When hiring a managed service provider, make sure they have these top 5 traits.
There are plenty of managed IT service companies in Indianapolis. Of course, some of those companies are more reliable than others, so how can your business choose the best managed service provider for you?
1. They Take a Proactive Approach to Prevent Problems
Your business needs proactive solutions that prevent problems rather than an IT specialist who has to put out IT fires each day. Downtime can be significantly reduced by providers who take preventative measures to protect and maintain your systems before issues can occur.
The best managed IT service companies in Indianapolis understand the common IT issues that today’s businesses face and the steps that need to be taken to prevent them. They monitor your systems continually to ensure that potential vulnerabilities are patched before a problem becomes severe or causes a disruption in business operations.
Maintaining a strong cybersecurity defense is one of the biggest reasons your business needs proactive IT solutions, rather than a break/fix approach. Research published in TechRepublic shows that the number of cybersecurity breaches worldwide increased by 54% before August 2019. By 2019’s midpoint, organizations had reported 3,814 breaches that exposed more than 4.1 billion records. To make matters even worse, Microsoft estimates that recovering from a data breach costs an average of $3.92 million.
According to these data reports, 2019 is shaping up to be the worst year for data breaches in history. As malware attacks (particularly ransomware and phishing) become more advanced, businesses are forced to develop more sophisticated cybersecurity defenses.
A reliable IT company will provide you with a robust cybersecurity plan that adapts to growing threats and proactively defends against them, rather than waiting for a breach to occur. By choosing one of the top IT companies in Indianapolis, you protect yourself from cyberattacks and significant financial loss.
2. They Have Teams of Highly Experienced Professionals
Information technology evolves rapidly. In order to keep up with developing threats, your business needs a group of highly experienced professionals who are continually educating themselves on these changes.
Everyone on your IT company’s staff should have been vetted to ensure they can give you unparalleled services in areas like networking, cloud solutions, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. They should have a long track record of successful providing IT solutions to businesses across various industries.
AxiaTP’s President and CEO Roger Veach, for example, has years of experience working with cloud solutions, application design, managed IT services and point-of-sale solutions. Other members of the leadership team stand out for their work in topics like data centers, workflow communication platforms, virtualization and software.
With a professional team on your side, you can be sure you’re getting the best services for your unique business. Great IT providers keep their teams up to date on the latest equipment, methods and software available to ensure your business is fully protected against cyberthreats and can run smoothly and efficiently.
3. They Follow Industry Standards
The best IT service companies in Indianapolis understand the importance of following your industry’s standards and providing documentation that keeps you informed.
Some of the industry standards and regulations that matter most to Indianapolis businesses include:
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- HIPAA compliance for the healthcare industry
- Sarbanes-Oxley compliance for the financial industry
- CALEA compliance for organizations working with law enforcement
- PCI Data Security Standard compliance for payment processing
- AICPA compliance for the accounting industry
You’ll want to ensure your managed IT service provider understands these compliance regulations and can help your business achieve them. IT teams who are thoroughly educated in these laws and rules know when they are updated or revised and can ensure your business avoids lawsuits, non-compliance fees and loss of customer or client trust.
The best service providers will also give you detailed reports that uncover potential security flaws in your systems. You will get risk management services that include disaster recovery and business continuity plans to ensure you remain compliant with your industry’s obligatory cybersecurity regulations.
If the worst happens, your IT service provider should already have a strategy in place that protects and backs up your data and minimizes the damage that an IT disaster can cause.
4. They Focus on Great Communication and Customer Service
Regardless of experience, hiring a company who’s difficult to get ahold of or communicate with will be more trouble than they’re worth. Rather than take hours to respond to calls and emails or use geek-speak to explain what’s going on with your IT, a good IT provider should communicate quickly and in clear, concise terms.
Excellent IT services only matter when they’re combined with quick response times, as extended periods of downtime can be detrimental to your business. In fact, most organizations say that an hour of downtime costs at least $100,000. Every minute counts, so you need a partner that will respond to requests and find solutions as quickly and efficiently as possible.
AxiaTP uses a CEE (Client, Employee, Excellence) model that requires service teams to produce fast response times and excellent customer service. The model has quick access to emergency contacts, uses clear language, implements ticketing portals and employs both on-site and remote solutions.
When you need assistance, your business deserves to have access to a caring professional who wants to solve problems as quickly as possible so your employees can get back to work.
5. They Create Strategies That Align with Your Business Goals
Your Indianapolis business has unique goals that make you different from all other businesses. The best IT companies in Indianapolis understand that your business, therefore, needs customized strategies, not generic solutions.
For the best services, you should seek a service provider that gets to know your business’s processes, procedures and goals—both short-term and long-term. As technology and your company expand, you will need new strategies that align with your evolving business strategy. A long-term plan should include recommendations for hardware, software, cloud technology and other services that will give you a competitive advantage and help you achieve future goals.
AxiaTP Provides Indianapolis’ Top Managed IT Services
At AxiaTP, we understand what it takes to build and maintain a healthy IT infrastructure that aligns with your business needs and goals. We dedicate ourselves to learning the best IT systems and methods available so that we can provide the best service possible to each unique business. We pride ourselves on the fact that businesses who partner with us fully trust us to manage their IT for them so they can focus on running their business.
Contact us today to schedule a brief consultation to see how our team at AxiaTP can provide the experience and expertise that you need to stay on top of the latest technology trends.