When it’s finally time to sit down and discuss your project, you need to be ready with the right questions that can give you some insight into what you should expect from that IT Solutions firm in NY and New Jersey. Analyze their answers and see if they give you enough confidence in their ability to deliver on their promise. Some of the must-ask questions include:
Do you provide IT solutions to a specific type of industry? Describe for me the characteristics of your typical clients.
Find out from the IT firm the distinctive characteristics of most of their clients. Are they used to dealing with small and medium-sized businesses or have they provided support to big corporations? This can help you know what to expect with the solutions they are likely to provide your business.
The technology they would need to use when dealing with small business organizations is quite different from the one they would use to provide IT solutions to Fortune 500 companies. If they have only dealt with small companies, they might not have the tools nor the experience needed to handle IT challenges in a working environment with dozens of employees.
If the firm specializes in providing IT solutions to certain industries, you will need to decide if those industries have given them enough insight to handle challenges of the industry you are in. They might also be quite good in delivering results for certain type of industries. If your business is not in those type of industries, they may fail to translate the same success they have had with other businesses they have worked with.
What is the distribution of revenue sources for your business? Do you have a single client contributing most of the revenue your business makes?
You might find yourself in trouble after hiring an IT support firm whose main business comes from a single client who has since fired them. Surviving with a single client as the source of revenue is dangerous to any company. If that company decides to change its IT solutions provider, then that company faces certain collapse. Where possible, go for an IT firm that does not have any of its clients contributing more than 30% of its total revenue.
What has been your client retention rate for the last five years?
On average, how long does each client stay with the firm? If the firm is as good as it claims, the retention rate will be quite high. Most businesses avoid changing their IT service providers time and again. Therefore, if the IT firm has many businesses leaving them after a short period of working with them, it is probably because they consistently fail to deliver on their promise. Therefore, the likelihood that they might fail to deliver the results you seek will be quite high.
