Archive for the ‘Information Technology Outsourcing’ Category

There are many things to take into consideration when selecting a new technology partner.  Information Technology partners will play a major role in how your company access information and what happens in the event of a failure in the system.  Here are a some questions that you MUST ask any managed services company before you enter into contract with them.

1. How long has the partner been in business?
2. How many Clients does the partner serve?
3. Approximately, how many servers are managed? PC’s?
4. Define the core market segment the partner serves?
5. How many total employees?
   • Sales
   • Administration
   • Technical
   • Help Desk / NOC
   • Field
6. Do they use sub contractors?
7. Do they outsource any of their support services?
8. Normal Business Hours?
9. How do they deal with afterhours support?
10. What is the partners privacy policy (technicians will have access to your Clients data)?
11. How is post installation support handled?
12. How is routine security and performance maintenance accomplished?
13. What is monitored and how are alerts handled?
14. How is the system information and firm procedures documented?

These questions will give you a solid start in evaluating their value to your company and their commitment to customer support.  Now that you have those answers,   you need to get a reference list.

1. How many companies were on the list? – (should be at least 10)
2. How many have you called? – (should be at least 3)

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PC Network Services offers Information Technology support and managed services for small to medium size companies in and around Pittsburgh, PA. They offer an amazing range of services and support so you will never have to worry about networking or computer issues in your office again.

The Top TEN Challenges of Hiring & Managing an Internal IT Staff in Small & Mid-sized Businesses

#10 – Full time IT people are expensive: The average cost of a network administrator in Western PA is $50K to $75K per year. This does not include soft costs like sick time, vacation time, benefits, office space, and they only work 2080 hours out of 8760 hours in the year.

#9 - Cost of turn-over is high / risk of bad hire: Turnover in IT is high and the cost to recruit is significant. This is usually combined with time pressure to fill the vacancy quickly, the challenge to extract the knowledge that is ready to walk out the door and the difficulty in hiring staff that management is not entirely sure of the skill requirements. Combine all this with the added pressure that a bad hire can inflict instability and moral issues.

#8 – Difficult to evaluate / risk of bad hire: Technical skills assessment is difficult to do if the assessor does not understand what the actual skills are. To compound this, a bad hire can wreak havoc on a system and by the time this is remedied the financial and cultural damage can be significant.

#7 – No career path: In a small IT department there is typically no career growth path. This causes high IT staff turnover and a significant transition and knowledge drain.

#6 – Difficult to manage: All too often, management of small businesses lacks the capabilities to give proper oversight, incentives, feedback, and overall leadership to IT staff.

#5 – Managing IT can distract from mission: Often, technology management and disruptions distract small businesses from their core mission, delivering value to their Customers.

#4 - The smaller the organization the more skills required by staff members: CIO’s, network administrators, integrators, and help desk agents are all very different. While one person may try to fill all the roles, they are most likely to come up short in some areas.

#3 – Technology changes rapidly: Within just a few years, skills sets and education become obsolete. This means that there is a constant emphasis on training. Managing this is a challenge and often overlooked resulting in poor technology decisions and implementations.

#2 – No tools: Employees do not come bundled with tools, technology, systems or processes. The tools to ensure efficiency and consistency are beyond the financial reach of most small businesses. Systems and processes are difficult to get IT people to create, follow and document.

#1 – If you were able to find the right person, why would they want to work for you?

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PC Network Services offers IT support and information technology outsourcing services for small to medium size companies in and around Pittsburgh, PA. They offer an amazing range of services and support so you will never have to worry about networking or computer issues in your office again.