After making the decision to switch, you may be asking yourself “how do I chose my Third-Party Maintenance Provider?” For most companies, the driving factors in the change are cost-savings and the ability to customize and should be considered when selecting their provider.
While budgetary concerns can be assessed and quantified through a comprehensive cost analysis, the level of customization / personalization can be more difficult to determine. Here are some questions you may want to ask during the vetting process:
1.) Do they support all my manufacturers and how do they support those environments?
2.) Do they stock and maintain spare inventory? Do their sparing practices meet my business’s specific needs?
3.) How do they manage their engineers / technicians?
4.) Do they consolidate multiple r? Is there a centralized Customer Portal and ticket management system?
5.) What other value-added services does their company provide?
Do they provide other critical support for equipment such as UPS, Generators etc.?
Can they assist with procurement and asset recovery of IT infrastructure to augment my IT lifecycle management strategies?
Can they provide long-term lifecycle management strategies?
Bottomline, when selecting a third-party service provider, it is important that they not only meet the maintenance needs of your organization, but that they customize their services to align with your long-term business goals.