If you are reading this article, then you probably know what ineffective IT Management looks like. You’re probably frustrated by the service you are currently receiving, or tired of feeling like your IT is working against you, not for you. Some telltale signs that it’s time to replace your MSP include:
- Unresponsive support
- Unplanned downtime
- Reactive vs proactive IT support
- Projects in the "No Progress" Zone
- Retraining the new tech that shows up to fix your ticket
In the IT world, most of the work goes on behind the screen so you can’t physically “see” very much. But even if you aren’t an IT pro, you can still tell if your business is receiving the support you need from your internal technology, systems, and computers. If you feel like what you’re seeing is a mess, then it’s safe to say that what you can’t see is much worse.
Read in more detail about these negative MSP indicators. If you are experiencing these issues with your MSP, replace them now.
5 Reasons To Replace Your MSP
1. Unresponsive IT Support
Slow responses from your IT provider when you ask for support is the first and most obvious sign that you should be looking for a new MSP. Waiting for a response to service requests leaves your team with unresolved issues that negatively impact their productivity.
Not only is this lack of responsiveness costing you time and money, it also leaves you feeling neglected. Or worse, disrespected. Your team members experience this at the individual level, too.
"Delayed service can negatively impact your team morale, and they may be blaming you for their frustration."
You and your team should not have to wait days (or even hours) for a response to your request. A good MSP will respond within minutes. For comparison, Gant Systems’ service team responds by triaging service requests within an average of 12 minutes after receipt, and assigning our client’s request to the appropriate technical support during a normal 24 hour business day.
Another issue connected to unresponsiveness is the number of outstanding service tickets increasing month over month. Generally, this number should decrease as an MSP gets to know your business better. This could be an indication that the MSP is stretched thin on resources and is struggling to handle your business’s IT needs.
2. Unplanned Downtime
It’s 10am on a Tuesday and you can’t access your server! Who expects that? Although unplanned downtime can never be 100% eliminated, there are things that your business and your MSP can and should do to mitigate both planned and unplanned downtime, since both cost you money.
Eighty percent of small businesses have experienced unplanned downtime along with data loss, with costs ranging from $82,200 to $256,000 for a single event. What does this mean for your business? Every minute counts in a data recovery scenario—to the tune of $137 to $427 per minute.
It is important to know that not all unplanned downtime with data loss is related to technology failures or security incidents. In fact, an astonishing 65% of actual data loss incidents are caused by human disasters (think coffee on the keyboard incidents). The good news is that education and prevention measures can mitigate downtime and data loss more than you might think.
A high-quality MSP will work with you to ensure that your business and team have prevention measures and contingency plans in place to mitigate (and hopefully negate) disasters. If your MSP is not implementing such proactive solutions to reduce downtime and streamline your organization’s IT infrastructure, then it is time to find a new MSP.
3. Reactive Rather Than Proactive IT Support
Does your IT team only respond when there is a problem? If your MSP only reacts to IT emergencies instead of working to prevent them in the first place, they aren’t using a proactive approach for your business.
Deploying only reactive IT support can lead to more issues later—which then take longer to fix. MSPs that are operating like this fall into a “fire drill” rut. They focus on only fixing problems as they arise, rather than working to prevent them. This type of approach will hinder the productivity of your business.
Most MSPs will say they are monitoring your systems and taking proactive measures to support your IT. However, not all of them put this into practice. At Gant Systems, we find that 60% of the service tickets for our clients are proactive in nature—meaning we created them in an effort to stop something from happening.
This sign of lacking a proactive approach may simply be an indication of an inexperienced, under-qualified, or overworked MSP team. In any case, if this sign is present for you, then it is time to hire a new MSP.
4. Poor Project Performance
When technology projects are well-managed, they have a high likelihood to become profitable for your business. However, poor technology project performance is a sign that your company needs to partner with a better MSP.
Have you experienced any of these situations?
- Projects never get started: This is the worst and all too frequent
- Poor communication: There is no clear line of communication from the key players implementing the project that will provide project updates or information on setbacks.
- No monitoring and evaluation: Without time or progress tracking, IT projects can go out of scope, as well as take longer and require more resources to implement.
- Projects never finish: Working for an extended period of time without receiving an explanation about delays and large scope changes.
Project performance can suffer due to multiple reasons that arise when project management skills are lacking. If and when this happens, it’s best to cut your losses and switch providers.
5. Constantly Retraining Your MSP
Ever feel like you are in the movie Groundhog Day with your current MSP? Every couple of weeks the “new guy” responds to your ticket request and you have to retrain them? We hear that all too often. When lack of documentation is present, your MSP likely does not document bug fixes or maintain a documentation library specific to your IT infrastructure. This makes fixing the issue if it arises again take longer.
For example: you call about a performance problem for your computer and the MSP says to reboot. It seems to fix the issue for a day, but it keeps coming back. And every time you contact support about this issue, they continue to troubleshoot the symptom as if it were the first time you were calling.
Instead, your MSP should have a problem management process which includes detailed documentation to identify recurring incidents and get to the root cause so that issues don’t fester or continue.
So, why is it so difficult to document?
Short answer: it isn't.
MSP's with the right processes in place should be building a documentation library for each client they support. Whether or not they have a process in place and choose to follow it might be the reason why you have a hard time obtaining documentation.
Alternatively, your MSP might not create or share documentation for the sake of job security. We often encounter this scenario during a knowledge transfer with an incumbent MSP that is being replaced.
Whatever the reason for lack of documentation from your current MSP, it is surely a sign that it is time to move on from them.
Switching To A New MSP Is Easier Than You Think!
When we hear from businesses that have been dissatisfied with their current MSP because of the reasons above, we know there are issues brewing below the surface. Changing providers won’t be more painful than continuing to endure these poor performance issues. You would be surprised how easy it can be to switch MSPs when you find the right partner.
If any of the above signs apply to your business, consider reviewing our Pricing Page, then book a Discovery Call to discuss how you replace your MSP now and receive the quality of support your business and your team deserves.
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