Buyers Check List

Fifteen questions which you should ask a prospective IT provider:

We wrote this guide because we believe that choosing the right IT Partner is a crucial business decision. In order to help you we have produced a set of questions you should ask of any prospective company. Once you have all the answers, you can make an informed choice.

    • Are you ISO9001 accredited for the services you offer?
    • Are you accredited directly by software and hardware companies such as Microsoft and Cisco, to provide their products?
    • Can you directly involve the technology specialists and learning specialists from vendor companies, such as Cisco?
    • Will I be able to speak to (and work directly with) designers, project managers and technology experts who are employed directly by your company?
    • Will i be assured of working with the same teams from project to project, including administrators, project managers and trainers?
    • Are all of those working on my account and projects able to communicate and collaborate directly as a single team?
    • Will i be tied to a long contract, e.g. Longer than a year?
    • How do you gain and maintain your own training, and technology-specific expertise?
    • What feedback mechanisms are in place, formal or informal, to ensure that customers’ experiences are incorporated back into your services?
    • How do you ensure that all staff deliver services to a consistent and defined standard?
    • How will you monitor the success of your services – and what mechanisms will be in place to address issues when training doesn’t achieve the desired results?
    • What processes can you put in place to ensure, should our contract need to be terminated, that we can move smoothly to another supplier – within controlled costs and timescales?
    • Can you provide ongoing and clear information about vendor management: About your third party partners, your selection process and how you satisfy yourself that these will meet consistent standards?
    • Will you help me align my technology with my business goals?
    • Will you spend time getting to know me and my company?