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Free Resource
10 questions every business owner should ask - plus 5 red flags that mean you are not getting what you are paying for.
The Questions
Ask these at your next vendor review meeting. A good provider will answer every one confidently and with documentation.
Why it matters
A backup that has never been tested is not a backup. It is a hope. Many businesses discover their backups were silently failing, incomplete, or unusable only after a disaster. Your provider should be testing restores quarterly at minimum and sharing documented results proactively.
Why it matters
Unpatched systems are the number one entry point for ransomware and malware. Your provider should have an automated patching process with documented compliance rates. If they cannot produce this report within 24 hours, they are not tracking it.
Why it matters
Your IT provider has administrative access to your systems. If they get compromised, you get compromised. A mature provider has their own security controls, incident response plan, and cyber insurance.
Why it matters
If every issue goes into a generic ticket queue and you never speak to the same person twice, nobody truly understands your environment. A dedicated account contact who knows your business is a sign of a provider that treats you as a client, not a ticket number.
Why it matters
If your provider cannot articulate your risk posture in concrete terms, they are not measuring it. A competent MSP monitors your security posture continuously and can show you a risk score, trend data, and the specific actions being taken to reduce your exposure.
Why it matters
An IT provider that only reacts when something breaks is a help desk, not a managed service provider. Proactive providers identify aging hardware, security gaps, licensing waste, and performance issues before they cause problems.
Why it matters
Documentation is the foundation of reliable IT management. If your provider cannot produce a current network diagram and a complete list of your hardware and software assets, they are managing your environment from memory.
Why it matters
This tests whether your provider has a real disaster recovery plan. They should give you a specific Recovery Time Objective in hours, describe the recovery process step by step, and confirm it has been tested.
Why it matters
Carriers are increasingly denying claims when policyholders cannot prove they had specific controls in place - MFA, EDR, backup isolation, and access management. Your IT provider should map your controls directly to your carrier's requirements.
Why it matters
The threat landscape changes weekly. New ransomware variants, zero-day vulnerabilities, and AI-powered phishing attacks require an IT provider that actively monitors threat intelligence and adjusts your defenses accordingly.
Warning Signs
If more than two of these sound familiar, it is time for a second opinion.
If you are the one discovering that the internet is down, a server is full, or backups stopped running, your provider is not monitoring your environment. You are paying for managed services and getting break-fix.
A provider that never sits down with you to review performance, discuss your business goals, and plan ahead is a vendor, not a partner.
If your IT spend is a constant stream of unpredictable invoices for things that "came up," your provider is not doing lifecycle planning. A well-managed environment has a technology roadmap and a predictable budget.
If your provider responds to security questions with jargon, deflection, or "you're fine," they either do not understand your risk or are not willing to be transparent about it.
If the technician who knows your environment leaves and the replacement has no documentation, no context, and no continuity plan, the provider's internal operations are unstable.
TM Tech offers a free Technology Business Review for businesses across Middle Tennessee. We assess your environment, document what is working, identify what is not, and give you a clear written report - whether you work with us or not.