This guide helps you structure a buying decision. It does not rank providers or offer a shortlist. Actually does not sell managed IT services or take provider commissions.
Define what you need before reading proposals
| Area | Questions to resolve |
|---|---|
| Support | Which users, systems, locations and hours need coverage? |
| Service commitments | How are severity, response, restoration and resolution defined? |
| Recovery | What data loss and downtime can the business tolerate, and what testing is included? |
| Security | Which controls, monitoring, response and reporting are required? |
| Governance | Who plans budgets, manages vendors and brings decisions to leadership? |
Give each provider the same requirements and ask them to identify exclusions, assumptions and separate work. A lower price is not evidence of a narrower service or worse delivery by itself.
Seven things to examine before signing
- Service commitments: definitions, coverage, measurement and escalation for the relevant severities.
- Recovery approach: what would be protected and tested in your environment, with relevant examples and limitations.
- Access and records: tenant administration, delegated permissions, subscriptions and domain arrangements.
- Exit terms: responsibilities, notice, return of information, access handover and charges under the agreement.
- Included work: where ongoing service ends and separately scoped work begins.
- People: who handles service, escalation and account decisions, including cover for absences.
- References: relevant organizations you can contact with permission, asking about both delivery and unresolved difficulties.
A different client's restore test or sample report can illustrate a provider's approach, but cannot prove recovery or delivery for your systems. Respect confidentiality when requesting examples.
Compare answers with their supporting evidence
| Ask | Examine | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| How will you meet our recovery objectives? | Proposed design, testing scope, assumptions and dependencies | A prior example does not test your future arrangement. |
| What is excluded? | Written scope, exclusions and separate charges | A summary presentation may omit contract detail. |
| How will our organization retain access? | Permissions, responsible owners and handover arrangements | An admin account alone does not determine contractual rights. |
| How will you report delivery? | A relevant sample and proposed service measures | A sample is an illustration, not a future performance guarantee. |
Use the ten-question checklist as a discussion aid, adapting it to a prospective relationship. Some questions need a proposed approach rather than records that do not yet exist for your business.
Compare the full arrangement
Record what is included, excluded, uncertain and separately charged on the same basis. Use the proposal-comparison guide, including the option of improving your existing arrangement where relevant.
If you already have a provider, distinguish evidenced delivery problems from new requirements. Evaluate the current service before treating a new offer as the answer to every concern.
Before signing or moving
Resolve material questions with the relevant provider and have contractual uncertainties reviewed by your adviser. If a transition is involved, use the switching guide to plan access, responsibilities and continuity.
An independent review can examine evidence about the existing provider within an agreed scope. Discuss the Actually Review if that would help your decision; this page does not promise provider selection or migration delivery.
