There are many IT support suppliers, however not all are going to be able to keep your business running so choose carefully. You have probably invested heavily on laptops and software, but if they don’t work together you won’t get the efficiency benefits and will find your staff wasting time.

Ask your IT support company these questions before you sign up:

1. Have you got Microsoft Certification?
Microsoft is such a major provider in the business software market, any IT support company must really know it inside out. Expertise with Microsoft software is proven by their Microsoft Partner certification.

2. Do you offer remote monitoring?
An IT services firm should be monitoring every aspect of your IT system and solving problems before they arise.

3. Do you cover computer peripherals?
There is little purpose in covering just your PCs, notebooks when frequently the root cause is with a network switch or scanner. Frequently these go wrong or cause problems. So make sure your computer engineers are happy to deal with these devices too.

4. IT support pricing – simple or complicated?
You may be quoted a cheap IT support fee to begin with, but what if bills are continuously added to with every support call? Fixed-price IT support firms, although they may be more difficult to locate, are a lot easier for your accountants to deal with and often more cost effective in the long run.

5. Can you talk to me in staight-forward English?
When the going gets tough, so many technical support people lapse into hard to understand technical language. An obvious start is to see if that the answers you receive from this check list are in plain English.

Chorus IT is one of the leading IT services Bristol firms and has been supplying IT services for a decade, so the above has been drawn from our real world experience of supporting our clients’ IT.

Today,  on average there are two computers in every household in the United States.  The cost of computer hardware has come down so much that they are nearly disposable.The home computer has almost replaced the compact disc for storage of digital music.  Family photo albums are now digital slide shows  on the TV rather than books of printed images.  To keep up on all the drastic changes in technology, you need the latest copy of the popular computer magazines available today.

Home uses of new technologies is almost unlimited.Affordable high resolution video projectors are now available.  Projectors once were just used for business presentations and movie theaters.  Today, thanks to advances in lighting technology, projectors are physically small and similar in price to TVs.  Projectors can be setup in a living room to create a home theater environment.  Refrigerators are now available with built in computer systems.

The built in computer shows the refrigerator’s temperature and even has the capability of managing the food inventory.  If the system is setup you can program the computer use the internet to order an item from a participating grocer once the item is taken from the refrigerator.  Popular computer magazines can be used as a great tool for shopping for these new technologies.

Advances in technology have touched the security industry as well.Once just science fiction, eye and finger scanners are now a reality.  Today laptops and desktops can be secured with biometric devices that require the users finger to log into their computer.You can find the lastest on biometric technology in today’s popular magazines. Law enforcement security is now testing a body scanner that reads emotions and body temperatures to determine if an individual could pose a threat.  

Nanotechnology is quickly becoming a reality.Computer engineers, using nanotechnology, are now able to build chips and processors on very small surfaces.  These small chips can be used as storage devices to house data in small places as well as computer chips to create watch sized computer systems.

Popular computer magazines keep you updated on nanotechnology advances.  Nanotech can be used to create global positioning systems for tracking endangered wildlife in any climate as well as unnoticed by the animal due to its small size.Nanotech has increased the military’s ability to collect intelligence data with almost undetectable devices. (Don’t expect to find much about this in magazines!)