With Dubai becoming more cost conscious, outsourcing of certain functions is becoming a great way to increase productivity whilst reducing operational costs. But choosing the correct team to support you can seem confusing. In this blog you will see 5 factors that can help you make an informed decision about the company that will support your IT and business needs.
Managed services
One of the big differences between the best IT service providers and the rest is how they manage the services that they perform. One of these is the application of managed services. This is the management of your systems through 3rd party softwares. These systems allow control and automation of tasks to make both you and your IT team more efficient. They also allow your IT teams to see when potential problems may arise, which will let them deal with a preventative measure rather than a system outage.
Also, because they employ this software, they allow themselves to recruit a higher level of expertise to support you. Check with your IT team about the systems that they employ to deliver IT results, it will allow you to distinguish between the professionals and the low cost labour driven, break/fix model.
Policies
A large cause of IT related problems lies with your company IT policies. Giving unrestricted access to users of an unregulated IT architecture can be fatal.
A good IT team will be able to demonstrate the application of a policy driven environment along with the benefits. They will show how they have built infrastructures before and the results of these enhancements.
Personnel
One of the true strengths of an IT company is within its team. No matter how good the policies and procedures, and the systems available, if the team doesn’t have a robust understanding of business level IT then you are going to experience challenges.
Ask your IT provider to provide profiles of the team that will be likely working on your account. Assess these profiles for local understanding, experience, relevant certifications with trusted bodies and communication ability.
Procedures
When comparing the best IT company with the rest, a key contributor is their internal procedures. This differentiates them from a company that simply answers the phone when something breaks and throws staff at the problem.
A good support company will be able to show their ability to recognise, prevent and fix problems through a delivery matrix, normally called a Service Level Agreement. This agreement will not only demonstrate their ability to fix problems in a timely manner, based on their urgency, but will also show how they stop these problems occurring in the first place.
Experience
Dubai has its nuances, like any major city, in business procedures and the IT function here is not exempt. It is essential to establish that your IT company has experience, and more so experience in Dubai.
It is also good to look for a range of experience. For instance, whilst you may be an SME, it is important to see relevant company type and size experience, it is also beneficial to understand that your IT provider can support larger organisations. This experience will help you with your company growth, when it reaches the higher levels.
Checking in on these 5 factors will help you to make an educated decision when employing your future IT company in Dubai. Always remember that you should be able to ask these, and peripheral questions, and if they can’t answer, simply walk away and wipe your brow.
