What Questions Should a CIO Ask When Evaluating a Managed Network Provider?

Quick Answer

CIOs should ask managed network providers questions that help them evaluate the technical capabilities as well as the type of relationship they would have with the provider.

These questions can be organized into two key areas and four question types.

Key areas:

• A provider’s technical expertise
• A provider’s service and support model

Question types:

• Technical questions
• Relationship-based questions
• Tie-breaker questions
• Decision-point questions

The best providers combine technical expertise with proactive support, clear ownership and accountability, and a roadmap for future growth.

The questions we outline below are organized to help CIOs evaluate providers that will go beyond your basic network management to simplify and streamline operations in alignment with your business goals.

How CIOs Should Evaluate Managed Network Providers

For Chief Information Officers, priorities are split across two distinct areas: managing information technologies and ensuring their team maintains access to the resources they need while reducing overall business complexity, risk, costs, and operational bottlenecks.

The questions a CIO should ask when evaluating a managed network provider can also be simplified under these key themes:

1. Do you have the technical expertise to support our strategic goals?
2. Does your service model help us stay connected, protected, and productive?

We have outlined some types of questions to consider from these angles, to ultimately distinguish the providers that will make life easier by serving as an accountable, trusted extension of the business.

Technical Questions for Evaluating Managed Network Providers

Starting with technical questions will help determine whether a managed network provider can successfully support business operations and growth needs. Some important questions to ask include:

1. How does your network strategy align with our business objectives?
2. How will you improve network performance, uptime, and user experience?
3. What visibility and reporting will my team receive?
4. How do you integrate networking and security?
5. What are your Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and support escalation processes?
6. How do you proactively detect and resolve issues?
7. How do you assess our existing environment before recommending a future-state architecture?
8. How will you help us evolve our network over the next 3-5 years?

These questions help cover the essential components of any technology strategy, including how to evaluate whether a provider will understand your current infrastructure, future state goals, how to get there, and what kind of visibility and support they offer.

What a Good Answer Sounds Like:

Listen to how a provider strategizes to align your current state with your desired business outcomes. A managed network provider that takes the time to understand the tools you’re already working with, underlying infrastructure, and security and compliance needs will be able to provide a technology foundation that actually supports your business growth goals.

Relationship-based Questions for Evaluating Managed Network Providers

Once the technical side of the story has been established, CIOs should focus on the core differentiator: what the actual business relationship experience will be.

Some important questions to ask include:

1. Do you provide a dedicated team or account manager?
2. Does the same team or account manager stay with us throughout our relationship?
3. What is the typical response time and procedure when there’s a problem?
4. How do you ensure accountability when managing multiple vendors, and who owns the outcomes?
5. How do you determine if we are a good fit for your services?
6. How will you facilitate onboarding and training for new solutions?
7. Where does responsibility for network security begin and end between your team and ours?
8. Based on our discussion so far, what would be your first recommendation for getting us a step closer to our goals?

Questions like these will provide a clearer picture into how the provider’s culture aligns with yours, understand how they’re viewing your network, and what a long-term relationship with them might look like.

What a Good Answer Sounds Like:

Listen for managed network providers who focus on what the experience working with them will be like beyond their technical capabilities, including whether they mention proof points like their Net Promoter Score, customer retention, and net revenue retention. Also look for providers who can provide named support contacts and demonstrate the visibility and accountability they offer.

Tie-Breaker Questions for Evaluating Managed Network Providers

Consider some questions that aren’t asked as often or approach the dynamic with a managed network provider from a different angle:

1. How quickly would my team be able to see the value of your services?
2. How would you help us uncover network inefficiencies and vendor overlap?
3. Where will your team take ownership that other providers typically won't?
4. Do you offer solutions beyond managed network services that could enhance our business?
5. Do you have specialized expertise in our business size or vertical?
6. How do you customize your services to our needs and goals?
7. What would you tell us not to buy?
8. What should we expect you to challenge us on?

How a provider handles these questions can help you distinguish the best strategic partners that provide value beyond your immediate network needs.

What a Good Answer Sounds Like:

Listen for your key industries, pain points, or unique insights that can help demonstrate a provider already has context for your top priorities.

Decision-Point: The Questions You Should Ask Yourself

Asking the right questions is the first step to finding a managed network provider you can trust to help your business reach its goals. As you’re evaluating the answers, a few key questions you should keep in mind for yourself are:

1. Which provider is able to provide the greatest visibility across services, support, and billing?
2. When something breaks, which provider will hold their team accountable for finding and implementing the fix?
3. Which provider offers the best uptime and SLA guarantees, backed by reliable and reachable support?
4. Which provider is best equipped to help us consolidate our services or manage a multi-provider strategy?
5. Which provider can you see yourself working with for the foreseeable future as your business grows?

As you go through your discovery process, take note of the questions potential managed network providers also ask you, and how that helps reveal whether their questions align with your own thought process or reveal unexpected insights.

How COEO Answers CIO Questions

Here are a few ways COEO would answer some of the questions we’ve outlined in this blog:

Ready for Answers? Start with COEO.

If you’re ready to begin your discovery or have more questions on where to start, start with COEO. We offer managed network services that we customize to the needs and goals of your business to provide complete visibility with one platform for networking, communications, security, and managed IT.

Connect with us to meet your dedicated team and start optimizing your network and operations.

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