I thought I would make my second hub about a topic that I have been looking into for the past couple of weeks now, as it may interest office managers and business owners alike.

Choosing an IT Support company is a bit like choosing a baby sitter. You need to be able to trust then and you need to know that they are capable of doing the job properly as they are solely responsible for your entire network. But choosing one can be a hard task with so many companies out there falling over themselves to get your business.

Here are a few pointer that may come in handy for those that are given the task to choose;

Firstly, I work in London so I have the "luxury" of choosing from literally hundreds of It Support companies in the capital. If I am honest, there are almost too many to choose from. The problem I found was that most companies seem to offer the same promises and the same level of service, which is great from a bartering point of view but not great when it comes to ascertaining who is actually any good.

1. How long has the company been trading?

This is important because IT Support is quite a cut throat business and there are many companies out there that don't last the course. Aim to use a company that has been trading for at least 10 years. Many smaller IT Companies are launched by engineers that are fed up with working for another company so they try to go it alone and these ones tend to be the companies that crash and burn. Remember, your IT company will know everything about your network and if they go out of business, it could cause you major disruption. Don't be afraid look up their accounts :)

2. Service level agreements.

Take it from me, there is nothing more demoralising then ringing up an IT Support company about a trivial problem only to be told that you can wait up to 8 hours for someone to fix it. Make sure you check your SLA agreement over with a fine tooth comb, the MAXIMUM you should have to wait is 4 hours to get a problem looked at and even this is pushing it.

Also, make sure there are no nasty clauses in that contract that state the IT Support company only look after "certain" products, Microsoft products for example. ANY company worth their salt should be able to support any hardware problems or software applications. There are some exceptions such as bespoke software that is supported by the company that wrote it, but even then you IT team should handle the administration if an error should occur. READ THE SMALL PRINT!

3. Contract lengths.

Whatever you do, do not get tied into a long term contract. You should only take up a rolling contract with a maximum of 3 months before the contract rolls on. 12 months contracts are a definite no go because you don't know if your new IT company can maintain a good standard of service over a long term period. Think of a contract as a spiders web, the longer you are in it, the harder it is to get out.

4. Referrals.

Don't be afraid to ask for them. Also, don't always use the referrals an IT company advertises on their website as these can sometimes have an ulterior motif for acting a s a referral. Ask lots of questions!!

Resources.

IT Support London based company we ended up using. Their website is a good platform for comparison to other companies out there. remember to barter for contracts and dont pay over the odds!!