Top 5 Questions to Ask When Interviewing Vancouver IT Companies
The IT industry is one of Vancouver’s fastest-growing sectors, with notable global tech giants continuously entering the market. This has seen tremendous amounts of venture capital pumped into the industry, leading to the growth of local and national companies. Thus, businesses seeking Vancouver IT companies for managed IT services have several choices: computer consultants, independent IT contractors, and large, national IT companies.
The truth is, hiring experts to manage your organization’s IT function is a crucial process that requires lots of due diligence. It’s essential to ensure you work with a company that’s prepared to handle the shocks of the ever-evolving technology environment. As a professional services business, how can you tell which IT provider is best for you?
Below are the top five questions to ask to help you make an informed decision when hiring an IT services organization.
1. What are your long-term plans for your IT services company?
To help you know whether you have the right candidate, ask them to explain their company’s long-term plan. As you evaluate their long-term strategy, check whether they have a clear direction in terms of leadership, processes, and resource allocation, among other details that may hint into the company’s stability and future goals.
Similarly, establish their preparedness for changes in the industry. This will ensure they provide you with relevant services and solutions as the landscape changes. Looking at their long-term plan will also gauge their capacity to handle your organization’s future growth needs.
2. What is your exit strategy?
This may shock many candidates. They anticipate you to work with a company with positive growth prospects. Hence, asking them about their exit strategy may be the last question they expect from you. But a company with a sober business mindset draws an exit strategy, however well-positioned it is in the market.
An exit strategy is vital for protecting the business’s value or creating a smooth transition when the circumstances call for it. Having an exit strategy shows that a company is proactive in responding to the prevailing market conditions, hence, a good fit to work with.
3. Where am I being supported?
Many Vancouver IT companies offer both on-site and remote services. It’s important to know whether they have a local office or offer support from an office outside your locality.
There are many ways of looking at this in determining the efficiency of their services and the cost involved. If you run a network of offices, you may need to work with a company that has a local office near your primary office (headquarters). On-site support allows IT experts to understand your systems as well as offer comprehensive services.
On the other hand, remote support may be more prompt and round the clock, in addition to being less costly. But, some issues cannot be dealt with remotely, like hardware failure.
4. Are your employees full-time staff members, contractors, or outsourced?
There are downsides to either of the three situations. While full-time staff members guarantee support reliability and steady quality in service delivery, the cost of engaging such an organization may be higher than those dealing with contractors. On the same note, an IT services company that outsources its employees may be the costlier of the former two but compensate with superior services.
Any of the options are viable, but getting them to explain their ‘why’ of working with the type of employees on their teams and its impact on their overall service delivery will help you determine their suitability to your organization’s IT needs.
5. Do you outsource any services or support?
Ask this question to an organization that says they work with full-time employees. It will help to know whether there are situations, however unusual, when they may need to outsource services or support. Find out the implications of that on the reliability, cost implications, and scope of the services. This is because outsourced services are mostly limited to those specified in the contract, which may be challenging in cases of out-of-the-scope issues. Outsourcing IT services also raises the issue of data confidentiality, so you need to know how they handle such.
Asking these five questions will help you select an IT services company that best suits your organization’s long-term vision and strategy. However, exercising due diligence is vital. Don’t just take their word for it. A company may have a perfect pitch but have weak machinery that delivers substandard services. Do further research on your best picks. Scour their website portfolio for references, testimonials, and case studies, browse their Google My Business profile for reviews, check industry reports, etc. Anything that will help establish their credibility.
We hope you have found this information beneficial. If you want to find out how we can take care of your organization’s IT needs, contact us now.
