3 Dangerous Signs Your IT Provider Isn’t Being Transparent

3 Dangerous Signs Your IT Provider Isn’t Being Transparent

Do you remember Magic Eye coffee table books? The kind with the optical illusions that, when placed uncomfortably close to one’s face (nose touching) and slowly pulled away, an image would appear inside the chaos?

That’s a little what it’s like to deal with IT personnel or outsourced providers – being presented with an optical illusion instead of the truth regarding your IT network, infrastructure and systems.

The map of your IT network can be difficult to fathom, so you trust that the person responsible for your technology management sees the big picture. You never learn the “magic trick” of understanding how your systems work because you assume you don’t need to.

What ends up happening, however, is many companies end up with a big bundle of abstract IT management concepts with no way to access that technical knowledge.

3 dangerous signs that your IT provider isn’t being transparent:

1. Outsourced IT is treated like a “number to call”
By presenting their technology services to you as a “number to call” when something goes wrong, your IT provider is waving away any perceived responsibility for proactive resolution. This falls into the trickery category because they actually do have access to your company’s internal nuances or points of concern, they just aren’t doing anything about them. This means they will always have problems to address and ensures ongoing maintenance and repairs.

2. There is little to no documentation or reporting available
Without documentation, the person responsible for managing your IT becomes – quite literally – irreplaceable. That is a terrible position to find yourself in. We worked with an organization who wanted to outsource their technology management but had almost no infrastructure documentation from their internal staff member. They were experiencing issues with performance but found themselves scared to even address these issues for fear of losing years of data or network intelligence. It was a real humdinger (albeit one we were able to help them through by working side-by-side with their internal staff member).

3. No administrative-level login access available
At itSynergy, we make 100% certain that our clients are given administrative access and know how to use it. We bring it to them in a sealed envelope and instruct them to put the documentation into a safety deposit box. This administrative access is not something you will need while under our care, but it is something you are rightfully entitled to and should know to demand. You own the technology and network access. IT providers are simply the caretakers of your system. If you don’t have administrative access, this is a major red flag.

Loss of technical knowledge can be caused by someone leaving the organization, but it also occurs intentionally as a way for internal and outsourced IT providers to ensure a level of job security. It also results from laziness or a lack of documentation. And, finally, it can happen when you or other top management fail to seek out the clarity you need to protect your operational infrastructure.

At itSynergy, we create positive experiences with technology. Get in touch with us at 602-297-2400 or online.