10 things your managed it provider should be doing · 2019-08-07 · 10 things your managed it...

Mintivo: Inspiring businesses through technology www.mintivo.co.uk

10 things your managed IT provider should be doing

www.mintivo.co.ukMintivo: Inspiring businesses through technology

Using a Managed IT Service provider (MSP) can bring huge

benefits to your business, however making sure they are

constantly delivering value, being pro-active and growing

with you can be challenging.


We’ve compiled a list of 10 things that we find are essential

to businesses but are often not being delivered or not being

delivered effectively by Managed Service Providers.


Delivering an IT Steering Group

A MSP should be meeting with your management team

regularly to inform the IT strategy and discuss what is

possible, what is common and what are key opportunities that

technology can enable for your business, a MSP is uniquely

placed for this, with in-depth experience of your business

coupled with wider industry knowledge. This is sometimes

referred to as having a Virtual CIO (vCIO).

1.


Having an agreed SLA

Working to an SLA is essential, firstly so you can ensure that

you are getting the service and speed your business needs but

also so that you can measure the performance of your MSP. Be

careful with ‘the 9’s’ though: a guaranteed 99.9% uptime still

means that for almost 9 hours a year your systems could be

down, whereas 99.99% uptime is less than an hour.

2.


24/7 x 365 Monitoring

Businesses don’t work 9-5 anymore, your MSP should be

monitoring critical metrics in your systems 24/7 to ensure

everything is up and working when you need it. Make sure

that your SLA matches your business requirements.

3.


Having a proactive approach

When was the last time your IT provider contacted you with

suggestions for your business that didn’t involve you buying

more kit? Your MSP should be able to provide unique insights

in to your business processes with a technology focus to

streamline, automate and improve how you do business.

Any new technology suggestions should be supported with a

business case and a clear ROI.

4.


Asset Management

Do you know all the IT equipment your business owns, you

probably could find the details on some of it, but is it all still in

use? Has it been recycled? An MSP should be tracking every

IT asset in your business including the serial number, full

specification and warranty expiration dates.

5.


On-site as well as remote support

Remote support has come a long way in the past few years

with more and more capabilities being added, not to mention

the overall improvements in bandwidth that would often be

an issue. There are sometimes when you absolutely need an

engineer on-site, not only for issues where a physical repair or

local access is required but also to meet staff and understand

your business even better.

6.


Cyber SecurityArguably the most important one on the list, Your MSP is key

to keeping your business secure, they should be leading the

conversation on Cyber Security and implementing changes,

updates, processes and systems to make sure that you stay

safe, your staff should be receiving regular training and

firmware and operating system updates should be installed

quickly and efficiently at least monthly. Cyber Essentials is a

great starting point.

7.


BackupsYour MSP should be backing up your files, folders, emails,

applications and servers, just because it’s ‘cloud’ doesn’t mean

it doesn’t need a backup. This should be tested regularly, and

the results shared with you. If you are still being asked to

take USB drives (or even worse, tapes) offsite each day, then

you need a more modern solution. Not only should your MSP

be managing your backups but helping you with an entire

Disaster Recovery plan (which is tested regularly!)

8.


Managing updates

Microsoft release patches on the second Tuesday of each

month (Patch Tuesday). These updates should be installed on

all workstations and servers as soon as possible, the same goes

for updates to MAC OSX, application updates and firmware

updates which should all be monitored by your MSP and

installed promptly (during times for agreed change).

9.


Using a process-driven helpdesk service

The helpdesk is much more than just a place to raise tickets.

Ensuring that the helpdesk is efficient, and tickets raised

can be escalated and reported on is vital to measuring the

effectiveness of an MSP. ITIL is the most widely recognised

and used framework which is a complete methodology which

focuses on best practices in IT service management.

10.


So if your IT provider is not doing these things, then you need

to talk to them.

Alternatively if you would like to talk to us about how we can

help your business with all it’s IT needs - then please do get in

touch today.

www.mintivo.co.uk

[email protected]

03300 88 33 10

10 things your managed it provider should be doing · 2019-08-07 · 10 things your managed it...

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