Top 6 questions to ask when choosing an MSP

Choosing an MSP is like choosing a new best friend – it’s someone you can trust and rely on, someone who understands your needs, someone who works with you to solve problems, and someone you naturally connect with. But let’s face it – best friends can be hard to come by – and as an IT professional you don’t have enough recess time to find your new BF on the playground. So how are you supposed to find an MSP that’s the right fit? By asking the right questions. Here’s six things you should ask potential MSPs to fast-track finding your new best friend and business partner.

1. Are your technicians certified in the solutions and services you provide?

Say you’re looking for an MSP who offers Azure IaaS and PaaS management. Ask the MSP if they are Microsoft Gold certified in Azure and how many MSP engineers have Azure certifications. The higher the Microsoft partnership level means the more certifications your MSP has, and the more expertise they can bring to your relationship.

2. Do you have experience serving other clients in our industry and of the same business size?

Ask to see case studies or current customer references who you can call and ask about their experience with the MSP. The MSP should be more than willing to provide these resources if they have great relationships with their clients.

3. Do you have enough resources to serve us effectively and in a timely manner?

This generally comes down to manpower. Ask them how many employees and vendors they have dedicated to their managed services. Also ask what level of support agreement they have with the vendors they can pull in to help deliver their MSP services. What happens if they have an unusually busy day? Has their company shown significant growth in recent years? Your MSP should be available when they say they will and should be able to meet your needs as your company grows.

4. What are your normal business hours and what is your availability outside of those hours?

This is not a question you want to ask when email is down, the network isn’t connecting and downtime is growing. Find out what hours the MSP is available for support and if they offer 24×7 support for emergencies. Ask them what their response time is during both business and non-business hours. The best MSPs will have multiple locations with redundant teams in each location ensuring any local outage does not affect their services.

5. What qualifies as “out of scope” work and what does it cost?

With any SLA, you should have clear definitions about what is included in your managed services and what is out of scope. Be sure you have a full understanding of what typical out of scope work you could encounter and what the rate for that work would be. In order to save your business time and money, you want to find an MSP who you can rely on for all types of services without cutting into next quarter’s IT budget.

6. Do you properly document work so that you have accurate and complete records?

Documentation provides visibility into your relationship, eradicating conflict before it happens. It not only keeps you aware of what work is being completed, but it also ensures that you maintain control over your environment with insight on how the MSP is accessing your information. Documentation also gives you the ability to trace problems back to the source. Ask to see examples of previous tickets to verify they document changes and troubleshooting steps.