When selecting a Managed Services Provider (MSP) for your business or organization, the decision can significantly impact your business’s efficiency, security, and long-term success. Choosing the right partner is about more than just outsourcing IT support; it’s about finding a provider who understands your unique needs, aligns with your business goals, and can offer tailored solutions. With the growing complexity of IT environments, it’s crucial to ask the right questions to ensure you’re making a well-informed decision.

One of the most common mistakes when choosing an MSP is going for a lower cost provider that quickly increases costs, as you scale your business.  Capabilities are another area that can have a profound impact on your business.  A thorough understanding of what your MSP can and cannot do is crucial because gaps in service or misaligned expectations can lead to costly downtime, security breaches, or inefficient processes. Conversely, a well-chosen MSP that aligns with your specific needs can streamline operations, enhance cybersecurity, and ultimately save your business substantial amounts of money by preventing issues before they arise and optimizing your IT infrastructure for peak performance.

In this article, we’ve compiled a list of ten essential questions to ask any prospective MSP, before signing on the dotted line. These questions are designed to help you gauge the provider’s expertise, responsiveness, and alignment with your company’s vision. By asking these questions, you’ll be better equipped to find an MSP that not only meets your immediate needs but also helps drive your business forward in the long run.  Download a print-friendly version of the MSP Checklist here.

1. Does the MSP require your systems to backed up, patched, and ensure endpoint security? How often, where is data backed up and how do they protect users from compromising your network with their laptops, mobile, and other devices?
2. What do you know about my industry and competitors?  We believe that your MSP can be a valuable partner to helping your business now and with an eye for future growth so it’s important to have an MSP partner who understands the needs and challenges of your industry.  Have they worked with competitors in your industry?  How have they helped other businesses, in your industry, grow their business?
3. What type of experience do you have with software and regulatory compliance issues, in my industry?  Every industry has software designed to meet their needs.  Your MSP can provide assistance with selecting the right software to create efficiencies, reduce costs, or enhance processes.   If your industry has regulatory oversight or compliance requirements, an MSP can help you choose technology and software that will assist you in meeting those requirements.
4. Describe your expertise and experience. Be sure that you’re dealing with an MSP that has a proven track record and recent customer references.  A simple Google search can also be enlightening to show the depth and breadth of work and performance.
5. Describe some ways in which you have been proactive with your clients.
6. Is your support team outsourced or in-house?  In a global workforce, many organizations require 24/7 help desk support.  Is the help desk open and easy to communicate with?  Are they based in the U.S. or abroad?  How easy is it to reach the actual technicians and network administrators?  Is your team able to communicate directly with the people responsible for your network and team?
7. Thoroughly review and discuss the Service Level Agreement or SLA.   Ensure that the MSP will be held accountable for their performance and address how failures will be resolved.
8. Thoroughly evaluate the costs:
9. Be sure to review cost escalations based on your desired growth initiatives.  In some cases, the provider will quote a low price to get you on-board, and then significantly raise costs as your business grows.  Be sure to understand data storage costs, users and license fees, peak demand, etc.
10. Factor in added-value benefits.  Uptime, security, network reliability, and regulatory compliance issues should all be evaluated and factored in.  The lowest cost is not always the best choice – you will absolutely get what you pay for.

As you can see, when interviewing and selecting an IT Managed Services Provider (MSP), there are many important considerations.  Conscious Networks has decades of experience managing hundreds of MSP networks and serves as a valuable partner for end to end managed services.  We also have extensive business knowledge and understand that there are cost/risk/benefit analysis that can help you plan for the future while making more informed technology investments today.  Contact us to schedule a consultation.