One of the most common questions we get from prospective clients calling our office is, “What do you charge for IT services?”  While price should certainly be taken into consideration, it’s extremely important to make an informed decision and choose the right IT services company for your needs instead of relying solely on price.

This may seem obvious, but the reality is many business owners do not know what questions to ask or what to look for when choosing an IT company and, in return, put too much weight on the quote.

The goal is to avoid getting lured into a lowball quote from an IT company that may be in financial trouble or cutting corners to lower their fees, leaving them unable to afford hiring experienced, knowledgeable techs, dedicated account managers, and the security tools to ensure YOU are getting the security, stability, and service you need.

According to a recent report from Service Leadership, the leading financial benchmarking organization in the IT services industry, it was revealed that 28% of MSPs (managed services providers, or IT services companies) were unprofitable, and nearly half of all MSPs were under 10% net profit.

While everyone likes a “bargain,” it’s important to understand why “cheaper” is not always the advantage you think it is when choosing an underpriced IT company:

  1. They are likely short-staffed. The biggest expense for any IT company is the technical staff so, if one of their techs quits, they can quickly become overwhelmed and unable to support your account.  This means response times will suffer, as well as critical security and backup maintenance of your network.
  2. Additionally, the personnel they hire are usually at the lower end of the pay scale. This means you’re not getting the most competent people working on backing up your data, keeping your network secure, and handling the critical operations and data your business needs.
  3. It’s very unlikely they have a dedicated account manager and/or team to work on your account due to their financial constraints.
  4. It’s possible they could be one or two bad months away from going out of business because they have no buffer. Which means, you could wake up one morning and find yourself without an IT company, scrambling to find a new one.
  5. They are not “operationally mature.” Operational maturity means their business has the people and professional processes aligned to provide the highest level of QUALITY services to the end client (you).

If you want to know what types of questions you should be asking your IT firm (managed services provider), then click here to download our ”West Houston Business Owners Guide to IT Support and Services”.

This report reviews exactly what to look for to get exactly what you need without unnecessary extras, hidden fees, and bloated contracts.  Most importantly, it will show you how to get the right support to lower your security risk and eliminate the frustration of dealing with a less than competent IT company.