The best way to choose an IT company is to ask questions that require proof, not promises. Every provider will tell you they’re proactive, secure and responsive. The questions below show you which ones can back it up, and they work whether you’re hiring your first IT partner or replacing one that isn’t working out.
After each question, we’ve included how Pointer Tech Solutions answers it, so you have something to compare against.
1. What exactly is included in the monthly price?
Some providers quote a low monthly fee, then bill separately for security, backups, compliance or planning. Ask for the list in writing, and ask what’s billed hourly. Our guide to what drives managed IT cost explains how to compare quotes fairly.
Our answer: IT-as-a-Service includes cybersecurity and ransomware protection, compliance support, backup and recovery, cloud and Microsoft 365, business software support, technology roadmaps and help desk support. Wiring, hardware, phone systems and AI automation are quoted separately because they vary so much.
2. How do you prove our backups will restore?
“Our backups run every night” isn’t an answer. A backup can report success for months while the data it holds is unusable. Ask when they last restored real data for a client and checked that it opened.
Our answer: every server must have a recent successful backup, at least one copy is protected from deletion, and each type of data is restored and checked by a person on a regular schedule.
3. How do you know every account has multi-factor authentication?
MFA can be switched on but left in test mode, exclude some accounts, or be bypassed by older email connections. Ask how they verify it’s enforced on every account, and how often.
Our answer: we check MFA enforcement at every review. A policy in test mode doesn’t count, and every exclusion has to be documented and justified.
4. Who is responsible for preventing problems, not just fixing them?
Most providers have a help desk to fix things and an account manager to handle the relationship. Ask who owns the question of why the same problems keep coming back.
Our answer: every managed client gets a Technology Alignment Manager as standard. Their job is to remove the conditions that create tickets.
5. What written standards do you review our environment against?
“Best practices” means whatever the technician remembers that day. Ask to see the standards themselves, and ask how often your environment is checked against them.
Our answer: 94 written standards, each with a defined rule for what counts as proof. Reviews happen on a schedule set a year in advance, more often for complex environments.
6. What happens to problems you find that we don’t fix right away?
Findings that live in a technician’s head, or in a meeting nobody wrote down, tend to disappear. Ask where a known issue goes if you decide to wait.
Our answer: every finding becomes a ticket, an item on your technology roadmap, or a documented exception approved in writing by a decision-maker at your company. Nothing is left as a passing comment.
7. How do we reach support, and what happens after hours?
Ask how requests are made, when the office is staffed, and what happens at 9 PM on a Friday. Also ask how often they come onsite and how often issues are fixed remotely.
Our answer: call or email our team Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM, with after-hours support when you need it. Most issues are resolved remotely, and we come onsite when the job calls for it.
8. Will you check our cyber insurance application?
Your insurance application asks technical questions, usually answered by someone who isn’t technical. If an answer turns out to be wrong after an attack, your coverage can be at risk.
Our answer: yes. We compare your application line by line with what’s actually deployed. (Here’s why that matters.)
9. Can you work alongside our internal IT person?
If you already have someone in-house, you don’t want a provider who wants to replace them. You want one that makes them stronger.
Our answer: absolutely. Co-managed IT is a normal arrangement for us. We take on the security, monitoring, patching and backups that are hard to keep up with alone, so your team can focus on the work only they can do.
10. What will you give us in writing after each review?
If a provider reviews your systems but never sends anything written, you can’t tell what was checked, what was found or what changed.
Our answer: a plain-English report after every visit: what was fixed, what’s with our service desk, what we recommend, and your alignment score compared with last time.
Red flags to watch for
- Security sold as an upgrade. If protecting you costs extra, it tends to get skipped until after an incident.
- Vague answers about backups. “We back everything up” without a restore test is a guess.
- No written standards. Without them, nobody can say whether your environment is in good shape.
- Pressure to sign quickly. A good provider is happy to answer every question on this list first.
- No local presence. Remote support handles most issues, but some problems need someone in your building.
Frequently asked questions
Should we choose a local IT company?
For most businesses, yes. Most support happens remotely, but a local provider can come onsite for hardware, network and wiring issues, and understands the region’s businesses. We’re based on Airline Highway and serve the greater Baton Rouge area, plus New Orleans, Lafayette and Lake Charles.
What size business needs managed IT?
Most of our clients have 10 to 150 employees. That’s large enough that technology is critical, but usually too small to justify a full internal IT department.
Is it hard to switch IT providers?
It takes planning, but it shouldn’t be painful. A good provider handles the transition, collects credentials and documentation from the outgoing provider, and reviews your environment before it takes full responsibility.
Ask us all ten
We’d rather earn your business by answering hard questions than by making easy promises. Schedule a 15-minute discovery call and bring this list, or call us at (225) 351-0775, Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5 PM.
