How to Find a Good Technology Partner for Your Business in 5 Steps
Whether you’re looking for a specific technology solution, the answer to a cumbersome business problem, or you need to overhaul your current IT environment, choosing a good technology partner should be your first step. While there are many IT companies out there, partnering with the right one is a vital step for business success.
Five Steps to Finding a Good Technology Partner
Here we look at several important considerations you should make before signing on the dotted line.
Step 1: Start by Looking Within
Before you can begin looking for the right technology partner, you need to know what it is you want to get out of your technology partnership in the first place. This will save you time in the long run, and help you narrow down your search.
It’s important to take a good, hard look at your organization and your current IT setup. Make a note of your business goals, how your employees work, the company culture etc. These will all be important.
Next take a look at your IT:
- What systems do you use: on-premises, Cloud, or hybrid (a mix of the two)?
- What devices do your employees use?
- How robust is your security?
- How does your organization view technology? (ie: Critical for success? or Necessary evil?)
- What kind of help do you need? Write down the areas you need the most help before interviewing IT companies so you know what capabilities to look for
If you don’t know the answer to these questions, that’s no problem. Just make sure you note that down too. A good technology partner will help assess where you stand, but it’s a good idea to have thought hard about it first.
Step 2: Identify the Specialists
Once you have outlined your business requirements, it’s time to look for the right partner to help meet those requirements. It’s important to do your research and find a partner that can address your specific problems.
There will be partners who specialize in different areas, ranging from the services they provide, to the technology vendor they prefer, to the specific industries and size of organizations they work with. Try to find a technology partner that works with companies like yours.
Step 3: Look for Authority and Reliability
Expertise doesn’t always come with experience, and vice versa. Ideally, you want to find a partner that has had years of success helping businesses solve problems similar to the ones you face. There are three areas to look for proof of this:
Testimonials
It is important to find testimonials from former customers or case studies illustrating customer success stories. This way you can hear from the customer themselves about what the experience of working with that technology partner was like. Try to find case studies that address the same problem you are facing.
Certified Accreditations
Look for the authority and reliability of a good technology partner by seeing which certified accreditations they list on their website. If an organization works with Microsoft technology, they should be able to show that they are certified experts with a Gold Microsoft Partnership qualification, for instance.
Company History
It’s also good practice to read the company history. How long have they been providing services to their customers? If they have decades worth of experience and are still going strong, it’s a good indication that they are a reliable partner.
Step 4: Find a Partner You Can Trust
A good technology partnership must be one built on trust, and the key to trust is communication and transparency. This may be hard to determine on a website—reading a partner’s blog may be a good start. The content on their website should at least give a good impression of how passionate they are as subject matter experts. And you might get a taste of the company culture this way too. But at this point you just need to get in contact. Book a call, an assessment or a meeting with the partner you think has potential. Ask yourself:
- Whether you would want to work with them if you were hiring internally?
- Does their company culture fit with yours?
- Are they taking the time to listen to your problems?
Step 5: Discover a Partner With a Vision
Not all partners are created equally. They may have met all the previous criteria, and you find yourself at the final step. They have good experience and seem reliable. But…
- Do they have a vision?
- Do you feel like they will go above and beyond to deliver the best technology services for their customers?
- Are they at the cutting edge of their specialist areas?
The world of technology moves fast and it’s good to futureproof your technology partnership as well as your IT itself. A good technology partner will provide long-lasting value by ensuring your technology is fit to overcome the latest challenges, and future ones too. In the current climate, this is an important selling point.
Meet Worksighted: Your New Technology Partner
Finding the right technology partnership is difficult. At Worksighted, we believe we have the passion and expertise to become your new partner. We’re an organization with a vision, and one who goes above and beyond for our customers. What’s more, we can make the process of partnering with us as easy as possible.
Sign up for a Power Hour with one of our experts. During this free hour-long assessment, we will sit down together and identify your business requirements and the best plan of action. You can meet our team and see if we are the kind of people you would like to work with. We look forward to meeting you.
Worksighted Team
