Choosing an IT provider when you are not from the trade

The problem is not finding providers, there are plenty. The problem is that a director who is not from the trade cannot assess the technical competence of the person sitting opposite. They know it, and so does the seller. Most meetings are therefore settled on signals that prove nothing: the size of the company, the confidence of the speaker, a list of certifications, a fluent pitch.

The good news is that there are criteria anyone can check without knowing anything about IT. They are not about technique, but about how the relationship is built. And experience shows the two go together.

The four questions that sort the field

1. Who will hold the keys?

Ask who will own the administrator accounts, the domain name, the licences and the backups. The only acceptable answer is: you. A provider may manage them, they must not own them. If the answer is vague, or if you are told that « it is simpler this way », you already have your answer: it is not simpler, it is harder to leave.

This is the most discriminating criterion, and asking it requires no technical skill at all. See the seven clauses of a reversible contract.

2. What happens if we leave?

Ask it cold, at the first meeting. A confident provider answers without flinching: here is the notice, here is what we hand back, in what format, and here is what we charge to assist. A provider who stiffens, who finds the question premature or jokes it away is telling you something important about the next five years.

3. Who will we get on the phone?

Not « which number », but who. One person who will end up knowing your installation, or the first available technician reading from a file? Both models are defensible, they do not cost the same and do not deliver the same service. What is not defensible is selling the second while implying the first.

4. What will I receive in writing, and how often?

This is the question that separates work done from work claimed. A periodic statement listing what was done, what failed and what is still pending can be checked by someone who knows nothing: it is enough to note that it arrives, that it is dated, and that it does not say exactly the same thing every month.

Three signals that should stop you

• A quote with no visit and no questions. Nobody can price an estate they have not seen. An immediate figure is either a hook or a figure that will not hold.
• Jargon used as an argument. If you leave a meeting without having understood what will be done, that is not your fault. A well-mastered trade explains itself simply.
• Manufactured urgency. An offer that expires, a regulatory threat waved without citing the text, a vulnerability mentioned without saying which. Seriousness has no need to rush you.

And the price, then

It comes last, and that is deliberate. Until the four questions above are settled, two figures cannot be compared, because they do not cover the same thing. We have set out elsewhere what drives the price of managed IT.

What we do

We answer these questions before they are asked, and our answers are written on this site. The accounts are yours, the exit terms are in the contract, the contact does not change, and the statement arrives every period. If you would rather start by seeing where you stand than by changing provider, the review is made for that: thirty minutes, a dated document, no obligation to continue.