IT outsourcing lets a Quebec small business hand off some or all of its day-to-day technology operations. A provider might run the help desk, manage Microsoft 365, maintain computers or monitor backups. Start by identifying which disruptions pull the most time away from your team.
Start with recurring work
Review the requests your staff handled over the last few weeks. Who sets up accounts, installs updates and checks backup alerts? Look for work that piles up or depends on one person. You can start with account management and help desk coverage and expand the scope once the handoffs are clear.
A company with an internal technician might keep its industry-specific software in-house and outsource device management and first-line support. A company without a technician still needs someone to approve purchases and decide which issues take priority.
Write down who owns each decision
For every service, name the person who does the work and the person who makes the decisions. For backups, spell out who monitors failures, tests recovery and authorizes a restore. For account access, identify who approves new administrators and how that approval is recorded.
Give every provider the same scenarios
Ask how each provider would handle a company-wide outage and a routine request such as onboarding a new employee. Find out who responds, which channels to use, what hours are covered and what each scenario would cost. Check how you would get your documentation, licences and admin access back if you switched providers.
The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security outlines security considerations for businesses that use managed services.
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