Managed IT Service Provider that is right for your business
To manage and operate technologies that get released and get updates every now is not an easy task for a business that needs to focus on its core business operations that directly generate revenues and keep the company going. Finding a managed IT Service Provider in Tanzania is also quite a task. To find one, the criteria that make a good Managed IT service provider need to be known so that to make it easy in the whole process.
Before going into the nitty-gritty of knowing who fits the right MSP for your business. Let’s get to understand who is a Managed IT Service Provider. A Managed IT Service Provider (MSP) is a third-party entity that plays the role of managing your IT infrastructure. The MSP is the one whom you rely on when it comes to managing your IT systems. So that you get to focus on other business activities.
After getting a brief of knowing who is an MSP, let’s dive in and get to know what should we consider in opting for the right one.
1. An MSP who is eager to play a significant role in supporting your business
Such an MSP is the one who is willing to take time and learn how your business operates and know who your stakeholders are. After getting to know what matters to your business and what needs to be resolved, the MSP is likely to come up with the right strategy for your business to support your business to move forward.
2. MSP’s reputation
It is important to find out the reputation of the MSP from the clients the MSP has worked with earlier. You can find out through the portfolio of the MSP and get to know who the MSP currently serves. Such information can also be found through the MSP’s website get to know who the MSP works with and your organization can confront the MSP and get more details on how they operate.
This will aid in making sure that you are choosing the right MSP who will be a key help to your business when it comes to managing technical issues and coming up with solutions that will play a significant role in moving your organization forward through meeting your firm’s organizational goals and objectives.
3. Collection of solutions provided by the MSP
Take the time to find out what the MSP provides. A good and right MSP for your business is to be the one who has a collection of solutions that can be integrated to come up with one unified solution for your business. An MSP should consider all the requirements for managing the IT infrastructure of a business. For example, an MSP might have security solutions, networking solutions and application solutions all under one roof.
These solutions are well-integrated by the MSP and can be delivered to your business as a bundle which makes it affordable and easily managed as all the services are offered by one MSP who knows how to integrate them and have them operate smoothly. Choosing different MSPs for each solution can lead to difficulties in managing and integrating the solutions and end up in poor performance as well as service delivery.
Read more about Server Management Solutions in Tanzania.
4. MSP’s Proactiveness
An MSP who goes with a reactive approach is not to suit a business that wants to excel in what it does. A reactive approach is not suitable in the sense that it could lead to downtime, and data loss and recovering in such a situation takes time and resources and this is not something that a business prefers. A proactive approach is a right approach to go with through which the MSP does consistent monitoring of your IT infrastructure and is in a position to prevent most issues from taking place before they cause a gradual decline in your operations in your business.
The MSP has to do live, consistent monitoring of its client’s infrastructure. This is one of the things that you should ask the MSP on how the MSP plans to monitor your systems by employing certain tools, strategies and approaches in a way that it is to facilitate the prevention of downtime and other dislocations.
5. MSP’s Service Level Agreement (SLA)
The SLA between you and the MSP should be free from confusion or doubt so that it makes it easy for both parties to cognize what to expect as the service is delivered. All clauses should be written down and agreed upon by both parties. The SLA will play a substantial role in knowing who is responsible for what, it is to clarify the boundaries for each party and assist in resolving disputes when they arise.
Some of the clauses or articles to have in an SLA is a detailed explanation of:
- what service the MSP is to deliver
- Ways of contacting each other (by email, text or chat)
- Performance that the customer should expect
- Responsibilities of customer and MSP
To conclude, an MSP is important for a business that wants prominent performance by powering its business or large organization with IT infrastructure performing at its best. A business can go for having IT infrastructure that costs the business a fortune but if the technology infrastructure is not well managed, it will be a loss to both the organization and even to the customers who rely on services from the business.
Further reading ZOHO and its role in a small business’s growth.
