The wrong MSP is worse than no MSP
A poorly chosen MSP can slow your business down, leave you exposed to security risks, and lock you into a relationship that is difficult to exit. The selection process deserves serious attention.
1. Do you have engineers physically based in my market?
Ask specifically where the engineers are based, not just where the company is headquartered. An MSP with an office in Hong Kong but all engineers in Manila or India will not provide the same quality of on-site support.
2. What are your actual SLA response times and how are they tracked?
Ask for a sample monthly SLA report from an existing client. This tells you whether they actually measure and report on performance, or just quote SLA times in contracts.
3. How do you handle security incidents?
Get specific. What is the process when a client device is infected with malware? An MSP that cannot answer this clearly does not have a mature security practice.
4. Can you support our industry's compliance requirements?
Financial services, healthcare, legal, and businesses with mainland China operations all have specific IT compliance requirements.
5. What is your offboarding process?
You should understand how you exit the relationship before you enter it. What happens to your data, configurations, and documentation if you change MSPs?
6. What tools do you use for monitoring and management?
Professional MSPs use enterprise-grade Remote Monitoring and Management (RMM) tools. Ask which platforms they use and whether you will have visibility into the monitoring dashboards.
7. Who will be our day-to-day contact?
Understand the account structure. Will you have a dedicated account manager? What is the escalation path for unresolved issues?
8. Can we speak to two or three existing clients?
References are standard in any professional services relationship. If a provider is reluctant to provide them, treat that as a warning sign.
Brocent has been a trusted MSP across Asia since 2005. We are happy to answer all eight of these questions and provide references.
