IT Procurement is a consultation and implementation process to obtain the services, solutions and products your business needs to be able to deliver effective IT. IT Procurement can include:
- Finding and supplying hardware: from desktop PCs and laptops, phone systems and mobiles to keypads.
- Sourcing network solutions: whether cloud-based or hybrid, wired or wireless, as well as routers, lines and broadband.
- Selecting security functions: including anti-virus, anti-spam, data backup and disaster recovery solutions.
- And more: From operating systems, server applications to business and productivity suits, like Microsoft 365.
Choosing the right IT Procurement partner
Finding the right IT Procurement partner for your business requires careful thought and consideration. The wrong procurement partner could try to sell you services which are not aligned with your business IT strategy, because they have loyalties to a specific vendor or product. Procuring the right IT solutions for your business needs is paramount.
Here’s some things to look out for when choosing an IT Procurement partner:
- Establish what industry standards and accreditations the partner has these demonstrate that the business is performing to a high level and is has been frequently assessed.
- Read their customer case studies, they should be varied and demonstrate a broad range of services and products. This demonstrates the expertise that the IT Procurement partner has and the variety of services and products they specialise in
- Look at which vendor partnerships they hold. Eg. Gold partner statuses. We strongly recommend you work with a Microsoft Gold Partner, they will have the highest level of expertise and be able to offer you a wide range of licensing options. Official partnerships demonstrate that a company is well-connected, trusted and may be able to get you more cost-effective solutions.
- Excellent customer service reviews: Are they using an industry standard review engine such as TrustPilot or Feefo to capture customer reviews. Have a read through the reviews and make a judgement in what you notice.
Where to begin?
Many companies choose to involve IT Procurement as early as possible. This is beneficial as it grants your business access to the expertise of the procurement service for the strategising part of the process.
Once you have found the chosen partner for your company, the next stage is a consultation. At this point you will work together to establish the current state of IT provision, the desired IT provision and the most effective way to get from one to the other. Their IT Consultancy team will often will ascertain exactly what functions you need your IT to perform, as well as taking into account any service preferences.
After the consultation, a good IT Procurement service will collaborate with you to find the most cost effective, high quality option. Depending on what you need they will either completely prepare the products so that they are ready to use or deliver them to you for set up.
The best service doesn’t stop once the procurement is complete. Instead, there should be a comprehensive post-implementation review in which your provider should help you to establish that the services are all working and moving you towards your goals. Best practise is to perform a returns on investment check to examine the success of the services.
Why choose Infinity Group?
We have worked with 1000s of businesses across the UK and have an in-depth knowledge of all industries. View our case studies for more information on the recent project we have procured and delivered.
We take our service beyond simple IT Procurement to offer a full Consultation, IT Infrastructure and IT Support service. Our full service offering enables us to work with you before, during and after the implementation on an ongoing basis and our Service Desk is open 24/7, 365 days a year.
Infinity Group is an industry leading IT Consultancy and Digital Transformation provider. We are also a Tier 1 Microsoft Gold Partner, with three ISO accreditations to demonstrate our commitment to compliance and corporate governance.
If you would like to find out more, please get in touch.