How Do You Choose The Right IT Support For Your Business?

In Thailand there are many IT Support and IT Service companies (both Thai owned and foreigner owned). In comparing them, there is a wide contrast ranging between qualified IT service companies to small startups by people with a few years of IT experience and foreigners who are looking for a means to extend their stay in Thailand.

When I talk about quality I am really meaning about the level of expertise and whether that company will make tangible benefits to your organization through the use of IT in order to help your business efficiency and effectiveness.

There are a many fields that exist where gauging a practitioner in terms of being a ‘right choice’ can be challenging. It can help if you know someone who works in that field or know enough about the field to make a valued judgment. Such fields include medical practitioners, lawyers, accountants , mechanics and of course IT personnel too.

What are the key factors to consider when assessing an IT Service company. Whether you are looking for IT Outsourcing in Thailand or help with a specific IT Project or procurement.

Trust – It’s vital that you feel comfortable with the person or company you are dealing with. After all they are going to have your company’s data in their hands.  You need to trust your IT company as equally you need to trust your accountant. So does the person or company have a reputation, are they talking gibberish  or making sense, do you feel they are trustable. These are some question to consider. But in most cases trust comes down to gut feeling.

Support Skills – It’s important to see whether the IT service company you are dealing with has the right level of skills for IT Support. You could ask how many years’ experience the IT Staff have or who are the IT service company’s existing customers and how long have they been with them. Also are the people working on your IT fully supported by senior staff and do they have access to helpful support resources that may save time if a serious IT problem occurs. For example Microsoft have professional support training and qualifications as well as technical forums and libraries of valuable troubleshooting information.

IT Advisement / IT Consulting Skills – A professional IT service company will have a track record of experiences, knowledge and expertise to help advise your business to be more efficient and effective and help increase your business or save costs. There are very few IT companies in Thailand that are great at this.

English (foreign language) Speaking – If you are a foreign entity in Thailand you may well need to have people who can speak English (or your language). This may need to be considered early on the selection process.

Price – Of course the price is important too. Cheapest may sound attractive but it may end up costing more later if jobs have not been done properly the first time due to unqualified personnel.

Record Keeping – Does an engineer turn up and sit in the corner of the office surfing the web or are they pro-actively checking your IT and keeping records?  A good IT company will keep various records of your IT environment to help with planning and support.

Finally when choosing an IT Service or Support company in Thailand, do consider if you want Preventative maintenance or Reactive maintenance. Preventative maintenance (such as IT Outsourcing) involves routinely checking and updating your IT. If this is done properly the need for reactive maintenance decreases somewhat.  Reactive maintenance is a case of only attending to a problem when something goes wrong.

Article written by Richard Burnett, Director of Clarity IT Co., Ltd. © Richard Burnett 2011.