"Documentation"...the most dreaded word in IT

A client to mine was with an MSP for several years...and it was great!!! The MSP added whatever they wanted, whenever. What was even better is that they did not see their bill rise. Wow! This is great...they thought.

Well, fast forward to today and my client is growing. They have to worry about compliance, cybersecurity, patching, etc.... This takes good documentation. You HAVE to know what you have and where it is before you can effectively manage it.

So, about documentation. See below.

When we switched them over, we found:

1. The bill was actually 30% higher than it should have been. No wonder there were no price increases!

2. Many services were duplicated.

3. Many licenses were the incorrect type...and oversubscribed.

4. The firewalls were basically bricks, because they could not find the usernames and passwords. If you don't have usernames and passwords, you can update the signatures. Of course, they were being charged a monthly fee for the "management" of their IT gear.

5. Threat detection for cybersecurity was missing from many endpoints.

6. They had no idea how many PC's/Laptops, firewalls, switches, wireless access points they had.

7. Most firewalls were undersized so the wireless connectivity was very weak.

8. Wireless access points were sprinkled everywhere like fertilizer on a law, rather than a purposeful evaluation of how many and where they should be strategically placed for best reception.

I know there is a ton of other stuff I am missing...or will find as we get deeper into things, but just realize that a cheap MSP may actually be quite expensive from a:

1. cost standpoint

2. efficiency standpoint (think customer satisfaction)

3. compliance standpoint

It is imperative to hire MSP as much on their professionalism and documentation as their technological prowess.

Happy to discuss what I know.