5 questions to qualify I.T. Experience
In a service business, the offering is rooted in experience. Your team has been pooled from all kinds of different experiences and have joined together to provide a common result to a myriad of opportunities. As the business grows, your offerings become your brand, your experience becomes your tool set and your market knows what you’re good for.
The key difference and qualifier for experience is the circumstance.
All too frequently in the marketplace, you’ll see certifications for top brands, accolades for gold this and platinum that. Notoriety is great. It’s how most of us selected vendors in the early days. What was missing from those big awards? Context.
In nearly 11 years, I’ve never been presented with a technical challenge that was a test question in a certification exam. After all, how can you formulate a question around a frantic business owner, trying to regain server access from a machine that lost all of its content from malware attack? It’d be a long answer.
My point is that experience on paper and real-world circumstances must meet.
The question was presented to me by a good friend in search of a new manager. We discussed resume after resume, pointing out timelines and references, high’s and lows of each application. Finally I asked, “ But what were they up against?” referencing a lofty set of credentials. It brought up this topic I wanted to address.
Every IT services provider worth their web space will provide you with list of services they can provide. These are 5 directives to determine their likelihood of success with your business.
- Describe your latest emergency service call.
- Our critical network device is completely dead. I have 30 employees that can’t work. What can you do?
- You have 10 employees, 11 customers are down. Then I call. What do you do?
- My server crashed, my backup is failed. What now?
- It’s 2am. I have a service-impacting event. What can I expect from your company?
Each of these questions will shed light on a few qualities you can count on long-term. 1. Credibility. 2. Integrity 3. Work-Ethic 4. Management
The hardest part of providing end-to-end service is doing so exceedingly well. All 4 of the characteristics mentioned above lay at the foundation. CodeBlue works within the constraints we inherit. Our mission is to introduce predictability, planning and uncommonly low down-time. However, some situations call for raw reaction that cannot afford to be wrong. Live Bombs, as a good friend of ours would call them.
If your current support provider struggles with the delivery and execution of these principles, it’s understandable. It’s very hard to amass a collection of personable, technical, compassionate resources and have them work together. We are fortunate to have an ever-growing group of them that bring their circumstances with their experience. Working tirelessly to make good on the promise that we won’t let you down.
Our staff of Solution Advocates are grateful to guide anyone through this decision and sourcing process. Please contact us today at 804–521–7660 or sales@codebluetechnology.com
This Blog is written by Michael Bergamo — Senior Technologist and Brand Advocate at CodeBlue Technology