Guide · Owners, CFOs, and operations leaders
How to tell if your IT company is doing a good job
Most guides on this topic are written by IT companies that want your business. Before you switch, check eight things you can see for yourself, and give your current provider a fair chance to meet a written standard.
If you search for how to evaluate an IT company, almost everything you’ll find is written by another IT company. The advice usually ends with “switch to us.” That doesn’t make it wrong, but it isn’t neutral.
Here’s a way to judge your managed service provider (MSP, the outside company that runs your IT for a monthly fee) using things you can see for yourself. None of it needs a technical background.
Eight things to check
1. Who holds the keys. Your Microsoft 365 or Google account, your domain name, your firewall, and your backups should be registered to your company, and at least one person inside your company should be able to sign in as an administrator. If only the IT company can get in, fix that first, whatever else you decide.
2. The contract. Find the renewal date, the notice period, what it costs to leave, and whether the price goes up automatically each year. Check what the monthly fee includes and what gets billed as a “project.” Read the section on what happens to your data and documentation if you leave.
3. What they promised, and what you get. Most contracts promise a response time. Ask for a report of tickets over the last 90 days: how fast they responded, how fast they fixed it, and how many came back. If they can’t produce one, that tells you something too.
4. The invoices. Look at a year of bills. Watch for licenses for people who left, two tools doing the same job, and project charges for work you thought was included.
5. The security basics. Ask, in writing, who is responsible for each of these: installing security updates, backups and test restores, multi-factor sign-in on every account, watching for attacks, and leading the response if something happens. Vague answers here are the biggest risk.
6. The documentation. Ask for a current list of your systems, a network diagram, and where the passwords are kept. You should be able to get a copy any time, not only when you leave.
7. The planning meeting. Many contracts include a quarterly or yearly business review. Is it held? Does it produce a written plan with dates, or a slide deck about their services?
8. The people. Who knows your network? How long have they been on your account? If that person left tomorrow, would anyone else know your systems?
Before you decide
Score each item: good, needs work, or missing. Then share the list with your IT company and ask for their side. Give them a written list of priorities and 60 to 90 days to meet it.
Many problems with IT companies are really direction problems. Nobody on the customer side has said what matters most, so the IT company works on whatever’s loudest. Writing down the priorities fixes more than switching does.
When switching is the right call
- They won’t give you admin access or documentation for systems you own.
- They miss the written priorities after a fair chance.
- The people who knew your systems have left and nobody replaced that knowledge.
- Your IT company was bought, the contract or the people changed, and the service didn’t improve. An ownership change is the moment to check the contract, the people, and who holds the keys.
If you switch, plan the handover before you give notice: the keys, the documentation, the backups, and an export of the old ticket history. A rushed exit is where companies lose access to their own systems.
Getting a second opinion
An independent review works best from someone who won’t be bidding on the work. That’s why we don’t sell IT services or take referral fees. It’s in our contract.
Questions
Should we just get quotes from other IT companies?
Quotes tell you what someone else would charge. They don't tell you whether your current company is doing the job, and a competitor's "free assessment" has a reason to find problems. Check the eight items first. Then you'll know what to ask for in a quote.
Is a cheaper per-user price a better deal?
Only if it covers the same work. Compare what's included, what's billed extra, and who does the security work. A low monthly fee with frequent project bills often costs more by year end.
Do you replace IT companies?
Not by default. We don't sell IT services and we don't take a cut for recommending anyone. Often the current company does better once the priorities are written down and someone checks the work. When a change is the right call, we run the search and the handover.
Related guides
Where Northcreek fits
Team and Provider Reset (independent review of your IT company or MSP). For when the IT company or the team is the problem. We reset the plan, the expectations, and the people, and handle the change if a replacement is the right call.