What are your top business risks?

I take risks in most of the sports I enjoy, but they are always managed. I wear the right safety equipment, I stay within what I’m physically and technically capable of, and I’ll get input from others with relevant experience in new situations.

What are the riskiest decisions you make in business, and how do you manage that risk?

Moving to new offices, investment, hiring… selecting a new IT provider?

IT service contracts are a long-term commitment. Often they involve three-year contracts, and even if shorter, where that IT provider is delivering all of your business-critical services, it’s not trivial to sack them and switch to an alternative. I’ve seen dozens of situations over my twenty-three years in the sector where an incumbent IT provider is just incapable of delivering what’s required, the organisation is suffering with poor service and multiple ongoing issues, but is unable to change provider. This is often not contractual, but around the complexity of migrating systems, services and licensing to a new provider.

But it’s a decision that most organisations make without expert, truly independent advice. When we’re looking for a new office we’ll have support with surveys and negotiation, when we hire we have a multi-stage process with a panel including experts in the area, but selecting an IT provider is usually done based on tender documents, pitches, case studies and ‘references’ provided by suppliers, who obviously will paint themselves in a favourable light. Based on that (entirely understandably) biased and selective information, how do you tell the difference between the genuine provider who is focussed on quality and service and the fake who relies on the frustration of the relationship being only slightly less than the pain and difficulty of moving?

With thirty years in the IT sector, twenty-three in a managed service provider, and the last seventeen of those as Technical Director responsible for core service delivery, I have the experience to tell the difference between a genuinely great provider, and one who covering weak service and processes with polished presentation. How? I know the challenging questions to ask during presentations and visits to suppliers that quality providers will have solid answers for, and I can drill down into detail if there’s a hint of BS so those weak providers have nowhere to hide.

For what you’ll be spending on just one or two months service with your new provider, you could significantly reduce the risk of that decision by getting independent advice.

So, if you, or anyone in your networks, is looking to re-tender, switch supplier or is just unhappy with their current provision, please do get in touch and we can have a chat about how I can help.