Three Vital Questions to ask When Deciding to Change Your Technology Vendor
As a small business owner, a prominent concern is maximizing your IT (information technology) budget. Not only are there cost concerns, but there is security, stability, and functionality to consider. Many small business owners do not realize their actual technology costs until they spend some time analyzing what the total cost of technology is. Over time, most prudent small business owners suspect that their technology needs are underserved. They also become unsure about whether their technology budgets are spent productively. Consequently there are three questions you should ask when considering a technology vendor change:
1) Do you trust your current technology vendor?
2) Have you had any technology surprises?
3) Can you predict your technology costs?
Let’s explore more detail on these concepts….
1) Do you trust your current technology vendor?
A technology vendor should have your best interests in mind. They should be checking with you to make sure they are meeting your needs. This really means they have to be accessible and conversant. They should help you budget for growth and workflow productivity. They should be helping you with budgeting, and they should be a partner that you can discuss technology initiatives with. You should also be able to present them with a challenge, and let them help you solve it with technology. If you only hear from your technology vendor when there is a problem or when they want to sell you a new product or service (or raise their fees), then you might want to consider some better partners to rely on.
2) Have you had any technology surprises?
In some circumstances, there may be a system outage that occurs unexpectedly. If your technology vendor strongly recommends an expensive upgrade project, then why did they not already tell you? A properly maintained system does not fall apart without warning. Many times when an outage occurs it can be caused by many factors. Does your technology vendor show up to the technology crime scene and recommend an expensive project or do they proactively forecast needed upgrades well before an outage occurs? Workstations and Servers provide many symptoms prior to an outage. Proper monitoring and maintenance should ward off most technology surprises. Is it possible that your current technology vendor is so busy they just wait for an outage and then sell an expensive project when your system is down? Your technology vendor has access to tools that should make technology surprises very rare and avoidable.
3) Can you predict your technology costs?
Did you know that the best way to assess and predict technology costs is by the price per user method. You should calculate your per user price by adding up all of your technology costs including internet, hardware, software, service etc. and then once totaled divide by the number of users.
$/user cost analysis = sum of all technology costs divided by the # of users
(workstations/servers/switches/firewall/wifi/software/service/maintenance/Internet)
Once this number is established then you can properly compare other options. Most business owners are amazed at how much they actually spend on a per user basis. A great option to consider today is to move your entire network to a cloud based system at a fixed monthly per user price. This price includes all support service, hardware, software, internet service, and equipment needed to run your system with no surprises. It also includes and a team of technology experts ready to serve your technology needs.
Contact your sales specialist at NthaCloud.com today for a free system analysis.
Or call us at 303-565-7261.
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