By Keith Millett | Oct 03, 2018 | Blog
IT plays a critical role in any organization, whether your IT department consists of a single person doing basic maintenance or a team of individuals researching and implementing insightful IT solutions. Regardless of your specific team size, you may find that your organization needs the assistance of a third-party IT solutions and consulting partner that can recommend anything from simple fixes to complex installations or forward-thinking consultations. But if you do decide to find help, how do you determine which provider to choose?
Let’s review the top three things you should consider when hiring an IT solutions and consulting partner.
1. Team Members Who Truly Care
Let’s face it: IT hardware is often the same across all vendors. The major difference between solutions and consulting organizations, then, is in their teams—you should work with people who really care and strive to make a difference. Examples of key team members include:
- Account managers who introduce new technology and consider alternative solutions as they discuss your needs.
- Solutions architects who design varied, appropriate solutions.
- Project managers and engineers who, on a day-to-day basis, implement and support technology.
In any case, you should be looking for a company that goes above and beyond in terms of customer assistance and appropriate tech solutions to your challenging business problems. Furthermore, flexibility is crucial—a quality partner should have the ability to offer one specific engineer or staff member for an engagement, full turnkey solution, or anything in between.
2. Proven Track Record with Measurable Results
You’ll also want to examine a potential partner’s track record in the industry and with clients. What is their client turnover rate? How many projects have they successfully accomplished? A good sign for an IT partner is if a significant amount of their business comes from customer referrals, although this may not be data you can easily glean. You can also consider looking through online reviews and testimonials to get a better sense of a provider.
In addition, the team should have a well-defined process. When you engage with your assigned point of contact, they should guide you through every step of the process and help you understand their expertise. In other words, they shouldn’t just come, do the job, and leave—they should give you a personalized experience that helps you understand why they’re doing what they’re doing.
3. Industry Tenure
It’s no secret that the IT industry is booming, with a variety of IT-related businesses all clamoring to offer top knowledge and customer service. While it might be enticing to engage with any contender that appears to be a match, we caution you to take a look at the staff’s experience and industry tenure in both IT support and consulting. The more years of experience they have, the more knowledgeable they are about hardware, vendors, installations, and alternative solutions that will fit your specific needs.
The importance of tenure cannot be overstated. You’ll want an experienced partner at any given time—when something goes wrong, when you’re considering different solutions for the future, and in many other situations. In other words, you’ll want to partner with an organization that has seen and built multiple solutions for varied challenging situations.
Final Thoughts
For more than three decades, companies have turned to CTI for a broad array of information-technology solutions ranging from systems design to security, support, and data management. We’ve helped some of the largest companies in this region build leading-edge technology systems to manage their businesses, lower their costs, and help their team members be more productive.
With CTI as your technology partner, you’ll get:
- A jump on the future. It’s not enough to design systems that work for today. CTI will make sure that your company is ready for the future with flexible hardware and software technology that will let you keep up with rapid changes in technology and business.
- A productivity boost. We’ll help your team members complete projects faster because the right information-technology tools will let them be more productive. You’ll be more competitive, and your costs will fall, boosting your profitability.
- Expertise. Clients trust CTI with their most sensitive data. We’ve helped companies with global presence manage their information-technology needs securely from any device.
Contact us today for more information on working with the right IT solutions and consulting partner for your organization.