How to choose an IT support company: a 10-point checklist

Selecting the right managed IT support provider for your business is often one of the most crucial decisions an organisation can make. 

The ideal IT support partner will keep your business running smoothly, whereas the wrong provider could make daily operations more complicated.

Knowing where to start when you begin the search for a professional and effective managed IT support provider can be difficult without context and some simple steps to follow.

Use this easy-to-follow checklist to help you decide what questions to ask and key signs to look for when choosing your best-fit managed IT support provider.

How to choose an IT support company: 10-point checklist

• Accreditations

Industry certifications and partner designations can provide evidence of a managed IT support provider’s security standards, technical capability and experience. 

At Integrity, we hold a variety of industry accreditations, including Cyber Essentials Plus certification, and are both a Microsoft Solutions Partner and Sophos Gold Partner, enabling us to help protect your organisation from a range of cyber threats.

Cyber Essentials is the government-backed certification to look for in a provider.

Learn more here: How to tell if your IT support provider is any good

• Response times and SLAs

Response times are an important factor to consider when choosing a managed IT support provider. Delays in addressing IT issues can allow minor problems to escalate into more serious disruptions, making them harder and more costly to resolve. 

Choosing a provider with clear response time commitments and an efficient support process helps minimise disruption, resolve issues quickly and keep your business operating smoothly.

Response time and support commitments should be clearly outlined in your Service Level Agreement (SLA) with your IT support provider. 

Your SLA should also explain how a serious outage will be prioritised, the target response time and how escalation will work. 

Browse more information here: What should an IT support contract include?

• Proactive monitoring

Without regular oversight, your business and your IT support provider will find it challenging to pick up early system issues and deal with these promptly to reduce friction or system downtime.

Proactive monitoring could include analysing device performance, available storage, connectivity, services and hardware health. 

Remote monitoring and management (RMM) is capable of continuously monitoring supported devices and automatically alerting an IT support team when an area needs attention. A service Integrity can offer as part of managed IT support.

• Transparent pricing

Attractive pricing accompanying a service provider quote can be hard to turn down. However, many scenarios where the quote is too good to be true may come at a price for your business.

Cheaper quotes often do not cover essential services your business will likely need, such as data backups or anti-virus protection. 

Pricing that is clear with no secret extras that take you by surprise is a key feature of a Service Level Agreement (SLA) with a professional managed IT support provider, like Integrity. 

Transparent pricing helps you know how much the service will cost so that you can properly plan future financial spend. 

Read more about pricing here: How are IT support packages priced?

• Local presence and on-site availability

When choosing a managed IT support provider, it’s important to understand their support hours, target response times, escalation procedures and ability to provide onsite assistance when needed. 

These factors help ensure your business receives the right level of support to minimise disruption and maintain productivity.

A proactive IT support partner with local engineers and a strong understanding of your business can make a significant difference. 

By building a close working relationship, identifying potential issues early and responding promptly to incidents, they can help reduce downtime and ensure any IT outages are resolved as efficiently as possible.

• References and testimonials

Reviewing references and testimonials, or gaining a word-of-mouth recommendation about a potential managed IT support provider can give you reassurance that the company is professional and has the industry experience to properly manage and maintain your IT systems.

Check out the testimonials for your proposed service partner and see what their clients say about them. There are a number of client testimonials about work we’ve completed on our Integrity Testimonials page. 

• Security depth

Cyber security should cover the wider IT environment rather than focusing on servers alone. This may include endpoints, firewalls, email, user accounts and cloud services, depending on your organisation’s requirements.

In fact, powerful endpoint protection, multifactor authentication and regular backups are potentially required to safeguard your systems.

If your service provider holds recognised certifications, such as Cyber Essentials Plus, this provides additional assurance that the provider itself has implemented and independently tested recognised cyber security controls.

• Scalability

As your business grows, your managed IT support service should be able to scale with you. Outsourcing to a managed IT support provider who has experience working with organisations that expand over time can be vital in this respect.

With an external managed IT support provider, IT system maintenance can be scaled around your business needs, helping you with expertise and project resources as your systems evolve.

• Smooth onboarding

A structured onboarding process should establish system knowledge, access requirements, security controls and support procedures from the outset.

At Integrity, we are committed to developing strong, lasting relationships with our clients through commitment, communication and honesty. This helps our partnerships thrive and flourish at the beginning and over time.

Read more here: The hidden risks of outsourcing IT support

• Partnership fit

If you feel your current IT support partner isn’t delivering the level of service or expertise you need for your business, searching for an alternative seems like a natural next step.

Our professional team of technicians have a combined experience of over 50 years in IT and are Microsoft Certified, enabling us to make IT support simple to understand and simple to access for your business. 



Questions to ask before you sign