a new managed IT services vendor as an opportunity to check what legal and regulatory changes look like they could be in the pipeline. This is particularly important if your managed IT services partner is going to have any sort of responsibility for or even just access to sensitive data or if they could potentially do so in future.
Keep in mind that both the law and compliance programs hold your organization accountable for the protection of any personal data which is given to you. This includes data from your own employees. If anything happens to that data then “my managed IT services vendor” did it will not be accepted as an excuse. You are expected to exercise appropriate supervision over any vendors who work for you.
Both practically and legally, this will probably be a whole lot easier if you work with a managed IT services vendor in Yuba City or at least near Yuba City, rather than a managed IT services vendor which just offers services in Yuba City but is based elsewhere. Not only will you have much more opportunity to interact with them in person and see and hear what is going on, but you will have the reassurance of knowing that they will answer to the exact same set of law-enforcers/regulators as you do.
Think about your future plans and what they mean for your needs, wants and budget
This may be the most important step in the managed IT services vendor-hiring process. Over the long term, using managed IT services is both massively convenient and extremely cost-effective. Over the short-term, however, you will have to go through the upheaval and expense of a migration. Ideally, therefore, you should make that effort worthwhile by making sure that you are migrating to a managed IT services partner who can support you for years to come and that means you need to have an idea of what you’ll be doing in years to come.
The clearer you can be about your needs, wants and budget, the easier it will be for both you and any potential managed IT services partner to see where they could fit into your plans. Defining your needs and wants essentially means getting feedback from all relevant stakeholders to identify what they would like to see over at least the next five years. Defining your budget, however, can be a bit more complicated.
Remember that managed IT services providers only deal with regular care-and-maintenance tasks. Anything else has to be handled either by an in-house IT team or (these days more likely) an alternative vendor, usually IT support. A managed IT services vendor may well have their own in-house IT support team, but using their services will incur an extra cost. You therefore have to think carefully about how much you are likely to need to spend on projects and break/fix work (or insurance to cover the latter) before agreeing your final budget.
If you’d like to speak to a reputable and experienced managed IT services partner in Yuba City, please click here now to speak to Salient IT.
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