21 Questions to consider before choosing an IT Supplier 

1. How long has the company been in business?
2. Is the company financially stable, profitable and debt-free?
3. What size clients do they serve? Are they sector aware?
4. How many employees do they have and what is their average length of service?
5. Do they regularly organise customer events or provide you with useful recommendations to keep you ahead of the game and avoid pain as new & important technologies become available?
6. Do they have superb customer references spanning a number of years and are their customers willing to talk to you about the projects they have undertaken?
7. Do they provide a dedicated and knowledgeable Account Manager who's happy to work with you outside normal business hours when required?
8. Have they won any relevant business awards and what was the judging process?
9. Can they satisfy a wide range of your IT requirements including: Advice, design, supply, implementation, configuration, project management, training, monitoring, support, maintenance, as well as managed services and hosting?
10. Do their skills & partner relationships fit well with your own IT requirements?
11. Are they a jack of all trades or do they have a portfolio of quality partners they work closely with?
12. What added value do they provide?
13. What is their relationship with Microsoft and other key vendors?
14. What levels of accreditation do they have and what commitment is involved with maintaining them?
15. Are they compliant with current legislation?
16. Have they ever had a contract cancelled due to non performance?
17. What facilities do they own and run & are they happy to let you audit their processes?
18. What is their ratio of support staff / technical engineers to sales personnel and what skills & qualifications do they have?
19. Do they have their own domain name, web site & premises?
20. Are you comfortable that all levels of personnel in the company are interested in serving your organisation well and are enthusiastic & pleased to help you whenever needed?
21. Do they organise an annual IT event that provides topical keynote speeches, 40 vendor stands to visit, the possibility to attend up to six breakout sessions from a choice of 50+ & to network with many like minded IT & business decision makers all on the same day?