IT proposals are written to look alike. Same certifications, same reassuring language about proactive monitoring, same tiered table. The differences that determine whether you are happy in eighteen months are not usually in the document, so you have to ask.
Questions about response, and why they matter
- 1What proportion of tickets do you resolve remotely? A high figure is good news, because it is the part distance does not affect
- 2What on-site response can you commit to in writing? Not what you aim for. What is contractual
- 3What happens when you miss it? A commitment with no consequence is an aspiration
- 4Where are your engineers actually based? Not where the office is registered, where people start their day
- 5How many engineers cover Abu Dhabi, and what happens when they are all committed?
The arithmetic question
Ask any Dubai-based provider quoting a same-hour Abu Dhabi on-site response to walk you through the arithmetic. The drive alone is roughly 90 minutes.
Questions about the contract
- What is explicitly excluded, and can I see that list before signing?
- What triggers an additional charge outside the monthly fee?
- What is the notice period, and what happens to my data and documentation if I leave?
- Do I get administrative access to my own systems, or do you hold it?
- Is the documentation you produce mine to take to another provider?
The last two matter more than they appear. A provider who holds sole administrative access and keeps documentation to themselves has made leaving expensive by design. That is a choice they made, and it is fair to ask about it directly.
Questions about the work itself
- 1Do you test restores, or only monitor that backups completed? These are different things
- 2How do you handle offboarding when one of my staff leaves?
- 3What do you do in the first month, specifically?
- 4Who is my named contact, and what happens when they are on leave?
- 5How do you report, and can I see a sample report from a real client?
The question most people never ask
Ask them to describe a client they turned away, and why. A provider who has never declined a prospect is either very new or is signing businesses they cannot serve properly. The answer tells you whether they qualify honestly or sell to anyone who will pay.
Warning signs
| Sign | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Same SLA quoted for Dubai and Abu Dhabi | The geography was not considered |
| Cannot say what is excluded | The exclusions are wherever they need to be later |
| Holds sole admin access to your systems | Leaving has been made deliberately expensive |
| Backup monitoring but no restore testing | Nobody has verified the backups work |
| Every question answered yes | Nobody has thought about the constraints |
| No named contact | You will be explaining your setup repeatedly |
What a good answer sounds like
Specific rather than reassuring. A provider saying they resolve most tickets remotely within the working day and schedule on-site visits monthly, and that a same-hour on-site response is not something they can hold from Dubai, is giving you something you can plan around. Confidence without specifics is the thing to be wary of.
Evaluating providers for your Abu Dhabi business?
Ask us these questions. We will tell you plainly what we can commit to, and when a local provider would serve you better than we would.
