Ask any managed IT provider whether they offer 24/7 support, whether they take security seriously and whether they're easy to work with, and you will get three yeses. Mine included. Those answers cost nothing to give, which is why they tell you so little.
A test is different. Give every provider on your shortlist the same scenario, ask them to walk you through exactly what happens, and write down what they say. The vague answers stand out quickly, and so do the good ones.
Below are the six tests I would run if I were choosing a provider. After each one I have put our own answer, so you have a benchmark to compare against, and something specific to hold us to if you talk to us.
Before you start: one brief for everyone
The tests only work if every provider answers the same question. Write a one-page brief and send it to each of them: your sites, number of staff and devices, the systems you can't run without, your business hours, and anything you know is coming in the next year, such as a new office, a migration or new staff.
Decide what matters most to you before the answers come back, and weight it. If you score first and weight afterwards, the provider with the best sales presentation tends to win.
Test 1: 3pm on a Sunday
The scenario: it's 3pm on a Sunday and nobody can sign in to Microsoft 365. Ask each provider to walk you through it, step by step. Who receives the alert? Is anyone working, or does the alert sit on a dashboard until Monday morning? Who starts work, and how long after the alert? Does your emergency response time still apply on a weekend? Is it billed separately?
A good answer names roles and gives times. A weak answer talks about "24/7 monitoring" without saying what happens when the monitoring finds something.
Our answer: our monitoring and response run around the clock, including nights, weekends and public holidays, and our emergency response times still apply after hours. How after-hours work is charged depends on how much of it you need. If your business relies on after-hours support, it's built into the monthly fee. If you rarely need it, we keep the fee lower and charge an agreed after-hours rate when it happens. Either way, it's set out in the agreement before you sign, so a Sunday call never brings a surprise bill. A Priority 1 issue like this one has a one-hour response target and a four-hour resolution target. The people who respond are our own employees, working under our ISO 27001 certified management system, not an outsourced call centre. We have written more about what genuine 24/7 monitoring looks like.
Test 2: show me the clause
The scenario: ask each provider what happens, in dollars, when they miss a response time. Then ask to see where that is written in the agreement.
Plenty of providers promise response times. Fewer put a number on missing one. If missing a target costs the provider nothing, it isn't really a commitment.
Our answer: response and resolution targets are tiered by priority and written into your service schedule:
- Priority 1: 1 hour response, 4 hours resolution
- Priority 2: 2 hours response, 8 hours resolution
- Priority 3: 4 hours response, 24 hours resolution
- Priority 4: 8 hours response, 40 hours resolution
Miss one and you are compensated with a credit of 2% of that month's fee, up to 25% of the invoice. The credit matters less than what it does to us. Once a missed hour costs us something, it gets staffed and escalated like an operational problem.
Test 3: the on-site visit
The scenario: a switch in your office has failed and someone needs to be there in person. Ask what it costs and how quickly they will arrive.
Be careful with on-site time promises. If a provider guarantees an engineer within a fixed number of hours, ask what happens when the nearest engineer is on leave or already at another client. A promise that can't survive that question isn't worth much.
Our answer: on-site attendance is included in every managed agreement with no callout fee. We book it in with you rather than run it against a printed clock, because we would rather not promise a time we can't always keep. The clock that matters is the help desk and remote response in Test 2, and that one is in the contract.
Test 4: price the year, not the month
The scenario: give every provider the same twelve months. You hire five people in month four, retire three old laptops in month six, and move the accounts team to a new office in month nine. Ask them to price the whole year, including anything outside the monthly fee.
This is where callout fees, per-ticket charges and "out of scope" project work show up. The cheapest monthly quote is often not the cheapest year.
Our answer: managed services are a fixed monthly fee per device, agreed up front, with no callout fees and no per-ticket charges. Adding or removing devices changes the fee by a known amount. Our minimum managed agreement is ten devices, and our pricing page gives an indicative monthly range from three numbers, without a sales call.
Test 5: show me, don't tell me
The scenario: ask each provider for evidence of how they protect your data and their own access to it. That means a certificate with its scope and date, a recent audit or assessment, and a clear answer on who in their business can access your systems.
A logo on a website is not evidence. A certificate tells you an auditor checked something, so ask what was checked, and when.
Our answer: InterIntra is ISO 27001 certified, and we maintain it through annual surveillance audits by an independent certification body. We are happy to show you what the certificate covers and walk you through how access to client environments is controlled.
Test 6: the exit, before you join
The scenario: ask what leaving looks like. What is the minimum term? How much notice do you give? What documentation do you own, and who helps you hand over to the next provider?
Providers rarely raise this themselves, and it is the question that matters most if things go wrong. We wrote a full guide on what a clean handover looks like.
Our answer: our minimum term is twelve months, not three years, and there is a 90-day walk-away guarantee. Your documentation is yours: the network diagram, the licence register and how everything is configured stay readable to you and leave with you if you go. Coming to us, onboarding is free and typically takes under 30 days, and our onboarding lead deals with your outgoing provider for you.
Scoring the answers
Record the evidence behind each score, not just the score. Keep unanswered questions visible on the sheet rather than quietly giving the benefit of the doubt. A provider that can't answer a test in writing during the sale is unlikely to do better once you have signed.
For your final two or three, ask for a reference client of a similar size and industry, and ask that client how the provider handled their last real outage. That conversation is often more useful than every proposal combined.
Give every provider the same test, and write down the answers.
Anyone can say yes to 24/7 support, security and flexibility. Ask them to walk through a Sunday outage, show you the SLA clause, price a real year and explain how you would leave. The differences between providers become obvious very quickly.
If you are shortlisting now, run these tests on us too. We would rather be compared properly than chosen on a presentation. You can see how we work across Adelaide and Brisbane, or book a discovery call and bring your brief.