Any business function, size or tech experience, relies heavily on technology. But not every business has the capacity to hire a full-time, in-house IT team. The decision to outsource your IT operations to a service vendor is not one to be made lightly or quickly. It’s important to carefully review your unique needs, budget and timeline and then decide if hiring an ITaaS vendor is even the right decision for your business.

If you do decide that it’s the best way forward, it’s essential to do your due diligence in choosing a partner who can truly meet your needs.To help you get started with this process, here are 10 Important Questions to ask when interviewing potential ITaaS vendors.

Question 1 – What Is The Cost Of An In-house Team Versus Hiring A Vendor?

Assuming that you’ve already shortlisted ITaaS candidates according to their reputation and they’ve been debriefed about your business, it helps to ask the cost comparison question so that you can make an accurate cost-benefit calculation. You may request to include this data point in their prospectus to help you get a sense of whether they have carefully considered your IT needs and how it aligns with their capability. Note that the candidate may ask for time to investigate your requirements and processes to complete this information.

Question 2 – What Will The Vendor Be Responsible For?

When considering a service-based model for IT, it’s important to lay out in clear detail what the service vendor will be responsible for. They should be able to enumerate measurable daily, weekly and monthly deliverables. This way, it is very clear what to expect from that vendor, and you’ll also protect yourself from additional, unnecessary services.

Question 3 – What Are The Measurable Benefits Of Their Technology And Services?

Ask how your business is going to benefit from the decision of adding new tech and service features.  Will it fulfill customers’ needs and enhance their experience or not? It just looks cool and trendy. Either way, know the tangible business benefits like efficiency gains for your team and improved customer satisfaction before investing.

Question 4 – What Are The High-priority Issues And How To Solve Them?

Focusing on specific solutions and business needs is a great way to partner with ITaaS providers. You should first identify the business’ highest priority area, whether that’s sales, marketing, customer retention or something else. You can then decide if it’s better to partner with ITaaS providers that can develop custom IT solutions or work with tech-enabled solution providers that bring established software as needed and provide IT support.

Question 5 – How Will They Meet Your Desired Outcomes? 

Supposing that you have communicated your business goals and well-defined expectations with your ITaaS candidate, it’s time to hit them with the ROI question – “what results can they deliver, when and how will they meet them.” A good vendor should be able to determine how their solutions will achieve desired outcomes and be accountable for shortcomings. If they aren’t, there is a good chance you will waste dollars without attaining your goal.

Question 6 – How Will Their Processes And Tools Integrate With Yours?

Your ITaaS provider needs to operate in-step with your organization. They should use the same processes and tools, and their reporting should feed into the overall metrics of the business. Many vendors work with their competition to allow integration of data; this is crucial when using external vendors for mission-critical business functions.

Question 7 – What Is Their Level Of Expertise With Your Preferred Software?

If your business runs on Microsoft, for example, you will need a specialized cybersecurity partner with proven expertise in Microsoft environments. That way, the ITaaS partner can deliver the optimal combination of people, processes and applications to improve your security posture, as opposed to cut-and-paste tools and approaches.

Question 8 – What Do Their Current Clients Have To Say?

Listening to what others say about the prospective ITaas vendor is a smart way to get proof of their expertise, credibility and value. Inquire with current clients about their experience with the vendor – ask about their communication skills and effectiveness, and if they are consistently hitting the mark. This lets you know if the vendor is in the best position to help your organization.

Question 9 – What Is Their Level Of Experience In Your Industry?

You are more likely to have a successful partnership with industry-focused vendors who possess a broad portfolio of capabilities. Working with experienced providers in your industry tends to accelerate the deployment of services, since the vendor is already familiar with your line of business and has done similar work in the past. A broad list of service-offerings means that you can rely on a single vendor to execute several solutions to meet many requirements, including technology, process, organizational, security and compliance.

Question 10 – What Is Their Level Of Expertise With Cloud-Based Tools?

The right vendor is able to expertly integrate cloud-based security tools and techniques with your current infrastructure. They should be able to harness solutions and present you with a single, integrated view of all business endpoints in the cloud. The vendor should also stay up to date with emerging threats and comply with credential-management practices.

Next Step: The Service Level Agreement

Another important component in selecting an ITaaS vendor is the service-level agreement. Ensure that the SLA specifies the time commitment and quality measurement percentage you can expect before signing off on the partnership. The agreement should define which IT services you receive and the supported platforms, such as Windows, MAC, Linux, mobile and/or physical hardware.