Outsourcing the right IT networking services is a vital factor that any business organization has to consider as it seeks to embrace the use of technology in boosting its productivity. Nonetheless, with the availability of more options to choose from, it becomes a herculean task to arrive at the right decision. As such, when selecting involvement, there are some factors that can be taken into consideration to ease the process. Below are 5 guidelines to assist you in finding the best IT networking services that meet your organizational needs and wants.
1. Conduct Thorough Needs Analysis
The first step of the process is therefore to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the nature of networking needs of the business. Seek inputs from your internal team of employees and other organizational stakeholders to build a strong base. Evaluate both present and future requirements, including potential for future growth. Record the qualitative factors such as the number of users, applications and locations and devices among others that have to be supported by the network. Also describe any other qualitative factors like security, performance, availability, response rates from support teams etc. that you anticipate. By evaluating the needs of your organization, you can search for an IT networking provider in a better way.
They also make it possible for you to clearly define and outline these needs at the beginning so that the vendors understand the extent of your needs. It will also assist you in making a more objective comparison between the offerings of different providers and your wishes for the network infrastructure. While it may seem like more work in the short-term to dedicate this much effort to this initial step, in the long-run it will be highly beneficial.
2. Evaluate Provider Capabilities
After the organizational needs analysis has been completed the next step would be to size up potential providers on your stated requirements. shortlist the vendors that appear to be most suitable for the networking infrastructure you require. Tell them to provide you with disaggregated papers that demonstrate that they have the right skills in tune with your requirements.
If your activity is associated with numerous cloud applications, check how the growth of the network infrastructure offered differs from the basic parameters of bandwidth. Leave no stone unturned and check things like dual transit paths, failover options, and availability guarantees for high availability mission-critical applications.
Conduct a systematic and impartial capabilities analysis of each of the short-listed vendors. Handle them instead by making a checklist of the elements that define them and ranking them based on how they fit your business needs rather than focusing on their size or a generic appreciation of brand value. In order to maintain focus of this evaluation around your organisational needs, it is advised to leverage on the initial needs analysis done.
3. Verify Reliability Record
However, when evaluating stated service capabilities, it is also vital to verify more general performance indicators as well too. Compare current performance data to previous data and determine the success of the uptime claims. Looking at on-premise networking gear, check Mean Time Between Failures as evidence of stability under live production workloads.
Also, ask clients to refer you to their projects or facilities to make sure that the work of your company is up to par. Those closest to you can give you the most appropriate inputs and they include existing customers with needs similar to yours. Ask questions such as how fast are they responding to support calls, how long does it take the firm to resolve some of the problems that customers are facing, and how frequent are the releases of the next level of the product. This will provide you with an ideal time check on the capability of a provider in not only delivering the committed services but also supporting you when need arises.
4. Compare Cost of Ownership
The subsequent factor that should be taken into account is the examination of total cost implication of adopting a specific vendor’s networking solution. It includes a combination of several factors – acquisition costs of the hardware and/or software, maintenance charges, costs incurred for upgrades, and mandatory additional features etc. It is important to compile all the planned and non-planned expenses in order to obtain a more or less accurate financial view of each of the providers that are being considered.
In the case of cloud-managed networking services, be particularly careful about hidden fees such as data transmission fees that may apply to certain volumes over the service level commitments; these fees tend to accumulate over time depending on high usage profiles. On the other hand, when it comes to the actual physical structures, it is recommended to comprehend spare part availability, component life spans and support terms in order to assess the financial model’s sustainably over several years.
5. Verify Execution Roadmap
The only area that has not been covered in relation to the shortlisted it rentals providers is the detailed execution plan. Walk them through your organizational topology – locations, sites, connection types etc – and see if they can make an undertaking of the precise infrastructure that will be established and coverage maps.
Tell them to provide you with detailed time frames for any activity within the project from requirement definition, hardware acquisition/installation, testing, implementation etc. as the case may be. This should also include the precise specification of how often and in what manner the parties would be communicating during the execution cycle. Identify whether they have the capacity to handle the project management of the rollout in accordance with the agreed timetable. This means that you will have a clear understanding of who will be doing the work right from the beginning even before awarding the contract.
Conclusion
The evaluation of it rental services is not a simple process that is confined solely to the technology plane. If the above-discussed five aspects are considered, you will be in a better position to make an informed decision that fulfills the functional and financial requirements, and at the same time, can easily fit into the chosen organizational processes. That’s right; to establish the right partnership right from the start one has to ask the right questions!
