Choosing the Right Managed Service Provider: Checklist

You’ve recognized the need for thorough and robust audiovisual solutions. It’s simply the way business is conducted in the current operational landscape, with videoconferencing, remote work and collaboration capabilities, integrated and easy-to-use meeting spaces, and more shaping the way the world works.

These efficiencies and solutions help boost productivity, driving growth and profit to new heights, and you’ve bought in.

But how much do you know about the value a managed service provider can bring to your bottom line? Have you taken steps toward choosing a managed service provider that can assist with monitoring day-to-day operations, provide on-site and remote support, and more?

Maybe you’ve begun the search, but you’re unsure where to start – or which provider is right for your unique operational needs, challenges and goals.

Electrosonic has compiled the following checklist of key questions to consider when selecting a managed service provider – and getting the most out of that partnership.

Your Managed Service Provider Checklist

As you conduct your search, keep the following in mind:

• What services does the provider offer?
  Seems self-explanatory, but any vetting of a potential managed service provider should begin with research to establish a thorough understanding of exactly what the company brings to the table. Does it provide on-site support, or only remote? When can the service desk be reached? Do they supplement simple service and maintenance capabilities with expertise in workspace management, workspace collaboration, field integration, and more?
  
  
• How large is the provider? Can it match your needs?
  It’s critical to ensure that your managed service provider has the resources at its disposal to properly oversee your unique AV solutions. A provider could have quality staff and great results, but, if its teams are stretched too thin or don’t have adequate time to devote to monitoring and supporting your operation, all that promise goes to waste. It’s critical to choose a managed service provider with scale that matches your business’s.
  
  
• What’s the provider’s global reach?
  In a similar vein, if your operations are global in nature, shouldn’t your managed service provider have similar capabilities? It’s critical to think about the global reach of any provider before entering into a partnership that could eventually expose a lack of regional knowledge or capability, a scale that’s too small to effectively keep pace with your global needs, and more.
  
  
• What’s the provider’s stated top priority?
  The most critical part of any AV solution is simple – it has to work. At its core, a manage service provider needs to have one priority above all else – ensuring your services are available for use and ready to fulfill their intended purpose at all times. Fruitful partnerships will add value on top of this goal, but the importance of a shared understanding of the critical nature of uptime can’t be overstated.
• Does the provider have ample evidence of past success? What projects has it worked on?
  Does the provider have success stories on deck to share with you? Can you contact past or current clients to get an idea of what the provider is like in practice? Every bit of due diligence in this area can help you get a better idea of the totality of the provider’s offering.
  
  
• Does the provider offer more than just managed services?
  It can be beneficial to utilize a more end-to-end managed service provider, and many AV integrators and designers also offer managed services to supplement their work. Even if an AV integrator didn’t specifically design or implement your solutions, the knowledge they possess of cutting-edge technologies and the inner workings of these solutions could prove valuable.
  
  
• How does the provider offer added value?
  What does the provider do beyond simply ensuring your solutions work correctly as often as possible? Sure, that’s the baseline, but what else does the provider bring to the table? What level of individualized user support exists? How well-trained and knowledgeable are the provider’s technicians? What kind of timeline can you expect for fixes or upgrades and new implementations? How robust is the data the provider gives you regarding solution performance? These are all key questions.
  
  
• Is the provider willing to constantly evaluate your partnership?
  A good managed service provider should always have its finger on the pulse of your solution and relationship and be looking for ways to boost overall performance, even in times when everything is working as intended. A good provider wants you to grow and evolve, and it won’t be content to simply manage the solutions you’ve asked them to and call it a day.
  
  
• Is the provider “future-proof?”
  Providers should be ready to scale your solutions, monitoring and support capabilities as technology advances, helping you ensure you’re always on the cutting edge of collaboration. Ask for evidence of how the provider has been agile in this way in serving other partners. You want a partnership ready to grow and adapt, not become obsolete.

The Benefits of a Managed Service Provider

Before signing on with a managed service provider – even one that checks every box listed above – you should thoroughly understand the “why” behind your decision.

The simple fact is that, when you choose to support your operation’s own IT capabilities and team with an outside managed service provider, you’ll see measurable benefits in the form of a greater return on your investment and a lower total cost of ownership.

The benefits of a managed service provider include:

• Assistance in making system availability a priority – without breaking the bank
  
  
• Helping your IT professionals use their time and expertise elsewhere
  
  
• Collecting thorough data and analytics through remote monitoring to ensure you’re getting the most out of your solutions
  
  
• Making collaboration, remote capabilities, and more priorities to ensure your operation is ready for anything
  
  
• Assistance in adapting to the changing workplace without losing step
  
  
• Increasing overall employee productivity and engagement

These benefits barely scratch the surface of the growth you can see by choosing to leverage a managed service provider ready to help you keep pace with the ever-shifting ways the world conducts business.

And Electrosonic is ready to support that mission.

Combined with leading expertise, global scale and a converged methodology centered on integration and innovation, services like Electrosonic’s Panorama and Affinity are ready to help you get the most out of your systems and ease the burden on your IT team.

To learn more about the entire suite of managed service initiatives and programs Electrosonic offers, contact us today.