When IT Support Goes Wrong: How to Know When to Find a New IT Partner

Introduction

For over two decades, IT support has been at the heart of modern business.

In the early days, that meant a handful of desktop PCs in an office, but in today’s digital age, the role of IT support is much expanded. Laptops, smartphones, tablets, home-based devices — and all the software required to run them — requires robust technical support for the best results.

But are you getting the best results from your existing IT support partner?

If you recognise any of the issues listed below, it might be time to revisit your IT strategy and the provider you’ve chosen to deliver it.

You’re being charged on a break/fix basis (and costs are piling up)

As we’ve covered in depth in the past on the Get Support blog, there are broadly two types of IT support your business can pick from: a Managed Support Provider (MSP) or the break/fix model.

It can be tempting – at least initially – to go for the break/fix model, because it might mean you pay less in the short-term. In reality, it’s generally far wiser to go for a subscription-based MSP option. So, if you are receiving IT support on a break/fix basis, it might be worth totting up how much you’ve spent over the years – it may not be as cost-effective as you think.

You’re being left hanging when you need IT support the most

Response time is one of the most critical attributes of an IT support team. A bit like a car breakdown service, the sooner they can tend to your problem, the sooner your business can be back up and running and serving your customers.

We know there’s nothing more frustrating than facing an IT problem and having nobody answering your calls. That’s why if you’re experiencing a degradation or reduction in the response time of your IT support provider, it’s worth potentially revisiting your contract. For example, are there Service Level Agreements (SLAs) which are being breached by slow response times? If so, you might be able to activate a break clause and look for a new IT support provider sooner rather than later.

The same issues keep coming up and not being fixed

Dovetailing nicely with the response time of your IT support team is their ability to keep issues at bay once they’ve been solved. Of course, no IT team is infallible, so there’ll always be occasions when problems crop back up again after a certain amount of time – but there is a limit.

Trust your instincts: if you feel that a particular IT problem should have been solved a long time ago, but it keeps rearing its head, it’s worth exploring your options. You could even ask another potential IT support partner how they’d handle this particular problem to see if their answer is more convincing.

Hey, sometimes the grass is greener.

You’ve suffered from an unmitigated cyberattack

As we’ve discussed many times here on the Get Support blog, cyber attacks are on the rise every year – especially since we’ve all been working remotely more often.

One of the biggest problems with the malware attacks we’re seeing these days is that they can often go undetected for a long time before an IT support team notices and eliminates the threat. Of course, if we’re talking about a trojan horse attack, critical files or financial information may have been compromised months ago without you knowing a thing.

If you do see reports of cyberattacks (or even attempts) on your company, be sure to ask your IT support team for clear timelines – and ask how they helped mitigate the attacks. If they can’t answer, you know what to do.

You’re being stung with hidden fees by your Managed Service Provider

If there’s one thing that really sticks in our craw at Get Support, it’s the idea of hidden costs sneaking up on customers. We’ve all been victim to this in some aspect of our lives, and it’s becoming ever more common in IT circles with some apps now locking away functionality until customers cough up. (Yes, the ‘in app purchase’ has a lot to answer for).

When it comes to IT support, we believe the best approach is to build a custom package of IT services tailored to your business, giving you the choice to decide what you need (and what you don’t) on an ongoing basis, then agree all pricing before the contract begins – so there’ll be no nasty surprise bills. It’s another reason that we feel the MSP model is just a much fairer way to handle technical support like this: you pay a flat fee, you get a reliable service whenever you need it. No ifs, no buts, and no hidden fees – or unexpected bills landing on your doorstep or inbox.

Talk to an IT support team you can trust

If you recognise one or more of the problems above, it’s certainly time for you to revisit the provisioning of your IT support, but don’t worry — help is at hand.

As one of the UK’s longest-established Managed Service Providers, our team of IT support experts can help you troubleshoot, configure, install, monitor, update, and much more.

To chat to the team about our IT support agreements today, call us now on 01865 594 000 or simply drop your details into the form below and we’ll be in touch.