5 Step Guide to Finding your New IT Service Provider

Helping You to Make the Right Decision

Whether you’re looking to grow your business, or you’re seeking an IT provider that offers a more personalised service with bespoke services, our 5-step guide below provides a helpful checklist. Ensure you locate an IT service provider that ticks all the boxes by identifying the 5 key steps in your decision-making process here…

Step 1: No Fixed Term Contract

Finding an IT service provider that offers a no fixed term contract – which is the norm in the IT industry – can be tricky to find. However, there are a few hidden gems that offer you the option of leaving at any time, particularly if they fail to deliver or meet your expectations. This is the kind of service many businesses aspire to have, no long-term contracts and no reason to feel tied to one provider.

Step 2: A Focus on the Strategy that Drives your Business Not the Technology

Technology is only an enabler for your business’ strategy and objectives. It is not an end goal. It is therefore crucial to identify what’s needed to achieve your organisations’ broader goals, not merely your technical setup. Your chosen IT solutions and any investment you make should be derived and defined by the strategy that drives your business, so that your chosen IT provider can actively drive your business forward. This means that your IT partner should focus on understanding your business rather than the technology that they can ‘throw at it’.

Step 3: Infrastructure to Maximise Efficiency

Is your current infrastructure allowing your software to run at maximum efficiency? Is your data properly protected? Do you have a support framework to manage risk? Are you using infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to minimise capital investment and free up business cash flow?

There is now an enormous flexibility in the range of systems and architectures that can be adopted to deliver maximum business advantage from IT, there is no ‘one approach fits all’ so beware of IT service providers that take shortcuts and try to convince you otherwise.

Step 4: Proactive Support

Helpdesk, out of hours support, and service level agreements are all key (reactive) parts of support activity and define what happens when things go wrong or when help is required. What is potentially more important however, are the activities that are in place to prevent the need of such processes.

The proactive monitoring and maintenance of systems enable potential problems to be found and fixed before they impact your business and therefore prevent the need for such support reporting processes.

Step 5: Bespoke Software to Suit You

By choosing a software development team that provide bespoke tailored solutions, you can benefit from software that specifically addresses the needs of your business. ‘Off the shelf’ software on the other hand will at best be a compromise.

Their expertise should not only be used for developing new software, they should also aim to support and prolong the lifespan of existing bespoke systems, helping to generate improved ROI on your original investment.

Software is increasingly at the core of how businesses operate, grow, and generate a profitable return, so the level of engagement you gain from your IT provider is crucial and has to be at a much more strategic level.

The only part of your IT capability which really adds direct value to your business is the software set, so opting for bespoke software solutions should assist in meeting the individual requirements of your business.

A Professional Service Provider for your Business…

At Rio IT, we aim to protect your business, increase productivity, and reduce costs. We’re here to ensure that technology is a growth enabler for your business, an investment, not a cost, and that it’s able to provide a return on investment that contributes to your bottom line.

We make time to understand your business, and then provide the right solution while offering no fixed term contracts, which means we’re confident in our ability to continually perform and exceed our customer’s expectations. In addition, we offer a strategy-focused service, proactive support, and bespoke software to suit your individual business requirements.