How can you choose the right MSP for your business?

N?o olhe apenas para dentro da área de TI. Compreenda o negócio - demanda e níveis de servidos requeridos por cada processo da organiza??o, expectativa de performance e qualidade, a margem tolerada de custos, e a perspectiva de crescimento com base no planejamento estratégico. N?o considerar essa perspectiva significa assumir riscos de subestimar ou superestimar, e muitos problemas posteriores na gest?o dos servi?os. Depois disso, se volte para a TI e fa?a um bom desenho dos servi?os, considerando os pontos fortes e fracos, e a viabilidade e riscos envolvidos na contrata??o de um parceiro de servi?os.

When seeking an MSP, first understand your IT landscape. Identify challenges in infrastructure, security, and support. Clarify short and long-term IT objectives. Assess your budget and resources for IT investments. This clarity helps prioritize needs and find a suitable MSP match.

It all comes down to quality of the services you expect from the MSP: 1. Thorough background check do to business 2. Success stories from other clients similar to yours 3. Costing and criticality of the services

The best MSP must be chosen with great care and devotion. Establish a clear budget and set of requirements for your IT needs, then evaluate possible candidates based on their track record, industry knowledge, and service offers. Make that their certifications, SLAs, and cybersecurity meet your requirements for resolution, timeliness, and data security. Take into account factors like scalability, tech stack, client happiness as shown by testimonials and references, ease to customise, communication channels, and worldwide service reach. Remember to evaluate your business continuity and disaster recovery strategies. This all-inclusive strategy produces the ideal IT partner.

In my opinion, this is a key aspect when thinking about MSP. If you don't choose the right partner, maybe you will have to be attached to a contract that offer services under your SLAs or that are beyond your scope. If you have a clear understanding on your short term and mid-term needs, you will be able to articulate clear requirements and have everything under control and signed in the contract. You don't have to worry about poor services, additional services, technology dependencies, and so on. You partner should be "technology agnostic" and recommend the best solution for you or adapt to your current environment. It's a risk when outsourcing services, the extreme dependency on some solutions or providers.

One thing I have found helpful is going to the websites of the major cloud providers and interviewing MSPs they have listed. For example, Microsoft has a list of Expert MSPs that have gone through a very rigorous certification process. The company is evaluated yearly to ensure their staff has the proper training, specializations, security, governance, and reputation. The is set very high and no exceptions are made. Search for the Azure expert MSP list, start with atmosera and work your way down.

It all comes down to what services that they are available and why are you not providing them yourselves. You need to do your due diligence on any service that you are going to buy. You need to remember this one thing. Most companies these days can be broken by a poorly run IT department. Do not limit the MSP by setting up too many rules. Set up a track for them to run on. Set up a team that interfaces with the MSP that understands what the mission is.

To qualify and obtain the best choice for an MSP, the best practice is to structure and open an RFP, with simple and objective selection criteria. No supplier will be perfect, but a market differentiator is a good structure and team that understands your needs and fits into your work culture.

Understanding SLAs and SLOs will only give you so much information. Some MSPs try and hide behind SLAs when the service they offer has serious deficiencies. When you dive into the details speak with some of the technical resources who will handle your day to day. Ensure they are great IT people who you would hire for your team. Additionally you should ask what other services the company may offer. Many times a professional services offering may be needed as well.

It is important to define SLA's up front. Not everything is super important get it fixed right now. The production servers that make you all the money are #1 and need to kept running at all costs. The CEO's laptop that goes home with him on the Weekends might not be #1. The sales website might be #1. Not everything is going to be the highest priority. Define the importance and understand if it can break your company you need to take steps that those services never go down.

Need to know the MSP's strengths and weakness's and your internal strengths. Because you have to remember this is going to be a marriage. For this partnership to be successful both sides need to benefit from the relationship. What certifications does this company have. What is their reputation. What technologies are they good at. You might need to bring in 2 or 3 MSP's to get everything done correctly.

Communications are the key to any successful relationship. When in doubt communicate. Keep your cool and communicate. I like to preach when we have a crisis the following "I do not care who did what all I care about is to get the thing fixed" Afterwards we can look at what happened. I have seen too many things burning out of control and on the side is the idiot management team arguing whose fault it is that caused the problem.

The reference part is also a good selection practice, after all, doing market research with clients who are served by the MSP suppliers you are evaluating, can be a super positive move, after all you will be seeing the form of application live and service, as well as customer feedback.

A key factor to consider when selecting an MSP is: will they be a stop gap or will they be providing service indefinitely. MSPs can be expensive and once integrated be hard to pull away from. First determining this will help you select the right MSP, set your goals and assign budget.

In my perspective, the foremost criterion when selecting MSP is their technical and scientific prowess. While factors such as cost-effectiveness and proposed service packages are significant considerations, they alone aren't compelling enough. Primarily, aligning with a highly competent team is crucial. Without dependable service stability, any perceived savings can quickly become overshadowed by recurrent costs, hindering the attainment of objectives.