The time has come to outsource your IT services to a managed services provider. You are in good company! Over the past five years, the MSP market has almost doubled in value from 2014, rising from $107 billion to $193 billion today.

Before you can hit the ground running though, there are many things you need to consider when the contract is being crafted and executed. At NETRIO, we offer a variety of Managed Services. Therefore, contract execution for each service may vary. A successful IT infrastructure depends on the list of services you choose for your business. During the initial stages of the partnership, the MSP should be able to audit your environment and make a recommendation based on its findings. Make sure to find the best MSP for you, not only in terms of pricing but also in overall communication. Additionally, vet each company’s offering and contract to see if it covers all your business needs to ensure the right fit.

Before The Managed IT Services Contract Execution  

Furthermore, when selecting a service provider, it is important to ask in-depth questions. This will allow you to understand how that company’s infrastructure works and whether it will be a good fit for a partnership. This step is crucial, especially if you are vetting multiple companies.

Questions may include: 

·  What does a project kickoff call include?  

·  Signatures, terms, start dates, & subscriptions that you’re going to subscribe to from their various portfolio of services.   

·  How do they review and report?  

·  What is the process for establishing points of contact both internally and externally?  

·  How do they outline milestones and dependencies?  

Once the MSP has answered the questions to your satisfaction, a contract will be drafted to make the partnership legally binding.  

Contract Execution and Onboarding 

The first step in successful onboarding of an MSP is getting the contract executed. This will include:  

·  Terms  

·  Start Dates  

·  Subscriptions   

·  Scope of work 

Inside The Managed IT Services Contract Execution 

1.  Number of Assets 

As an IT organization, we want to understand the people’s functional and critical points of contact within the organization. It is imperative to understand groups of people and their specific needs within the organization and how it relates to our services. For example, you could have HR, finance, sales, operations, and the other various functional areas of the business. These people are considered human capital; therefore they are assets. In addition to people, we have various technologies. An in-depth scan needs to be done so we can understand as the service provider what we may be managing. We want to make sure that during this process, we are getting an accurate inventory for what we’re going to support. Thankfully, we have various tools that can help us do that. 

2.  Scan Networks  

A full scan of the networks will be done, and it will compile a list of devices that we can identify. Many times, this helps us fill any gaps the organization may not be aware of. The goal at the end of this process is to get to what we like to call a supportable state. This step is very important in a new partnership because it will keep the user’s confidence in your help desk’s ability to solve their problems, especially at the very beginning. 

3.  Strategic Network Monitoring 

NETRIO utilizes state of the art software and an expert support delivery team to employ a proactive approach towards managing your IT environment.   The software provides real-time visibility into the status of critical IT assets so we can resolve problems before they become outages.  Strategic means that we are aligned with your business requirements, predictable spending, lower costs, risk reduction, increased accountability, regulatory compliance.  We want to help you accomplish your strategic goals. 

4.  Data Backup 

When reviewing managed IT services contracts, knowing how your data will be backed up is crucial. If you have an on-premises solution and the service provider’s backup plan is to back everything up to the cloud, you should make sure the cloud is backed up on a private server.  Public clouds are just as they sound and not nearly a secure as a private cloud. 

5.  Disaster Recovery Plan 

If COVID-19 has taught us anything, it is to be ready for everything. All managed IT service providers should offer a disaster recovery plan. A complete location-dependent disaster recovery plan is something that should be included in the details of an IT service contract. Having peace of mind is so important when executing a managed IT contract. NETRIO has a backup NOC in Austin, Texas. This allows us to ensure we are able to quickly recover if an outage were to occur.  

This blog post is part of NETRIO’s weekly White Board Wednesday series. Follow along on Linkedin and YouTube each week as Brian and Mike discuss use cases, new technology, and trends. The goal is to provide insights for enterprise customers and channel partners, trying to solve complex problems using technology.  

If you would like to discuss outsourcing your Managed IT Services to NETRIO, contact us to start the conversation.