Many nonprofit organizations are faced with the growing expectations to create business value with limited resources. Businesses, for-profit and nonprofit, depend on their technology infrastructure regardless of the organization’s size.
IT Service providers can help reduce the cost to manage and maintain a company’s infrastructure. Cloud services have helped nonprofits reduce their costs of equipment, maintenance, and support. However, you still need to have an IT service provider which you can count on for break/fix situations, technical advice, etc.
Finding a trusted technical advisor is key.
Below are the top items to discuss with a potential IT Service provider.
1. Competence / Availability
- What is their technical background and history with providing support to organizations?
- What is their average staff size of organizations you currently support?
- Can they provide references?
- Do they have the bandwidth to serve you?
2. Flexibility
- What are the billing options (block of time, time & materials, per workstation/server)?
- What services are included (antivirus protection, remote monitoring, remote and on-site support)?
- Do they offer a SLA (Service Level Agreement)? This agreement depicts the amount of time it takes to contact you after submitting a support ticket.
3. Trusted technical advisor
- Do they need someone to be proactive or are you looking only for break/fix support?
- Do they need someone to grow with your organization and build a long-term relationship?
4. Billing
- Hourly or per workstation?
- What is their billing structure?
- How often do they invoice?
- Do they offer a nonprofit rate?
