Is your company looking to hire an IT firm? Unfortunately, unless you’re tech-savvy or experienced with IT contracts, there can be hidden costs that you wouldn’t expect or know to look for. While it can sound appealing to go for the cheapest firm, that decision can end up costing you more in the long run due to carve-outs and hidden fees in the contract. Cheaper IT firms will omit certain services from the original agreement and later nickel-and-dime you to add them on or by quoting you inadequate solutions that you’ll later need to pay to upgrade.
To help you weed out these companies that are not the bargains they advertise themselves to be, there are a few key elements to consider determining if your quote is insufficient, overpriced or underquoted.
Insufficient Compliance And Cybersecurity Protections:
A ransomware attack is a significant and devastating event for any business; therefore, it’s imperative that the IT company you’re working with isn’t just putting basic (cheap) antivirus software on your network and calling it a day. This is by far the one critical area most “cheaper” MSPs leave out.
Antivirus is good to have but woefully insufficient to protect you from serious threats. In fact, insurance companies are now requiring advanced cyber protections such as employee cyber awareness training, 2FA (2-factor authentication), and what’s called “advanced endpoint protection” just to get insurance coverage for cyber liability and crime insurance. We provide those standards in our offering, so not only do you greatly reduce your chances of a cyber-attack, but you also avoid being denied an important insurance claim (or denied coverage, period).
Inadequate Recovery Solutions:
One thing you also want to make sure you look for in your IT firm proposal is that they do daily backups of your servers and workstations, as well as any cloud applications your company uses (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, etc.), because online applications do NOT guarantee to back up your data. You also need to make sure your backups are immutable or unable to be corrupted by hackers. Again, most insurance companies now require immutable backups to be in place before they’ll insure against ransomware or similar cyber events.
Nonexistent Vendor Liaison And Support:
Will they help you with all of your tech, or just select pieces that they’ve installed? Some IT firms will charge you hourly to resolve tech support issues with your phone system, ISP, security cameras, printers and other devices they didn’t sell you but that still reside on the network (and give you technical problems). These fees can stack up over time. As a client of ours, you get all of that INCLUDED, without extra charges.
Cheap, Inexperienced Techs Who Just Don't Know Macs:
This is a big one! A lot of IT firms are focused on supporting Windows and will say "Sure, we can care for your Macs too". But when it comes down to it, they usually mean they have someone on staff who has seen a Mac before. Don't be fooled. You know Macs are different and special - that's why you use them! But it also means you can't just treat them like a Windows PC. Indeed, Macs need a different approach in order to combine security with the user-friendliness you expect from the Mac platform. Experienced and knowledgeable Mac-focused techs should have, at a minimum, certifications from Apple, as well as a mobile device management platform, that demonstrate Mac expertise. Going with a Windows-first MSP to support your Macs may sound enticing, but you'll invariably end up paying them to learn the nuances of Macs as they fix the same problems over and over. As the saying goes, if you think hiring an expert is expensive, try hiring an amateur.
BEFORE you sign on the dotted line, it’s important to make sure that you fully understand what IS and ISN’T included in the service you are signing up for. It’s VERY easy for one IT services provider to appear far less expensive than another UNTIL you look closely at what you are getting.
If you’d like to see what dependable, quality Apple-first IT support looks like, book a call with our team, and we’ll be happy to give you a quote that covers everything you need. To Schedule Your FREE Assessment, please visit https://www.wildfrog.net/free-network-assessment/ or call our office at 614-218-8798.
