What do you look for in a supplier?

[Mark CP]

I'm curious as to what people find makes a good IT supplier and perhaps more importantly what would encourage or discourage people from using a new supplier for hardware, software or consumables?

Any experiences you've had (on a business rather than personal purchase level please- we've all experienced the nightmare of ringing ISP's and trying to get them to comprehend resetting the modem isn't always the answer!) both positive and negative would be great to see.

Thanks,

Mark

[Tridene Solutions]

It all depends on how you define supplier. For example, we look after servers, networks, pc's, routers, firewalls, wireless access points, printers, basically everything. We also manage our customer's IT services like adsl. This means that whatever the IT issue they Only need to call one number.

If you don't have an IT support company, then you should choose the supplier who best meets your needs in terms of customer support. Anyone can sell you a whizzy new piece of kit, the difference is all in the service.

Thanks,

Rich

[AboveParr]

One who can translate my drivel into geek speak, deal with the problem, then translate back again to tell me what I need to do...

[Paul Norman]

The world of IT supply is complex, as it divides into so many sub areas and specialises.

But, essentially, here is an area where customer service is very important. The ability to understand what the customer needs to achieve and make it happen is the missing skill.

Of course, proven competence is key too. I know of server support companies out there whose knowledge of server technology is much less than my own, and I could NOT support a server!

[NikkiPilkington]

All I want from my IT peple is the ability to deal with me and my staff quickly and efficiently, speak English and not geek, and to fix my problems as quickly as possible

[Tridene Solutions]

Couldn't agree more. The trick is definitely to be able to translate geek speak to proper English!

[Mark CP]

Thanks for all your views and comments on this so far- it's refreshing to see that people have the intelligence to look for more than just price as let’s face it anyone can trawl down a cheap supplier online, only to realise when the goods haven’t arrived 3 weeks later that an emphasis on service would be preferable!

So with your current/ previous suppliers on day to day bits of kit (ink/ toners, cables, branded hardware etc) what is the biggest thing that turns you off from using them- over contact, slow response, spam shots, poor response to problems etc?