Why Partnering with a ‘Smaller’ IT Provider Will Benefit Your Business More

In the past three-five years, the IT landscape in the UK has experienced a surge of buyouts. Many founders of smaller, local IT providers, approaching retirement, have accepted generous offers for their businesses. This trend has allowed a handful of IT providers to grow through buying the client base of smaller providers, rather than organically.

Please see our blog post: What To Do If Your IT Provider Has Been Merged Into a Larger Company for more information about this.

 

Who to Partner With: Smaller Local vs Larger Corporate IT Providers:

Choosing between a smaller, more local IT provider, and a larger, more corporate based one is a significant decision for any managing director. Each option has its pros and cons, depending on your business type and your expectations from the partnership.

 

Working with a Larger, More Corporate IT Provider:

Larger IT providers, often driven by shareholder expectations, may come with several downsides:

• Decline in Service Quality: Larger providers may struggle to maintain high service standards due to their extensive client base.
• Getting ‘Lost in the System’: The staff of ‘smaller’ clients may feel ignored or undervalued, as they become just ‘another number’ in a vast system.
• Lack of Communication: Timely updates on logged tickets or ongoing projects may be infrequent, leading to frustration and miscommunication amongst you and your staff.
• Impersonal Service: The transition from a small to a large provider can be jarring (if your IT provider has been bought out), with a noticeable drop in personalised service quality.
• Mismatched Expectations: The service level you expect may not align with what is delivered, leading to dissatisfaction.

 

These issues arise because larger providers focus on managing a broad client base, often prioritising shareholder and profit over service delivery.

 

Potential Pros:

• Cost Efficiency: Larger providers might appear cheaper due to their ability to scale because of their bigger client base and reduce prices.
• Specialised Expertise: They may have more specialist engineers to handle complex security needs.

 

Benefits of Partnering with a Smaller, More Local IT Provider:

In the current trend of IT provider buyouts, a personalised service has become a sought-after luxury, rather than a standard expectation.

In our experience as a smaller, strategic IT provider working with small businesses of up to 50 people, we understand that directors often prefer to work with businesses of a similar size to them.

 

Here’s why partnering with a smaller, local IT provider can be beneficial, especially for small businesses:

• Personalised Service: Smaller providers, with a lighter but highly valued client base, prioritise client retention. This means their service is personalised and excellent. For instance, at Lumina, we know all our users by name, building strong relationships through site visits and enquiries.
• Consistency and Continuity: Smaller providers’ engineers learn your unique systems and processes, ensuring smooth and personal experiences every time you and your staff interact with them. Queries are quickly addressed without the need for new engineers to first understand your systems.
• Service-First Ethos: At Lumina, our ‘service first, technology second’ approach ensures that we prioritise your business needs above all else. Many other ‘smaller’ IT providers will likely be the same.

 

Conclusion:

There is no definitive answer to who you should work with.

It ultimately depends on the type of relationship you seek with a technology partner. IT is critical to business operations and strategic growth and is especially important regarding cybersecurity protection.

Consider whether you want a transactional, reactive relationship with a larger provider or a strategic, personalised partnership with a smaller, more local provider.