Before the questions
Write down what is going wrong today. Not "our IT is bad", but the actual list: the printer in accounts, the laptop that takes six minutes to start, the email that went missing last Thursday, the invoice from the last provider that nobody could explain. A provider who reads that list and asks follow-up questions is already ahead of one who starts with a slide deck.
Then ask these.
1. Who answers the phone?
Ask whether a person answers, where they sit, and what happens after hours. "A ticket is logged and someone calls you back" is a different service from "a technician answers". Neither is wrong, but you should know which you are buying.
2. What is included in the monthly amount?
Ask for the list in writing. Then ask what is not on it. The usual gaps are projects, hardware, software licences and after-hours work. A provider who cannot give you the list has not decided yet, and you will find out on an invoice. Our list is on the pricing page.
3. How do you handle Microsoft 365?
Almost every business runs on it, so the provider should be able to say who manages the licences, who owns the tenant, and what they do about multi-factor authentication and email protection. Ask whether they are a Microsoft Partner and what that means in practice for your licensing.
4. What do you back up, and when did you last restore something?
Backup is only proved by a restore. A good answer names what is backed up (Microsoft 365, servers, the file share), how often, where the copies live, and when a restore was last tested. "It is all in the cloud" is not an answer.
5. What do you monitor, and what happens when an alert fires?
Monitoring is how a provider finds a failing disk before you do. Ask what is watched, who sees the alert, and what the response is at 2am on a Sunday. If the honest answer is "we see it Monday morning", that is fine for some businesses and not for others, and you should decide which you are.
6. Who owns the administrator passwords?
You do. The provider holds them to do the work, and they should be able to hand every one of them over on the day you leave. Ask how that handover works. A provider who hesitates is telling you something.
7. What is the contract term, and what does leaving look like?
Month to month is possible. A long term is sometimes justified by hardware or a project, and sometimes it is just how a provider stops having to be good. Ask what you get for the commitment.
8. Do you come on site, and who turns up?
Most support is remote and should be. Some things need hands: a new office, a dead switch, a desk move. Ask whether on-site work is included, how it is scheduled, and whether the person who turns up has seen your office before.
9. What happens when a supplier is at fault?
The internet drops out and the provider says it is the carrier. The carrier says it is the router. Ask who chases it. The right answer is that the provider owns the problem until it is fixed, whoever caused it. This is the reason some businesses take their phones and internet from the same team as their IT: there is nobody to blame and nobody to chase.
10. How do you report to us?
Ask what you will see each month without asking for it: tickets, response times, what was patched, what failed. A provider who reports nothing is asking you to take the service on trust.
11. What would you fix first?
A provider who has looked at your list from the start of this page should have an opinion. The answer tells you how they think. Ours usually starts with multi-factor authentication and backup, because those are the two things that turn a bad day into a bad month.
12. Can we talk to a client like us?
Not a testimonial on a website; a phone call with a business of a similar size. Any established provider can arrange one, with that client's permission.
What a good answer sounds like
Specific. Short. Written down afterwards. A provider who answers all twelve in plain language and then sends you a one-page summary of what they said is a provider who will probably do the same when something breaks.
We are happy to answer all twelve ourselves. IT support in Brisbane is where we have written most of it down already, and the call is free.