If you are considering outsourcing your IT project management and support team, it’s important that you find the help most suitable for your business and its future. The relationship between your business and your outsourced IT team should be mutually beneficial, and it is important that both parties share the same goals and priorities for the safety, security, and progression of your business. Here are some of the important questions you can ask when looking for the ideal outsourced IT support:
What safeguards will you have in place to ensure the security of our infrastructure?
You want to make sure your data will be as safe as possible in the hands of your outsourced IT team. It’s important that your project manager takes your concerns seriously and ensures that you understand the measures being taken to protect your data from danger. Security is an ongoing concern – make sure your project manager has a plan for continuous evaluations and regular maintenance to halt any risks before they happen.
What actions will you take in the event of a security emergency?
Regardless of how thorough and effective your IT team’s security measures are, there is still a risk of an expected cyberattack, network outage, or other technical disaster that threatens the security of your data. Your project manager and IT team should have a detailed plan developed to handle emergencies quickly and effectively. Ideally, this plan should minimize network downtime and data loss, therefore reducing the impact on your overall business. The security of your business should be as important to your project manager and service provider as it is to you. To further understand how your IT team will handle emergencies, it will also be helpful to ask how past emergencies were handled.
How do you determine priorities within a budget?
Your project manager should be willing to work with you to understand your goals for your business and help you accomplish them. They have experience working within a budget and can provide valuable insight for planning and allocating towards specific projects. It is important that your project manager understands what you consider to be priorities and that their plan for your budget aligns with that. There should be open and honest communication between you and your project manager regarding prioritizing goals within your budget.
What is your strategy for learning and incorporating new skills and technologies?
One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing your IT support is having access to the newest and best resources that you might not have access to otherwise. Technology is constantly updating and new resources are available all the time, so it is important for those in the field to be able to learn and adapt to these changes as they happen. Your project manager and service provider should be able to show you how they ensure that your IT team is learning and employing these skills and technologies in their projects. There should also be a plan for introducing new resources in a project so that the rollout goes as smoothly as possible.
How do you explain technical projects to peers who lack technical knowledge?
You may be outsourcing your IT project management because you lack the technical knowledge to oversee an IT team on your own. In this case, it is important for your project manager to be able to communicate the technical areas of your business in language that you can understand. This creates a conversation in which both participants can actively and effectively contribute, ensuring that your ideas are being heard and implemented in the ways you intended.
After asking these questions, you should have a good understanding of how an outsourced IT team can contribute to your business. Your IT Project Manager is willing to work with you to communicate between you and your IT support team, ensuring your business goals are met in terms you understand.