managed servicesSMBcontract
Choosing a managed service provider: the 12-question checklist
Before handing your IT to a provider, ask these twelve questions. The answers will tell you whether they actually operate, or just resell.
25 August 2026 · 1 min read · ALLSAFE SOLUTIONS
A managed services contract commits your company for years. Price matters, but the answers to these twelve questions are what will make the difference the day a server goes down on a Friday at 6 pm.
On monitoring
- What exactly do you monitor, and with which tool? A real MSP watches servers, backups, firewalls, disk space and certificates, and can show you the console.
- Who receives alerts at night and on weekends? A named on-call engineer, not a mailbox.
- What is the contractual response time for a blocking incident? Demand a written number, not “as soon as possible”.
On security
- Where are my backups, and when were they last restored?
- Is MFA enabled on all administrator access, including yours?
- How do you manage the passwords of my systems? The answer must contain the word “vault”.
On transparency
- Can I get a monthly report? Incidents, response times, patches applied, remaining capacity.
- Does the documentation of my infrastructure belong to me? Yes, unconditionally, and it must be current.
- What happens if I change provider? A serious MSP builds reversibility into the contract.
On expertise
- Who will actually work on my site? Meet the engineer, not just the salesperson.
- Which certifications or partnerships do you hold on the technologies I use?
- Can you give me two clients my size to call?
If a provider hesitates on more than three of these questions, keep looking. And if you want our answers, they fit on one page: ask us for a free audit.
Let’s talk about your project.
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