A Complete Checklist of What an IT Company Should Be Doing for You
There are several factors to consider when choosing an IT service provider; at the top of the list are the services they can offer your organization. However, with technology advancing by the day, it continually gets challenging to precisely know what an IT company should be doing for you.
V&C Solutions put up the following Essential Guide on what to expect from your current or new IT company:
- Help You Save On Costs: For most businesses, IT support accounts for a significant chunk of their budgets. The least you can expect is an IT company that helps you minimize support costs. Be wary of service providers that nickel and dime you. They will continually increase your service bills; and, in most cases, offer poor services.
- Manage Your Data Security: With cyber-attacks becoming more frequent and sophisticated, data security is one of the essential services you can expect from your IT team. They should implement robust intrusion detection and prevention measures, monitor your systems, regularly assess your network, and conduct patches and software updates.
- Monitor and Maintain Your Networks: Your internal staff can only keep an eye on your systems by day. Depending on your SLA, the IT company should provide network monitoring all-day every day. This is particularly essential because the earlier you can identify threats in your systems, the less the overall impact.
- Cloud Computing Services: Businesses are increasingly moving to the Cloud to enable remote accessibility, reduce IT costs, increase scalability and flexibility, enhance data security, and better backup and recovery solutions. For your business to fully relish these windfalls, you need the support of your IT company. A service provider will only shy from offering Cloud management services if they’re not well conversant with it.
- Help With Implementing New Technologies: IT is always evolving, and new inventions keep on emerging. However, not every tech buzz is the new cloud. Some technologies may be beneficial but just not appropriate for your line of business. The IT company should help you identify the right technologies for your organization, implement them cost-effectively, and draw maximum ROI from them.
- Data Backup and Disaster Recovery: In this digital age, data is everything — for both corporates and individuals. That’s why bad cyber actors are always after files and credentials. If they can block your access to data, they know for sure that they’ll hamper most basic, if not all, operations. That’s why your IT service provider should prioritize data backup and disaster recovery. And this is not just about sending copies of your files to the Cloud at least twice a day. They should also regularly confirm the integrity of your cloud backups. The IT company must design and continually update a data recovery plan as cyber threat dynamics keep evolving.
- Help Desk Services: Is your IT service provider still available for consultation as they were when they were trying to have you list their services? If not, you’re working with the wrong team. Things won’t always run smoothly. You can expect occasional site snarl-ups, pixelated videos, or poor call qualities, etc. It happens even with the best IT companies. What matters is how they handle it. Is the help desk service always available for consultation? A good service provider is always available to listen to your issues and will resolve them in time.
- Compliance Services: According to Verizon’s 2015 PCI DDS report, 80% of companies still struggle with compliance issues. The compliance landscape is continually changing; new regulations are made as the existing ones are adjusted. It’s no longer just about finding an IT company that offers Compliance-as-a-Service; they must demonstrate competence and experience in handling compliance within your specific industry.
- Cybersecurity Training: The security measures implemented by your IT firm are only as good as your staff is conversant with them. The service provider should regularly train your staff on threat detection and prevention and fast-response protocols in case of a breach. And this should not be a one-day event. A good IT company also regularly launches simulated attacks to gauge your employees’ preparedness levels.
For any further clarifications, V&C Solutions is here to help. We pride ourselves in offering state-of-the-art IT solutions to businesses in San Jose, East Bay, and The Peninsula since 2005. Our experts provide reliable, hands-on, and comprehensive IT services that will keep your business at the forefront of the latest technology.
Contact Us Today, and we’ll be glad to discuss your IT support needs.
