In a small business, it is not unusual for technical problems to be managed by the one who is the most tech-savvy among the team. But this cannot be done in the long term.

Your team’s primary focus should be on meeting your organizational goals- not dealing with technology issues. Delegating your IT needs can help lessen the burden so that you can get back to business.

Here are five things to look for while searching for an IT support company in Dubai
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1.      No Long-Term Contracts

Some companies can enclose you into a multi-year contract. This won’t serve for your best interests. Consider other companies that strand you into long-term contracts. Like your mobile phone providers or your cable operators.

Do you want to have the same experience with your IT company in Dubai as well when your server is down or cant login to your computer?

 If you are not happy with a vendors service (or if there is a change of goals for your   organization and need to reassess vendors), you should be able to change the terms of your contract or free to leave at any time. 

Search for a company with monthly contract renewal with an exit clause of 30 days to 60days. Most modern IT companies are adopting this model, but you will still see the extended period contracts for some IT software companies in Dubai.   

2.      Proactive Management

Some IT companies just deal with reactive break/fix service tickets like repairing broken printers and troubleshooting email problems. There is nothing harmful with these kind of issues, and to agree this will make a sizeable chunk of your IT support needs, irrespective of which IT company you select and what tools you choose.

But with the right IT Support for Business Company in Dubai at your service, the amount of break/fix tickets you experience will reduce by proactively managing your network.

To say the least, this usually involves monitoring your network for breakdowns (in some instances, they may predict an interruption way before you actually know about it)

Proactive management should transcend monitoring. Your IT company should be well versed with your environment and your industry and be of assistance in choosing the tools to make your team productive and decrease downtime. Competent IT companies will do that and regularly discuss your business goals.

3.      Experience, Certifications, and On-going Training

Your IT support company should be well versed in the systems they claim to support- and not learning on your machines and with your money. A good way to evaluate on their experience level is certifications.

A majority of technology vendors, including Microsoft, provide certification programs to IT companies and other professionals who service their products. This is usually at the individual level, so you will possibly have to ask a potential service provider what certifications their employees posess and how updated they are.

You can also ask them about their employee training- do they have set aside a budget for ongoing employee training and is it being used? Are employees given cross disciplinary training in different systems? An IT support engineer with a certification in a backup system is good news, but not if they don’t have an idea about any other apps and systems the backups interact with.

4.      Data Security Expertise

A robust data security model is no longer an alternative but a necessity. It should be integrated into every part of your business- particularly your technology. If you are in a highly regulated industry such as banking, they have to have a clear understanding of the industry and the ways in which they can help you stay compliant.

Data security is an area where ongoing training is critical- because cyber security threats are undergoing constant evolution. If your IT Company isn’t keeping pace, they will fall short of helping you stay protected. Bear in mind, even with the best of tools and training, there is never a 100 percent guarantee regarding data security.

Any company that gives you blind promises that you will not experience a security breach is either bluffing or they doesn’t have any idea about what they are talking about.

5.      Clear Response Times

Your contract with an IT company should have clear guaranteed response times (generally termed as service level agreements or SLAs). These should be clearly defined in your contract (along with the various scenarios in the instances where they don’t meet the SLA for some reason). You shouldn’t be left thinking when your issue will be addressed.

Kindly note, SLAs usually refer to the timelines of the issues being addressed – not exactly when it will be fixed. 

If they can provide an assurance that the issues will be fixed within a fixed amount of time that is a warning.

Tragically, some IT issues can take some time to resolve, especially if it entails collaborating with another vendor (Like an internet service provider) who is not bound by an SLA. If your Software Company in Dubai is guaranteeing that they would resolve an issue within a certain amount of time, it is possible that they are just using quick-fix solutions- not addressing the root of the problem.