Navigating price, quality, and speed in your IT support options

Struggling to find IT support that offers you both great quality and speedy service within your tight budget? It’s time to find out why that’s a problem.

In today’s article, we’ll be looking at the dichotomy between service choices and cost to help you find the balance your business needs.

IT Support: Why you can’t have quality and speed at a cheaper price

When you are planning for your business, it is always prudent to create a budget and revisit it when you are looking to outsource new services. In fact, with every prospective IT support client I meet, I do exactly that, create a budget. We go through what you need and what you can afford, making a shorter-term and longer-term plan. I do the same thing in each of my client reviews; budgeting for the future.

In each of those cases what you can afford to spend dictates the hardware, software and service plans you end up with. By that, I mean your time with me will be limited if you pay less, just as you might get lower spec products. It’s the choice between standard and premium plans.

Ok, so you say to yourself, “I don’t need premium” and maybe you don’t, but maybe, just maybe there are times when you do.

Let me explain.

The choice triangle: price, quality and speed

If you choose price as the determining factor in whether you work with one supplier or another you need to weigh up what you are loosing as a result.

You might end up with longer waiting time to get things fixed, or you might not have the right amount of security cover - why? Because your IT services provider has to weight up where they can cut costs in order to deliver your service. Unsurprisingly it’ll be either quality or speed that you loose.

Likewise if you need the highest spec devices and dedicated onsite call outs, then you’ll need to opt for a premium plan.

Here’s how your choices in the decision triangle play out:

• Price and quality – Choosing this option will mean that your speed of service may be slow or vary and you have to wait for the resources to be available.
• Price and speed – Selecting this option means you might get your issue fixed but not very well; a quick fix instead of getting to the root of an issue.
• Quality and speed – This is the premium option that comes with a premium price tag.

For every two choices you opt for, your provider ultimately decides on the third.

Choosing the right IT solutions for your business

There are several factors you need to consider to find the right IT solutions for you.

Your short-term plan

What do you need now to get the job done?

Make sure you understand every aspect of you business IT needs from compliance and security to device availability and software integrations. Talk to your team, look at the workflow of your business and ask yourself what is the bare minimum you need for a job well done and what would you like the option of.

Your long-term plan

Planning for the future is about considering how you hope to scale your business. Does that mean extra staff, or new locations and what software will you need to expedite department productivity - I’m thinking customer service, sales and logistics as a starting point.

Compliance and data security

The number of cyber attacks are growing year on year; what you need today must be updated tomorrow. It will also need to cover changing industry compliance and not just data protection - so it’s worth considering how you budget for that in service plan selection.

A reputable IT service provider will work with you on all of these considerations and will be proactive in introducing help where you need it. For example, I’ve just rolled out a resilience upgrade to all of my clients to cover them for the heightened problems I’m seeing in cyber security. That comes at a cost, which they can choose to opt-out from. The point is, that my advice is still there and I’m giving them options. They use the decision triangle to make their selection.

Getting help to understand price, quality and speed in relation to your business

At Westway IT I pride myself on providing IT support that adapts with you as you grow. I’ve spent years working with micro and small businesses in and around Gloucestershire, so I understand how unique your business needs are. And I know exactly how to configure the right setup that will help you provide excellent products and services to your clients.

It each consultation I’ll work with you to understand your needs and your goals, so I can suggest the best IT plan. As we start to work together I’ll continue to make sure your service provision meets your changing needs, in each of our reviews.

Let me help your business and book yourself a free 15-minute consultation today!