When searching for an IT company in Fort Myers, it’s important to vet every potential candidate on your list fully. This mean meeting with each company for an in-depth interview — ideally in person or, if necessary, by video conference.
Asking the right questions at these interviews will make them far more effective at narrowing down the best candidate for hire. With every potential IT company in Fort Myers you consider, we recommend using the following question prompts.
Hiring a New Information Technology Firm?
Top Questions to Ask a Potential IT Company in Fort Myers
What’s the size of your business? Have you grown?
You’ll quickly find that there are IT companies of all sizes in Fort Myers. And as each IT company grows, their business model can change immensely. If you are interviewing small companies or even independently run companies, this is okay if your company is of equal size or if you’re only looking for surface level assistance.
But if your company is large or actively growing in size or if you are going to require a lot of assistance with your IT, you’ll want to choose a company that has enough breadth and experience to meet your needs. They’ll need to have an adequate number of staff members, all of which should have the appropriate credentials and certifications to understand and meet your requirements and to solve your challenges without a hitch.
Does your business have insurance?
This is a question you’ll want to ask any business you hire — from roofers and carpet layers to food delivery trucks and cleaning companies. When a business does not have insurance and plans on working with your property, on your premises, and alongside your employees and colleagues, it is essential that they have adequate insurance to cover them (and you) in the event of an unforeseen accident or negligence.
What sort of support do you provide?
Most IT companies in Fort Myers, Florida offer several tears of information technology services. You’ll be able to choose from these different service levels based on your unique needs.
First, nearly all IT companies offer some pay-as-you-go support. This means that they are your go-to IT company if you need to amend a piece of equipment, install new cabling, update software, or get consultation on new programs. You will pay an hourly pay rate for their services.
There are also break-fix support contracts. You pay a fixed price, and you can call the company any time to come and fix something that’s gone wrong with your technology. Sometimes, break-fix relationships with IT companies are also based on an hourly pay rate.
Lastly, there’s managed support services. Most businesses in South Florida and Puerto Rico are looking for managed support, so this should be an entirely separate question …
Are you a managed service provider (MSP)?
A managed service provider is an IT support company who takes full responsibility for your internal hardware and software systems, including everything from cloud storage systems to installing new hardware and consulting on new software.
With managed service providers, you will pay an annual, monthly, or bi-monthly fee to the IT company and sign a contract. This contract will dictate the parameters of the services that the IT company will offer your business for your regular fee. “The client and the MSP are bound by a contractual, service-level agreement that states the performance and quality metrics of their relationship.”
In addition to being several tiers of support overall for IT company service, there are often several tiers of managed service support as well. That is, there are several payment options when you want to hire an MSP.
For example, if you anticipate requiring an immense amount of service and support from your Florida business, you’ll choose the highest level of service. On the other hand, if you need managed service support, but would like to pay a lower rate, you may be able to get a more pared down service list with a less expensive annual, monthly, or bimonthly pay rate.
Do you manage cloud services?
Cloud services refer to IT storage using cloud-based software. Today, it’s rare for businesses to store their data manually with in-house servers. Instead, most companies opt for safe and secure cloud services; you’ll have more storage space than you could ever dream of!
Make sure that your IT company hire offers services for the cloud as this will be an essential element of your integrated systems.
What can we expect from your response times?
Lastly, it’s a good idea to get a full understanding of what you can expect in the event of a problem with your IT network or an issue with hardware. This is where most of the problems occur when using an outsourced IT company. You want to be sure that you can find a company who will be there as soon as possible to fix the issue.
When you get a response to this question, remember that a “guaranteed response time” from them is only a guarantee that they’re not going to ignore you should you have a problem or downtime. It’s better to have a full understanding of what to expect from their active response team than to get a guaranteed response time. If they can guarantee you’ll have a dedicated account manager, on the other hand, this can help immensely when it comes to troubleshooting and repairs.
About Pulse Technologies: Your Go-to IT Company in Fort Myers
Pulse Technologies serves the entire Southwest Florida area with world-class IT services and support. We can help your business whether it’s in the Fort Myers area, Puerto Rico, or the US Virgin Islands. We take pride in delivering the very best in IT services to every one of our clients. We have a dedicated team of certified and highly skilled engineers and computer technicians standing by to meet your information technology needs.
Ready to learn more? Start experiencing accurate world-class service now! Book a consultation today.
Experienced Chief Executive Officer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), IT Service Management, Team Building, IT Strategy, and Management. Strong entrepreneurship professional with a Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.) focused in Computer/Information Technology Administration and Management from Humboldt University of Berlin (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin).
