Your business can benefit from working with a Technology provider. However, you need to avoid key mistakes when choosing your Partner.
Time spent on trying to figure out the technology you use in your business can be costly. If you are focused on the technology and making it work, you aren’t focused on your business.
This is where Technology providers come in.
They enable you to outsource your technology needs, such as: support, security, cloud hosted solutions, etc. Service providers can help you establish a robust technology infrastructure, allowing you to direct your attention to revenue-generating activities.
While there are numerous service providers to choose from, not all of them can accommodate your business’s specific needs. Integrating with the wrong partner can cause unexpected headaches. Irrelevant services, recurring security issues, data backup problems, downtime; these can all lead to increased spending and a loss of productivity.
You need to be cautious when selecting your partner. Avoid disappointment by keeping these eight common mistakes in mind when looking for a technology provider.
Insisting on the Newest Technology
The technology landscape is ever evolving. This can lead to the false belief that the latest technology will resolve all your issues. While the latest and greatest technology can boost operations in enterprises, they might be the right fit for your business.
Don’t let the hype surrounding new products and services dazzle you.
Your service provider shouldn’t confuse you with state-of-the-art features – they should provide guidance in helping you find the right technology solutions to solve the problems your business struggles with. Carefully consider the results your provider can help you achieve and determine if the investment enables you to fulfill your business goals.
Failure to Consider Response Times
Determining the response times of your prospective providers is essential. You need to ask them how long they usually take to reply to queries and resolve problems. Be sure to gauge their onsite support efficiency, too.
Not inquiring about their availability is another grave error. Your partner should provide round-the-clock services, including monitor your various systems.
Monitoring and availability can help ensure you can detect issues early on. The service provider can immediately administer patches and updates to safeguard against disasters.
Your service provider should offer simple access to their support services. You should be able to contact them via email, phone, and chat for instant guidance.
Neglecting Security
Disregarding the security services, policies, and procedures of your service provider might is one of the most severe mistakes a business owner can make. Partners with improper defense mechanisms can’t shield your environment from cyberattacks, increasing the risk of data loss and access to resources.
Look for service providers that can protect you from malware, ransomware, and other nefarious cyber threats. They also need to prioritize protecting your business’s confidential data, like trade secrets and customer information.
When it comes to specific security measures, your service provider should have features that prevent data intrusions instantly upon detection. The list should include services like phishing testing and training, web content filtering, DNS security, endpoint protection, and dark web monitoring.
Responsible partners should eliminate network intrusions before they compromise your system. Making sure they abide by security compliance and government regulations is also paramount.
Forgetting the Budget
There are service providers operate under pay-as-you-go pricing model. Although this helps you minimize upfront investment, adopting many technologies simultaneously without considering the recurring costs can cripple your finances.
Think twice before signing on the dotted line.
Research service providers thoroughly and draft your budget with professional assistance. Consider partnering with a service provider who favours fixed fee services over the pay-as-you-go model. These steps can prevent considerable frustration and can help you avoid unexpected technology related costs.
Not Determining Scalability
One of the biggest impediments to growing your company is choosing a service provider with poor scalability.
By contrast, scalable partners allow your business to evolve and grow. They can continually extend their services to accommodate your business goals, even if these goals change over time.
Opting for Non-Responsive Service Level Objectives
Service level objectives (SLOs) hold providers accountable for their services. It establishes standards for responsibilities, quality, scope, and delivery time in writing. Without an SLO, you’ll have no way of ensuring transparent collaboration.
When selecting your service provider, find one with a responsive agreement. It can help guarantee the SLO scales with their services while rendering continual improvement.
Lack of Training and Feedback
The story doesn’t end once you’ve found and partnered with a trustworthy service provider. Innovative technologies won’t magically increase your bottom line.
To accomplish your goals, your employees will still need to understand how to use the technology solutions you and your service provider put in place. Bear in mind that not every team member will have the capacity to grasp new tools easily. Some may even prefer the existing platforms.
Partner with a service provider who can train them. These professionals should simplify any complex steps and advise your staff on making the most out of your technology investments.
There are businesses that set up regular training but fail to monitor their team’s performance. This is a huge mistake, as it keeps you from assessing your employee’s response to modern technologies.
Conduct questionnaires and other forms of feedback collection to determine and address any weaknesses.
Ignoring Experience
Choosing a service provider is like buying any other product or service. Failure to check user reviews can lead to disappointment.
To get a clear picture of your partner’s capabilities, analyze their current and previous clients from similar industries. Look for reviews, testimonials, and ask the provider for a list of projects and references.
After doing your due diligence, you should be able to tell whether a service provider is an ideal match for your company.
Keep in mind that every partner is different. For instance, they might be well-versed in the Legal industry but have no experience working with Marketing Agencies. Stick to providers servicing your industry.
Find the Right Fit
Nobody wants to end up with a provider that can’t deliver impressive results, doesn’t have the right solutions for you and your business, and leaves your company open to cyberattacks. Your investment in technology should help your business, not hinder it.
Luckily, Aggeris is here to help.
Let’s arrange a quick 10-15-minute chat. We can discuss more ways on how to find the right Partner for you and your business.
Featured Image Credit | This Article has been sourced with Permission from The Technology Press.