How to Select a Remote Support Service Provider?

If you are looking for Cost Effective Systems Management for a Small Business, to support your computer systems, how do you select the best Systems Management Company for your business? What are the keys things that you should look for?

Most Remote Support Service Providers provide very similar core services, so you need to look at the items that they use to differentiate themselves from the crowd. At the core all of the RSSPs will provide:-

• Patch Management
• HelpDesk
• Monitoring
• Reporting

Remote Support Service – Will it fix the problem?

Will the Remote Support Service Provider simply tell you that a problem has occurred, or will they actually fix the problem for you? If all they are going to do is tell you that a problem has occurred then they are of limited use.

Remote Support Service – Application Expertise

Find a Remote Support Service Provider (RSSP) who understands how to look after the key services that your business relies on. In addition to the obvious things like do they support your mail system, Exchange, Lotus Domino etc. you may want to find out about specific Line of Business application support.

If your business is growing, make sure that they understand what you are planning for the future. e.g. If you are looking to have home workers or multiple offices in the future, then an RSSP who can also provide VoIP might be helpful, as would the ability to provided hosted services – like Microsoft Office 365, BPOS, Hosted Exchange etc.

In addition to fixing things for you do they also provide advice and guidance, which could help reduce your IT costs, around future technologies and trends? Ideally you want a company who will act as your IT department providing advice and guidance as and when required.

Remote Support Service – Experience

Find a Remote Support Service Provider (RSSP) who is experienced in providing software support, rather than a hardware support provider who is dabbling in Services.

• Are they used to supporting customers of your size or will you be their largest customer?
• Are they experienced in Systems Management processes?

Understand how they Charge for their Remote Support Service

Do they charge, Monthly, Quarterly or Annually?  Monthly in advance is the best option for customers, unless you particularly want to pay quarterly. If you pay annually in advance the MSP (Managed Service Provider) doesn’t have much of an incentive to provide you with good service, as they already have your money.

How long is the Remote Support Service Contract?

Is the Remote Support Service Provider trying to tie you into a multi-year contract.  A lot of IT providers will get you to sign a 3 year contract, the most you should sign up for is a single year, and in a lot of cases you can get monthly rolling subscriptions. Monthly Rolling is ideal as the Remote Support Service Provider is only as good as the service they provided you last month, if they mess up you can easily change to a different Remote Support Service Provider. i.e. They will always be interested in making sure that you are provided with a good service.

What is included in your Remote Support Service?

Do I need to buy any Software to use the Remote Support Service?

Typically most Remote Support Service Provider’s include all of the software required to perform the tasks they are managing. You don’t own the software, it is provided as part of your subscription service. In most cases this will include things like:-

• Anti-Virus Software
• Anti-Spam Software
• Backup Software
• Software Delivery System
• Audit & Inventory Software

What do they charge extra for?

A lot of Remote Support Service Providers offer a fixed Fee service. i.e. It doesn’t matter how much support work they do the charge is always the same. Some companies will want to charge extra for fixing problems, adding new users, restoring files from backup etc. Make sure that you know what is included as part of your contract and what they want to charge extra for.

Remote Support Service

If you are looking for a Remote Support Service in the UK then take a look at SystemAssure from AKCSL and see how the Remote Support Service that we provide maps onto your business requirements.

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