With one quick phone call you should pass your problems on to your outside IT Firm.  It is much easier and quicker for them to contact your technology providers and work directly with the vendor to resolve any issues with their service.  In most businesses today, someone within the office calls the vendor - for example, the ISP (Internet Service Provider).  They discuss the problem with the ISP, and the ISP usually performs some testing of their circuits.  More often than not, the ISP points the blame on the customer's internal network.  The staff person then gets back on the phone and calls the outside IT Firm.  They relay the message that The ISP’s technician thinks it is an internal networking problem.  After some more investigation, the IT technician tells the staff person that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the network … at which time the staff person calls the ISP back … And on and on …  And in the meantime no one in the office has access to the Internet or Email.

What a mess!  Instead of going through all of that, your IT Consultant should call the ISP directly on your behalf and work out a solution directly with the ISP.  In fact, they should work with all of your technology vendors (phones, printers, faxes, copy machines, etc) to make sure that you have quick resolution to your issues.