News & Blog
Is Your IT Support Partner Your Technology Success Partner?
By Francis West on 2nd November 2018
As business owners, we all appreciate that our sector is what we excel in, but there are many other areas of our businesses which require an expert so the company can run efficiently and profitably. As a recruitment business owner, your company’s main purpose is to find the right people for other businesses. However, as a business owner yourself, you’ll appreciate there are other areas where support is required, such as Accounts, Legal and IT. The options are to either muddle along attempting to plug the gap ourselves or employ people with skills and experience within that area. Another popular option is to outsource the operation to a company who specialises in that function.
Having made the decision to outsource, you really need to feel your service providers are on your side. Often, we embark on a journey and aside from the cursory periodic review, chances are we’ll stick with that provider indefinitely. Engaged with the business of doing business, it’s easy to bypass a regular assessment of whether that partnership is still working as effectively as expected or as required. After all, familiarity and longevity all too often breed complacency.
There’s no time like the present! If it’s been a while since you last audited the role your IT support partner plays and assessed the benefits of continuing to work with them, here’s a rundown of things to consider:
- Do they regularly conduct reviews of your systems to ensure all are running at optimum speed and seamlessly, without interruption to your day-to-day operations?
- Do you and your staff feel supported by their first line IT Helpdesk staff?
- When a system goes down, or a PC crashes, is your IT Support Partner immediately accessible?
- Are they as willing to talk to each member of your staff as they are to you, or do they have a ‘we need the boss’ mentality?
- Do they get straight on to every problem quickly to find a resolution so you can go back to recruiting?
- Do they proactively call you when a potential threat arises, or call to reassure you?
- Do they tell you how things are without a deluge of technical jargon?
- Does working with them give you peace of mind?
We strongly believe your IT support provider should be your Technology Success Partner. Slow, cumbersome, glitchy systems that crash – periodically or regularly, have an immediate and final effect, preventing staff from carrying out their duties for as long as their systems are down. Your IT systems need to run optimally and seamlessly or productivity, turnover and profit all take a hit.
Your Technology Success Partner should make you and your staff feel supported, no matter what the problem. It’s fair to say, your employees probably weren’t hired for their IT prowess so when they encounter a problem and call support, they shouldn’t be made to feel silly or that they are too much trouble. Support should be provided immediately either over the phone or via remote access. No arranging callbacks for a later time more convenient to the IT support provider and no shuffling you around to another team. Immediate, effective support should be available when you need it, delivered by friendly, knowledgeable and approachable experts!
New joiners have to be added to your systems and will require new hardware. Your Technology Success Partner should be able to provide you with all you need, including a ready-configured computer with all supporting software, email addresses and so on, providing you with a ‘plug and play’ solution. This saves you time and ensures all systems continue to operate at maximum efficiency as they’ve all been configured to work together – again, saving you time. Additionally, they can keep an eye your license requirements, ensuring they’re all up to date and that you’re getting the best deal available, providing you with peace of mind.
On a daily basis, new threats emerge around cybersecurity. Your Technology Success Partners should be ensuring your systems are guarded against possible breaches, with all firewalls and anti-virus software up to date. They should also have a robust recovery strategy in place minimising the amount of information lost in the event of a ransomware attack or malicious purge – saving you time and money and giving you peace of mind.
What we all want from our business partners is to know we’re getting additional value from our investment. Westtek IT has decades of experience operating as the Technology Success Partners of choice for many of the UK’s leading independent recruitment agencies. We’re in your corner, for your peace of mind.
Is Your IT Support Partner Your Technology Success Partner?
As business owners, we all appreciate that our sector is what we excel in, but there are many other areas of our businesses which require an expert so the company can run efficiently and profitably. As a recruitment business owner, your company’s main purpose is to find the right people for other businesses. However, as a business owner yourself, you’ll appreciate there are other areas where support is required, such as Accounts, Legal and IT. The options are to either muddle along attempting to plug the gap ourselves or employ people with skills and experience within that area. Another popular option is to outsource the operation to a company who specialises in that function.
Having made the decision to outsource, you really need to feel your service providers are on your side. Often, we embark on a journey and aside from the cursory periodic review, chances are we’ll stick with that provider indefinitely. Engaged with the business of doing business, it’s easy to bypass a regular assessment of whether that partnership is still working as effectively as expected or as required. After all, familiarity and longevity all too often breed complacency.
There’s no time like the present! If it’s been a while since you last audited the role your IT support partner plays and assessed the benefits of continuing to work with them, here’s a rundown of things to consider:
- Do they regularly conduct reviews of your systems to ensure all are running at optimum speed and seamlessly, without interruption to your day-to-day operations?
- Do you and your staff feel supported by their first line IT Helpdesk staff?
- When a system goes down, or a PC crashes, is your IT Support Partner immediately accessible?
- Are they as willing to talk to each member of your staff as they are to you, or do they have a ‘we need the boss’ mentality?
- Do they get straight on to every problem quickly to find a resolution so you can go back to recruiting?
- Do they proactively call you when a potential threat arises, or call to reassure you?
- Do they tell you how things are without a deluge of technical jargon?
- Does working with them give you peace of mind?
We strongly believe your IT support provider should be your Technology Success Partner. Slow, cumbersome, glitchy systems that crash – periodically or regularly, have an immediate and final effect, preventing staff from carrying out their duties for as long as their systems are down. Your IT systems need to run optimally and seamlessly or productivity, turnover and profit all take a hit.
Your Technology Success Partner should make you and your staff feel supported, no matter what the problem. It’s fair to say, your employees probably weren’t hired for their IT prowess so when they encounter a problem and call support, they shouldn’t be made to feel silly or that they are too much trouble. Support should be provided immediately either over the phone or via remote access. No arranging callbacks for a later time more convenient to the IT support provider and no shuffling you around to another team. Immediate, effective support should be available when you need it, delivered by friendly, knowledgeable and approachable experts!
New joiners have to be added to your systems and will require new hardware. Your Technology Success Partner should be able to provide you with all you need, including a ready-configured computer with all supporting software, email addresses and so on, providing you with a ‘plug and play’ solution. This saves you time and ensures all systems continue to operate at maximum efficiency as they’ve all been configured to work together – again, saving you time. Additionally, they can keep an eye your license requirements, ensuring they’re all up to date and that you’re getting the best deal available, providing you with peace of mind.
On a daily basis, new threats emerge around cybersecurity. Your Technology Success Partners should be ensuring your systems are guarded against possible breaches, with all firewalls and anti-virus software up to date. They should also have a robust recovery strategy in place minimising the amount of information lost in the event of a ransomware attack or malicious purge – saving you time and money and giving you peace of mind.
What we all want from our business partners is to know we’re getting additional value from our investment. Westtek IT has decades of experience operating as the Technology Success Partners of choice for many of the UK’s leading independent recruitment agencies. We’re in your corner, for your peace of mind.
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