When selecting the right Managed Services Provider to handle your business IT, most businesses often lay out in the request for proposals a survey of a company’s price, performance, and experience. But today, when every industry is engaging the expertise of managed services to stay on top, these criteria are not enough.
An IT business’ company culture is also quite relevant, and should be included equally on these proposal sheets. Small business owners often study how to make their own company culture as exemplary as possible – they need to examine the culture of their IT provider in the same way.
A company’s culture is, put simply, its purpose of existence, its vision, its values and beliefs, and the policies that gird its administration and employees. A company’s culture can change as it grows in size or acquires new employees if a strong company culture is not instituted from above, and even in spite of it.
When delving into an IT provider’s culture, a small business owner wants to examine what are said company’s Best Practices – standards of work that they value as inherent to good customer service. An IT company should ask itself, and a client should ask of its IT company:
- What exactly does the IT company provide to its customers?
- What does the company consider a good value for its customers?
- If necessity arises, what is the IT team’s response time to start troubleshooting?
- What is the level of security that the IT team can provide?
- What are the terms and hours of the IT Helpdesk?
- Perhaps most importantly, what are the terms and conditions of the SLA (service level agreement) between the IT provider and the client, and how can the client be assured the company will adhere to these conditions?
- Is the IT provider’s company able to expand along with our own?
- Are the employees content with the company? Is the employee turnover rate high or low?
- Do they have professional development programs in place, to help us remain leaders of our industry?
- Do the sales team members display honesty and integrity?
- Do all employees of the company understand individually the impact they have on overall customer experience and satisfaction?
Any business in the technology sector understands that today’s IT solutions will not be the same as tomorrow’s, and that today’s client may not (is ideally not) the same size as tomorrow. Customizable, scalable solutions are the order of the day, and a strong IT company culture can help deal with today’s problems while planning for tomorrow’s challenges.
Overall, a positive and strong IT company culture is important because it directly correlates to the customer’s overall satisfaction. At the essence of a positive and responsible company culture is the idea that a sale is not the end of a transaction, it is the beginning of a long-term company-client relationship.
At IT21ST, we take all of these factors and more into considering our own company culture and your long-term success. Call us at: 855-448-2178 or visit us at: www.it21st.com to discuss your IT and Managed Services today.
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