A quick google search will reveal that there are hundreds of IT Companies in Sydney. How do you decide which one is the right fit for your business?
Ask for Recommendations - always check with people you know and trust (or other similar sized businesses in your industry group) to find out if they are happy with their current IT Provider
Check Response Time - how quick are they to respond to your website enquiry, phone call or email. It's a good reflection on the response times you can expect when you place your support call with them
Choose Local - go for an IT company that is within 1.5 hours driving distance from your office(s). No matter how they justify this, but it does make a difference when they have to rush to you to replace faulty hardware in an emergency
Company Size - you will find EITHER big IT companies focussed on the corporate end of the town (not really concerned about small to medium businesses with anything less than 100 computers) OR you will find the one-man-band IT Technician pretending to be an "IT Company". You must select and IT company with has at-least 5 or more staff. This means that someone will be able to respond to you if your designated technician is too busy or unavailable.
Price - you want to go for a flat monthly fee! This is called Managed IT Service. This ensures that you don't get big bills when an inexperienced technician spends hours fixing your issues. Ask for the hourly rate: the average price to pay for a professional IT Service Company in Sydney is about $150 per hour. Anything less, you get inexperienced monkeys playing with your critical business systems. Anything more, then you are being overcharged.
Experience - check how many years the company has been around for. Ask them for referrals to their exisiting clients (both long term and new clients). Spend a few minutes speaking to them to get a true feel for what the company is good or bad at. Of course the IT company will give you their best clients to speak to, so go online and search online reviews. That's where you are more likely to find the bad points about the IT company you are considering
Interview Them - shortlist 2 or 3 companies and get them to come out and see you. Most companies offer this service for free. People do business with people whom they like. So, make sure you get along well with the person who comes to see you. If it's a sweet talking sales guy, then good luck! Therefore selecting a smaller IT company means you get to speak to the owner of the business or their lead technician - the one that you will actually be working with in the future.
Understanding of your IT infrastructure - any IT company needs time to understand your current IT setup and pain points. So, you need a mini "IT Audit" for the IT company to work out the details. The issue is that this takes time. If a representative from an IT company spends half a day understanding someone's business, they may or may not "convert" the client. So, they are reluctant to spend the time to understand your business. You are better off paying them a small fee (generally 2 to 3 hours labour) to work out the specifics of your business. This ensures there is no confusion and "hidden" costs that surface later. This way, both you and the IT company can go for the right solution and IT support agreement to start with
Don't Lock in to a Contract - we hear stories from suffering businesses time and time again on how they can't change their IT provider because they are under contract. The service was good for the first couple of months, then the response times just dropped, technicians don't know what they are doing, get a different monkey every time .... the reasons are endless! Once you are signed up on a 12 or 24 month contract, you are stuck! Ask the prospective IT company if they are willing to work with you on a month-to-month basis OR offer you a 3 month trial (with a 30 day notice to terminate the agreement). We believe any IT company who's good with what they do will be confident to offer a month-to-month commitment. This ensures you are not stuck with an IT company that you are not happy with!
Spending time in selecting the right IT company will save you a lot of grief later. As a business owner or the person responsible of the IT in your company, you must give this proper attention.
Have a look at our website for the services we offer. If you feel that SSIT is one of the IT companies that could potentially be a good fit for your business in Sydney, then we do offer a no-obligation Free Network Assessment