IT Companies in Raleigh: Which IT Service Provider is Right for You?

IT Companies In Raleigh: So Many Choices…

As a business owner, every decision you make determines the level of success that your company will experience in the near or distant future. One of the most important choices you make will be how you move forward with your technology. After all, technology is what is driving your internal processes.

By now you’ve probably gone through at least one level of digital transformation. For instance, you may have shifted from manual processes to digital processes. Furthermore, you may have already updated a few of your digital processes in multiple waves. But now you’ve reached a point where your network has overextended both your business infrastructure and your staff’s ability to keep up.

You may also be experiencing some of these issues:

• Nobody has the time, interest, or knowledge to keep up with the network anymore.
• You seem to be wasting money on solutions that provide no ROI.
• You’ve heard through the grapevine about what your competition is doing — and why your customers are going to them.
• You have also heard about all these security breaches, and you are getting a little worried it may happen to you.
• Everything has become departmentalized in your business. Nobody is communicating or working together. Some employees even seem a bit territorial.
• Last, you are tired of technology breaking down or operating at a snail’s pace. It costs you no telling how much money.

If you have experienced these frustrations or issues, then it may be time to outsource all of your IT management. However, you are not sure if it is a good idea. Outsourcing your computers, software, data, and private information to a contractor seems a bit scary. This is normal and understandable.

However, outsourced IT is nothing new. It is a growing and thriving industry that is replacing the once dominant in-house IT department where you hired your own guys. In fact, outsourced cybersecurity alone jumped from $453 billion to in 2018 to $512 billion already in 2019. That’s not even counting other services that IT companies such as CSP provide such as cloud services, VoIP, data storage and restoration, Help Desk Services, consulting, and so much more.

So, rather than asking yourself if outsourcing your IT is a good idea, maybe a better question is which IT companies in Raleigh provide the best IT services? And, better yet, which IT service provider aligns with your company?

Establishing the Right Criteria for Your IT Needs

Any smart business owner knows that the right choice for any product always begins by establishing the criteria. Likewise, establishing the criteria starts by determining your companies needs and short-range or long-range goals. So, that is where you start.

Gather your team and ask these straightforward questions:

• What is the state of the union regarding your company’s technology?
• Where does your company want to be, and how do you expect technology to take you there?
• What is the purpose of technology in your business? What is its role or function? How do you want it to work for you?
• What are your investment opportunities now? What are your investment opportunities later?
• What does the perfect IT provider look like?

Now that you’ve established some internal criteria, it is time to interview the possible candidates for outsourced IT.

Digging Through IT Companies in Raleigh

There are several ways to start your search for IT companies in Raleigh — Google, business references, social media, networking, online customer reviews, company websites. Regardless of the path that led you to these companies, you will want to narrow your list until you get it down to two or three choices.

Now comes the time for the interviews. Your team is probably smart enough to help you come up with some questions to ask the company. Make sure your questions come from the criteria list you made earlier.

To help you out, here are three starter questions:

1. What Type of Services Do You Offer?

This is the most basic and possibly the most important question you will ask. Why? Because the service that an IT company provides needs to naturally (not forced) align with your business needs. In a nutshell, most IT companies in Raleigh offer these services:

• Managed IT (a blanket term for “We do it all”)
• Communication (usually VoIP or a similar digital telephone platform)
• Cloud services
• Cybersecurity & encryption
• Ongoing system monitoring
• Consulting & network strategy
• Basic repairs, replacements, and upgrades
• Help Desk & customer service
• Disaster recovery or business continuity
• Data storage, security, and recovery

2. What do You do to Prevent Security Breaches?

If security is important to you, then you should address it by asking a clear question and getting a straightforward answer. An IT service provider should assume that at any given point throughout the day that somebody, somewhere on the planet is trying to hack your business. Hack attempts can happen hundreds of times throughout the week. However, it only takes one successful break-in do damage your network, compromise your customer’s privacy, ruin your reputation, and shut your business down.

An experienced and qualified IT company already knows this and has not just one, but several IT security strategies ready to deploy to keep your business safe. Look for these types of services:

• Penetration testing
• 24/7 system monitoring
• Endpoint and user-to-user encryption
• Anti-spam services
• Remote access security
• Wireless network security
• Intrusion prevention and detection

3. Explain in Detail Your Help Desk Services?

The trademark of any IT company is their willingness to bend over backward to serve its customers. You will always be able to tell if you are going to get excellent customer service by how long it takes the company to explain its Help Desk services.

If they sit down with you and outline the features and benefits of their customer service and how it can keep your business running, then that is a good start. Other than the pricing structure, there are two main things you want to look for in Help Desk services.

1. Remote: How fast does the company respond to your issues or questions? Do you get a live body or an automated messaging service? Is the company able to fix most problems from their office ten miles away (which is good)?
2. On-Site: How fast can the company get to your location if you need them on site? When they arrive, are they prepared to handle any situation quickly so that you don’t have to wait?

CSP: Offering Dependable, Modern IT Service in Raleigh

Now that you know what to look for in an IT company, then contact CSP today. We offer industry-leading managed IT services and cybersecurity for small and mid-sized businesses in Raleigh, NC. To find out more, call us today at (919) 424-2000 .