In our current economic environment, it is essential that businesses deal with the “right” suppliers and partners, as this can make the difference between success – or even mere survival – and failure.
That’s the view of Debbie Pretorius, GM of business connectivity and solutions provider, MWeb Business. She emphasises that this is particularly important when it comes to providers of IT infrastructure and services, from basics such as Internet access and email to Cloud and Hosted Solutions.
“Few organisations can afford to maintain a fully-fledged IT department and many rely to some extent on one or more external service providers. However, because IT is the lifeblood of any business – not only delivering operational efficiency, but also enabling continuous interaction between the business and its customers, suppliers, branches and employees, it is vital that businesses choose IT partners who can meet their specific requirements,” she says.
Pretorius points out that because every business is different, there can be no ‘one-size-fits-all’ when it comes to IT solutions: flexibility and willingness of the service provider to accommodate the needs of each business, and particularly smaller businesses, is essential.
“This rule applies even for something as basic as Internet connectivity, particularly as growing numbers of businesses look to the Cloud for fast, cost-effective access to sophisticated solutions that were previously the preserve of big-budget enterprises,” she adds.
“Should a business choose the ‘wrong’ supplier in terms of the type and quality of connectivity provided, the cost of this enabling infrastructure could be unnecessarily high both from a budgetary as well as a business efficiency perspective.”
Despite this, many businesses still opt for connectivity products or hosting solutions based purely on price.
However, there are usually good reasons why solutions with seemingly similar specifications have often widely differing costs – usually because of differences in the quality of service provided.
“This does not mean that a lower cost service is necessarily poor and an expensive solution is always best,” Pretorius says.
“What is required is a service that is ‘right’ for a specific business. The trick is to determine what exactly what a business’s real requirements are, and then to tailor a solution to meet those needs.”
Pretorius therefore recommends that businesses look beyond the upfront price tag of an IT product or solution and evaluate precisely what level of service will be supplied by the service provider.
“It’s important to ensure that the solution provided can be scaled up quickly and easily to accommodate future growth in the business as and when required – and potentially be as easy to scale back during lean times without incurring any penalties.
“Ultimately, an IT solution has to deliver operational efficiency to the business, enabling it to do things it could not do before in a manner that is both affordable and efficient,” she concludes.
