You might not, but opinions may vary. Make sure you’ve got a good one.
A couple of years ago while working with a fantastic IT support company, I found myself sitting across from the COO of small company who was (fortunately) nearing the end of a long-term IT support contract. The meeting came about after discovering that their company was paying nearly twice as much each month as they should be for their outsourced IT support, but that isn’t the core issue discussed here.
This organization of no more than a couple of dozen people had been presented with a proposal for a new file server. The price tag of which vastly exceeded what was reasonable or appropriate for them. The owner of the non-incumbent IT support company and I glanced at each other with widened eyes and agreed that we were having a hard time figuring out how to get to half of the proposed cost – representing a low FIVE FIGURE savings.
Appropriately priced solutions ended up being around 70% less expensive with some of that savings coming from what different IT companies consider or don’t consider part of their support arrangement and part of it coming from not trying to push more expensive hardware than was needed for the foreseeable next few years.
It doesn’t by any means mean anybody was trying to take advantage of anyone else, but it absolutely demonstrates that advice, products, opinions and pricing structures can vary wildly and that no matter how knowledgeable about whatever business someone may be in, they can still be at the mercy of the IT provider they trust for advice.
In this case, if I were to guess, the first year savings for this company probably amounted to nearly $2,500 PER EMPLOYEE.
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