My rather humble home is a quaint converted coach house in Shrewsbury. Recently making improvements to the grade two-listed property, we had to enrol the expertise of a local electrician.
On inspection we learnt the main supply entering the property was the wrong type of cable and unsuitable. The cost of the remedial works was four figures.
Taking technology and your average business, it would be nice to describe a picture that is different to our home improvement experience. Sadly this is not always the case.
Honest and good value IT providers do exist, but like other industries there are also companies out there that do things poorly. The result is bad customer service, software piracy, bad advice and corner cutting.
A poor quality IT provider to the layman means that you have a big mess. The IT solution you end up with could be unfit for the purpose, possibly illegal, or it leaves you exposed to business risk.
How would you feel if you were sold something all-singing and dancing, but all you needed was a simple computer? Worse still, how would you feel if it was never set up to its full potential?
Imagine your business runs on a homemade server and a major part fails. Then, compounding the issue, your poor quality provider has disappeared. Do you know how much it’s costing the business for every hour you are non-operational?
For some companies, risks like this can be managed and is acceptable. But as your business develops and starts to require specialist technology, you simply cannot afford to get it wrong.
Quality service stands out when it goes wrong. The test is how the problem gets resolved. If your provider is poor, you only find this out when it is too late. In the wrong circumstances a failure of technology can result in a failure of the business.
Look at what accreditations your IT provider holds and the organisations they affiliate themselves with. Just like the trades with NICEIC, Gas Safe (previously Corgi), similar exists within the technology sector.
Look for organisations such as UKITA (www.ukita.co.uk) and BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT (www.bcs.org). Buying services from accredited people will always ensure you that other people, respected in their field, have properly vetted and rubber stamped your supplier.
There is an old and very appropriate saying: Buy cheap and pay twice. Don’t settle for second rate workmanship or poor quality solutions just to save a few quid in the short term.
After all, you wouldn’t use an untrained or inexperienced car mechanic, would you?