4 (Melbourne-centric) qualities for your IT Support Company

You’re a Melbourne based business, so you have specific needs when dealing with your IT support provider.

Now at first glance, you may think it makes no difference if my business is based in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Broken Hill or Manag-anag West. My IT needs will be the same where ever I’m based. You may find, however, there are certain things that a Melbourne based IT provider can give you over the competition.

Here are 4 of the most important qualities

Footy Knowledge

You receive that call on Monday morning from your IT provider to tell you that your backups need attention. It’s a welcome call in a way because you are happy your IT support provider is aware of what is happening with your backups because they have great monitoring and alerting in place. That aside, you need to make sure you can brag about your team’s achievements on the weekend. It might be:

• Carlton winning 4 games in a row (how cute)

• The travesty of Travis Cloke being dropped (again)

• Or if you’re a Richmond supporter you may simply want to vent.
  

Your IT provider should be able to hold this discussion because it’s an important part of your Monday morning ritual. You should give them special brownie points if they can tell you what happened in the VFL or the Ammos

With this string to their IT bow, any conversation will go quicker and be more pleasant with your IT provider.

Coffee

So your outsourced IT Manager arrives at your office to discuss a disaster recovery plan. You are more than happy to this discuss this because you’ve done the calculations and having DR in place will save your business thousands and thousands of dollars if and when disaster strikes.

So before the meeting starts, you offer your IT guy a coffee. His/her answer is very important.

Use the table below to help determine the quality of their answer. The answer provided directly correlates to their IT performance. Please note, there is no direct correlation.

The one exception is your IT guy may not drink coffee, but they still need to know where to get a good cup.

North or South of the Yarra

This conflict has raged-on longer than time itself, or at least the last 30 years. Sides don’t really matter in this conflict but it’s about knowing this cold war exists that makes all the different to your anti-virus and anti-spam protection. If your IT support provider can eloquently explain the pros and cons of the data centres around Melbourne, and then tell you whether they are North or South of the Yarra, then you are in good company.

Good Food Geek

A mature palate and a discerning taste go hand in hand with superior IT support, or so they say.

If your IT provider knows where the great dumplings in Box Hill are, which Babka sandwich towers over the rest and has a standing reservation at Gingerboy (actually, no one has that but wouldn’t that be great) then you’ve found the IT company for you.

Extra credit should be provided for knowing the stalls at Footscray market, and which shop in Vic Market has borek to die for.

In Conclusion

So there you have it – the above points will make sure that not only will your IT be taken care of, but also your needs as a Melbournian.  And really, when it comes down to it, if your IT Support Provider understands your IT needs and can nourish your Melbournian soul, well that’s called Champagne football IT.

Let me know if there are any other key differences between a Melbourne IT Support company and the rest.