The Challenge of Selecting Expertise

There are many elements involved in running a successful business and they go far beyond having a range of goods and services that other business and consumers find appealing. There is simply too much competition to cede an obvious advantage to those competitors by having inadequate technical support in your daily activities.

Information accessibility

Every business expects to be able access information at the touch of a button. If for any reason that information is not available, a business can run into trouble very quickly. When so much is dependent on computers and the Internet it is easy to take things for granted and become frustrated when anything goes wrong. It can happen which is why decisions about the experts and providers to use are so important.

If you run a business and are not the least bit technically minded you may require initial research to be done by someone within the organization who will then provide the alternatives to look at. Your skill as the boss may be your ability to weigh up alternatives before making a decision.

Maximum service

Websites as marketing tools are now a fairly comprehensive presentation of what a company is offering. Instinctively, from the options you have been given for a decision you may see that the quality and service from one company seems superior to others.

You certainly want the maximum up time you can get because any breakdown will cost you money. Your compensation for the time your server fails cannot ever compensate either for the actual business that you miss when it is down nor the potential business lost because you are perceived as unreliable because of the failing.

It sounds simple but you may want to get a practical illustration of what it could mean if you pick a support firm that turns out to be unreliable. It is difficult to get independent verification of claims about the percentage of time when everything is working properly. It is also not a straightforward concept because a 99% claim will represent 1% down time. What if that 1% of an annual figure all happens in a week or two? Your reputation for reliability will be very difficult to restore with clients.

Potential problems

If you are down for 1% of the time in a year of 52 weeks that represents nearly 90 hours. It is so much better to see a 99.9% claim, if it is accurate because that would only mean 9 hours. It is not an issue of compensation because that will be measured in the smallest currency you can imagine, a matter of cents; it is the immeasurable element that you have to avoid if at all possible. Imagine the chaos that would occur if a large chunk of the working day was lost without your guarantee being broken.

Every day and every decision is a challenge to someone running a business. The selection of a technical expert and business support is one such challenge.