ICT stands for Information and Communications Technology. It is basically an amalgamation of several different technologies into one system wherein they can communicate with each other. This includes an integration of various devices and services which will be woven into one network. It may include telecommunications (telephone lines and wireless signals), computers, all the necessary enterprise software, anti-virus and firewalls, middle ware, all physical paraphernalia, storage, and audio-visual systems.
In order to choose the ideal ICT Companies who can cater to your needs and help you to do better business, you need to look at a few factors before outsourcing -
Impeccable track record
Post the internet era, everything has evolved very fast. On one had the world has become a very small place to live in, however on the other hand it has posed challenges for the companies to be ahead of each other in terms of technical advancements.
Every day there are IT companies which are mushrooming in the nook and corner of every city. Hiring a partner which is established in ICT often becomes expensive, and hiring a start-up becomes risky. In such a situation, we need to be very careful as our entire business depends on hiring the right partner which will integrate and manage all our systems.
The best way to judge a company is to go by what other clients have to say about their solution. Do not go by the testimonials on the website of the ICT Company. That can be altered. Try to contact the client and speak with the IT team directly. They will give you the real feedback about their ICT Partner.
Quality Standards Followed
Check for the ISO and other quality standards which the ICT provider follows and the certifications they have achieved. If the quality standards are poor, then your network will face a huge threat.
There might be the threat of invasions, virus attacks and the data stored in your servers might be compromised. For e.g. you are an e-commerce company and you have stored the credit card and net banking information of your customers on your servers. If they are hacked, then there will be a serious security breach.
If you have launched a promotion during the festive season and there are many customers logged into your site to do online shopping, if your website crashes, or becomes slow and hangs, then you will not only lose business, but also the goodwill in the market.
It is very important to choose an IT partner who maintains the servers well, ensures security of your company's data and the customer's information and they should do periodic testings to check the load the website can take. If the number of customers is increasing and the traffic on the site increase during any particular period, they should have an ample vulnerability assessment and penetration testing methodologies installed in place.
Cost- Effectiveness
Your ideal ICT partner should integrate all the systems and create a common platform for the optimum functioning of the systems. This in turn should reduce your infrastructure and equipment costs and add to your profits.
While choosing your ideal ICT partner, please check with them; what kind of cost-effectiveness methodologies they adopt and how it will impact your company.
Integrity and Transparency
Many companies promise to use great quality equipment and end up providing inferior quality ones. They also do not pay for high speed internet, and try to manage with lower bandwidth which starts becoming slow when many users log in. It is very important to choose ICT Companies which are transparent and keep you abreast about all the developments. If there is any issue in your network or the entire infrastructure, they should report to you immediately so that you can keep your teams and clients informed.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Netasha_Adams/2208080
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