Choosing an IT provider is unusually hard to do well, for one structural reason: you are being asked to evaluate technical competence that you have hired someone else because you do not have.
Every provider will say they are responsive, certified and experienced. The proposals will look similar. The prices will differ by more than seems reasonable, and nothing in the documents will explain why.
This guide is about how to see through that — written from the other side of the table, by a company that has both won and lost these decisions.
Start by writing down what is actually wrong
Before you speak to anyone, spend twenty minutes writing down the specific things that have gone badly in the last twelve months. Not “IT is unreliable” — the actual incidents.
The mail server was down for most of a Tuesday in March. Nobody could tell us why.
We discovered in May that the backup had not run since January.
When Ahmed left, we could not get into the firewall for three weeks.
This list is the most valuable document in the process. It converts an abstract comparison into a concrete test: hand it to each provider and ask what they would have done differently. The answers will separate them faster than any questionnaire.
It also protects you from the most common mistake in this decision, which is buying a solution to a problem you do not have because it was presented impressively.
The seven things that actually differentiate providers
Almost every proposal claims the same strengths. These are the dimensions where real differences hide.
1. Where their engineers physically are
Remote support handles most incidents. It does not handle a dead switch, a failed UPS, a server that will not POST, or a new office that needs cabling.
Ask directly: which cities do you have resident engineers in, and what is the on-site response time to my address? A provider covering Alexandria from Cairo is making a four-hour round trip before any work starts, and that will show up in your worst week, not your best one.
This is worth more scrutiny in Egypt than most guides suggest, because the honest answer is often “we would send someone from Cairo” and it is rarely volunteered.
2. What happens when the person who knows your setup leaves
Providers have staff turnover too. The question is whether your environment is documented in their system or in one engineer’s memory.
Ask to see a sample of their documentation for an existing client, redacted. A provider who maintains real documentation will be pleased to show you. One who does not will explain why they cannot.
3. Whether they test restores, or only run backups
This is the single most reliable competence test in the industry, and it takes one question: “When did you last restore a client’s backup to prove it worked, and do you do that on a schedule?”
Running backups is easy and nearly everyone does it. Testing restores is tedious, unbillable and skipped almost universally. A provider who does it as routine is telling you something true about how they operate that no certificate conveys.
4. How they price, and what is deliberately outside the price
Compare the exclusions, not the headline number. Two quotations differing by 40% usually differ because one includes on-site visits, out-of-hours cover, or project work that the other bills separately.
Ask each provider to state, in writing: what is included, what is billed extra, and at what rate. Then compare like with like. The cheaper proposal is often the one that has moved more into the “extra” column.
5. Response times with consequences attached
“We respond quickly” is not a commitment. A service level is a defined response time, by severity, with something that happens when it is missed — a credit, an escalation, a review.
Also ask what “response” means to them. Some providers count an automated ticket acknowledgement as a response. That is not the same as a human beginning work.
6. Security posture, specifically
Every provider says they take security seriously. Useful follow-ups:
- Do you enforce multi-factor authentication on your own admin accounts?
- How do you store and share client credentials?
- What is your process when a client is compromised — and have you handled one?
The last question is the one that matters. A provider who has managed a real incident will answer with a process. One who has not will answer with products.
If you have audit or client-compliance obligations, ask specifically about information security management and whether they can produce evidence, not just assurances.
7. Whether they will tell you something you do not want to hear
This is soft and it is the best predictor of the lot.
During the assessment, does the provider tell you that something you are proud of is badly configured? Do they talk you out of anything? Do they say “you do not need that yet”?
A provider who agrees with everything during the sales process will agree with everything afterwards, including when you are about to make an expensive mistake.
Reading the proposal: five warning signs
A large hardware purchase in the first recommendation. Sometimes justified. But an assessment that concludes with a quotation for equipment, before anyone has documented what you already own, is a sales process wearing an assessment’s clothing.
Certifications used as an answer to a capability question. Vendor partner status (Stark’s are here) tells you a company has met a vendor’s commercial and training requirements. It is meaningful, and it is not evidence that they will answer the phone at 9pm on a Thursday. If a direct question about operations is answered with a list of badges, ask the question again.
No named client references in your sector or size band. You do not need their client list. You do need one conversation with somebody comparable.
Auto-renewal with a long notice period. A twelve-month term is normal. A twelve-month term that renews automatically unless cancelled ninety days in advance is a retention mechanism, not a service commitment.
No exit plan. Ask what happens to documentation, credentials, configurations and monitoring agents if you leave. The answer should be immediate and unembarrassed.
A short scoring method that works
Score each provider 1 to 5 on these, and weight them for your own situation:
| Criterion | Why it is weighted |
|---|---|
| On-site reach to your locations | The gap that hurts most, and the hardest to fix later |
| Documentation and knowledge transfer | Determines whether you are locked in |
| Restore testing and DR evidence | The best proxy for operational discipline |
| Clarity of scope and exclusions | Determines whether the price is the price |
| Security process, not security products | Determines what happens on the bad day |
| Sector and size-band references | Determines whether they have solved your problem before |
| Willingness to disagree with you | Determines the quality of advice for the next three years |
Three providers scored honestly on seven criteria will usually produce a clear answer. If it does not, the tie-break is straightforward: choose the one whose assessment taught you something.
What to expect from a good assessment
A serious provider will want to look before quoting, and the assessment itself should be useful whether or not you hire them. It should produce a written document covering what you have, what condition it is in, what is at risk, and what should be done in what order — with the urgent separated from the eventual.
If the assessment produces only a price, it was a sales call.
About Stark Technology
We have run IT for Egyptian businesses since 2016, with resident engineers in Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut, and we support sites elsewhere in Egypt remotely with scheduled visits. Our work covers managed IT services, cybersecurity, backup and disaster recovery, networking and cloud.
We hold a 5.0 rating from 15 Google reviews, and TP-Link’s Senior Sales Manager, Ahmed Hassan, describes Stark as “one of the best System Integrators.” You can read more about the team.
We would rather be evaluated against the criteria above than against a brochure — including where the answer sends you elsewhere.
Frequently asked questions
How many providers should I ask?
Three. One gives you no comparison; five produces proposals nobody has time to read properly.
Should I choose the cheapest?
Only after normalising the exclusions. Once on-site visits, out-of-hours cover and project work are priced consistently across all three, the gap usually narrows sharply — and where it does not, the difference is normally on-site capability.
Is a bigger provider safer?
Not automatically. Larger firms bring depth and process; smaller ones bring attention and seniority on your account. What matters is whether your environment is documented and your tickets are handled by someone competent, and that is a question about the account, not the company.
How long should the first contract be?
Twelve months is standard and reasonable — onboarding costs the provider real money. Insist on clear exit terms rather than a short term.
What if it goes wrong?
This is why the exit-plan question matters. A provider who has made leaving straightforward is demonstrating confidence that you will not want to.
Want a second opinion on your current setup? Our free IT assessment produces a written summary of your infrastructure, security and support gaps — yours to keep, whatever you decide. Talk to Stark Technology.