One important area that you should consider before choosing your SharePoint hosting provider is how effective the provider’s support team will be. It is important that the company that you choose is extremely knowledgeable and also responsive. If something goes wrong, you want to get your question answered by a knowledgeable professional. Also it is best to choose a SharePoint hosting provider that gives you your own consultants who can consult with about solution. That way, you will be able to turn to a team when you need help or advice. Before you make your decision, check into the support that is offered. Is there a phone number that you can call and get a qualified person who is friendly and eager to help? Does the SharePoint hosting company offer service 24 hours a day 7 days a week? If the SharePoint provider offers no phone number and only an email contact, they will most likely not provide enough customer support.

The next factor that you should consider is whether or not the servers are always up. Some customers, who choose the wrong SharePoint hosting providers, will find that the servers are sometimes unavailable. Make sure that the company you choose says that they guarantee 99.99% uptime. Otherwise, you may find that your hosting is unavailable when you need it most.

One of the advantages to SharePoint hosting is that it can boost your productivity. Not only is a slow system a major inconvenience, it can also cause a great deal of frustration. These factors can negatively impact your ability to be productive. It is crucial that your SharePoint hosting provider offers you speed. A good rule of thumb is to do a speed test to confirm that a page can load in less than 3 seconds. Also make sure that your SharePoint hosting provider is using multiple tier ISPs and has redundant servers. If you feel as though your servers are slow, you should feel comfortable contacting customer support for help

Before you confirm your SharePoint hosting provider, make sure that you are allowed access to a free trial. This shows that the provider is reputable and also believes in their service. See what you think of the support, speed and uptime, as you will have a chance to experience the hosting firsthand.

Before you choose a SharePoint provider, you need to make sure that they are licensed properly with Microsoft. Licensing shows that they are a reputable, high quality company is doing business legitimately. The unfortunate fact is that it is easy for companies to offer SharePoint hosting even if they are not licensed. Do you really want to trust your valuable communications to a company that could shut down the next day? Before signing up with a provider, it is important to be certain that they are licensed. This can only take moments to check, but can make a huge difference in your overall customer satisfaction.

Since you will be trusting SharePoint with some of your valuable and sensitive information, before choosing a SharePoint hosting provider, check to see what kind of security is offered. Your SharePoint hosting provider should take care of all security concerns for you including software updates, private SSL encryption to keep information safe and hardware and software firewalls to protect you from any potential attacks.

Depending on your level of expertise, you may also want to check into SharePoint consulting. If they offer training and consulting services, it can greatly help you adapt to effectively integrating SharePoint into your endeavors.

If you want to go the extra mile to ensure that you have chosen the right SharePoint hosting provider, consider interviewing the team. This also will give you a chance to call customer service and see what kind of response you receive. Consider the following questions: Do they seem competent? Are they easy to understand? Do they seem pleased to assist you? If you have any doubts about the quality of the service when you interview the potential SharePoint hosting provider, you may want to look elsewhere.

It is also always a good idea to check into potential reviews before signing up with a SharePoint hosting provider. If you see complaints online about a provider and negative comments about speed, uptime or customer service, look elsewhere. You want to choose a provider that has a good reputation and positive reviews online. SharePoint hosting services can greatly increase your productivity. However, for effective collaboration and secure communication, you need to find a quality company. By following these guidelines, you can locate a SharePoint hosting provider that offers a quality service. Once you find a provider that is competent, knowledgeable and values your business, you can rest assured that your hosted SharePoint experience will be smooth and problem-free.