Put Your MSP To The Test!

As the financial state of the world around us falls further into question, people are looking for solutions to keep their companies operational while reducing costs. Managed Services is the obvious choice for the IT sector, and companies have sprung up overnight to meet the demand. In some ways the validation of the industry is refreshing, but the vagueness around the definition of "managed services" makes one company's product offering vastly different from the next. Before entrusting your company's IT services to any provider, see how they fare with these simple tests.

Can They Do What They Say?

This seems like an obvious question, but it's worth using it as the foundation. Every company can provide you with references, and when you ask them for references, they'll give you the top three or five companies in their portfolio, ones that they know will speak highly of them. Ask your provider for a procedural and then a live test of their services, something that will show you that they can do what they say. Be fair, though - don't waste their time. A tremendous amount of work goes into bringing a client's environment online, from VPN setup to systems configuration for monitoring or response. Find a solution, such as the monitoring of public ports on a single server, and use that as the qualification of their skill. Test their response by pulling the plug on the service and watching the system come alive - alerts become tickets, tickets become people, people become action, and action becomes resolution. You'll learn a lot by watching how they operate.

Are They Stable?

In these times everyone is experiencing the effect of the economic downturn, and everyone wants to pretend that they're not. No matter what reason has led you to managed services, you have to know that your partnership with the provider is for the long haul. You don't want to invest in them and then have them fall apart a few months later. Look them in the eye and ask them about their financials - pay attention to their response. Listen not to what they say, but to how it feels when they say it. Respect the honesty of a company who tells you that they feel the pain, but that they're committed to their customers. You're not only buying the service, you're buying the promise, and that promise doesn't come from a company, but from a person.

Do They Have Documentation?

Yep - documentation. Take a look at the people around you, the people with whom you work from day to day. Where does the knowledge reside for the work that you do? Imagine now that those people are suddenly gone - what do you do? Where does the knowledge come from now? You're turning to managed services because it's a better solution than having internal staff - it gives you greater flexibility and lower costs, but it cannot come with additional burdens. Not only do you want to have procedural documentation if the relationship with the MSP were to change, but also so that the MSP doesn't suffer from the same risk of information loss if its employees should move on to greener pastures. In some ways what you're purchasing is a black box, but you have the right to ask that the box is efficient and keeps you safe.

Do They Test Themselves?

An MSP is only as good as its procedures, and the procedures are only as good as the information they have about the systems. All environments are dynamic, and since the MSP is removed from the internal operations of the company, it's likely that business initiatives will move forward without the direct involvement of the support staff. This is not dangerous if additional procedures exist to catch that things have changed. At the very least there should be a monthly meeting with the engineers responsible for managing the systems and the project manager, during which you'll have an opportunity to forecast the next month's expectations. The military drills combat response by simulating attacks - your MSP should have a lab environment where they can simulate system failures and train their staff on the correct way to respond. With modern virtualization technology your MSP should even be able to simulate your production environment and drill the response to failures in a controlled atmosphere. By doing so, you know that they're ready to respond to a real emergency and won't be figuring it out as they go along.

Are They A Client Of Themselves?

The best way for an MSP to demonstrate that their processes are effective is if they use them for their own systems. The MSP isn't tapped into a magical universe where computers don't break - the more complex their environment is, the more likely it will break, just like anyone else's. What makes an MSP shine is when they support their systems using the same response procedures as they do for their clients - the same notification engine, SLA, escalation, and resolution processes. People tend to care for what is theirs more than for what belongs to others, so having one process for all systems assures that you're receiving the quality support that you've contracted.