{name}, Based on your submission, I would like to offer you a complimentary PSA software review.

Interested?   Yes / No <--Just click on your answer

Read more about Workflows:

IT Managed Service Provider: Customer Service or Triage; Which Model is Best for Us?
How Reducing Time to Completion Makes More Money for the Company
IT Service Managers: How Project Execution can be as Easy as Sipping a Pina Colada

The value of a clearly defined Incident Workflow is to minimize the Time to Completion. Half of the battle of meeting Customer’s expectations can be won right here by having a well-documented baseline procedure along with Expedite and Escalation procedures.

 

Here is ITIL’s definition of an Incident vs Service Request: An Incident is defined as a network, system, or device that is not working as designed. Therefore, a Service Request is a network, system, or device that is working as designed.

Service Requests have a different set of expectations and therefore need a distinct workflow. Using the Incident workflow for Service Request engagement impedes the IT Support Team and causes them to work harder than necessary. Most of the Service Request workflow can be automated, further reducing operational costs.

 

Here is ITIL’s definition of an Incident vs Service Request: An Incident is defined as a network, system, or device that is not working as designed. Therefore, a Service Request is a network, system, or device that is working as designed.

Projects are a special type of Service Request requiring more effort. The effort is divided into five phases: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Controlling and Closeout. The key to keeping this heavy lift from crushing either Incident or Service Request workflow is to define a threshold of estimated hours when the Project workflow is triggered, then direct the request into a Sales Pipeline / Engineering workflow rather than a Service Delivery workflow.

Network Administration visits are a special type of Service Request in that they are tied to Contractual Obligations like Managed Services but scheduled as much as a year in advance.  This Uniqueness requires different planning (mapping), scheduling (Recurring), and Customer Communications, therefore it requires its own workflow.

 

o   Network Administration workflow is used to:

• Check the health of the network
• Reduce the number of Incident Requests
• Upsell and identify Network Upgrade project opportunities

Read more About Priorities:

Prioritizing the Priority of Priorities for the IT Service Manager

Working as Designed, IT Service Requests are a Dilemma

 

Priority is one way to isolate Service Requests from Incidents. Once a Service Request priority is in place, the PSA tool can be automated, making the engagement process more efficient.

 

Recurring tickets are used to manage Network Administration visits, Staff Augmentation scheduling, and Internal recurring work such as Standard Build reviews.  Mapping of these recurring service calls provides the advantage of knowing who can take a new schedule, and scheduling in such a way that maximizes project availability.

 

Priority is one of the ways to isolate recurring scheduling from Service Requests and Incidents. Once a Net Admin / Recurring priority is in place, the PSA tool can be automated, making the engagement process much more efficient.

 

Creating an estimated labor hour threshold is key to isolating the heavy lift a project requires from the nimbler Service Request and Incident workflows. It also sets up the Managed Service Provider to move these labor intense Customer requests into the Sales Pipeline where they will receive the proper Scope of Work, and Initiation.

 

Creating a Project priority is one of the ways to isolate the heavy lift a project requires from the nimbler Service Request and Incident workflows. It also sets up the Managed Service Provider to move these labor intense Customer requests into the Sales Pipeline where they will receive the proper Scope of Work and Initiation.

 

Backups - while remaining a high priority - have a different engagement and remediation expectation than other Customer requests. Backups are not expected to be working until afterhours, so the Managed Service Provider has the day to fix them. Once fixed, it will be sometime the following morning before it’s known if the issue has been resolved or not. For this reason, they need a different priority and Service Level Agreement (SLA) management.

Read more about contracts and services:

IT Managed Service Agreements: What’s Included?

 

Having the Services offered to the Customers is critical in getting the billing correct. Without the Services being offered in the PSA tool, Technicians don’t have the opportunity to connect the work they are doing with the Services being offered. 

 

Not using Services in the PSA tool prevents the Company from knowing the true cost supporting the Services and/or Managed Service Agreements.

 

Creating Services in the PSA tool is the first step. The next step is to connect them to the Contracts per Account. That way, once the Account and Contract are selected in the Ticket, the applicable Services are available to the Technician.

 

More money is given away by not having a review process where the default Contract is removed for out of contract work.  Having an upfront intake process either by Technical (Triage) or Non-technical (Customer Service) personnel starts the remediation process off in the right direction. Coaching the Technicians to review the Contract and Services when putting in time - especially when completing the Customer’s request - also goes a long way in processing fair billing to both the Customer and Company.

IT Managed Service Provider: Customer Service or Triage; Which Model is Best for Us?

 

Bundling services prevents the tracking of support costs at the service level. You can still track the cost of support at the Contract level, but not the individual underlying services.

Read more about roles:

Here’s Why Roles & Work Types Matter to Your IT MSP

 

Having different Roles for different skill set billing rates allows you to fairly charge the Customer for work requiring a higher paid skill.  The higher rate covers the cost of the education and empowers the Managed Service Provider to use education as a career growth retention strategy.

 

Having different Work Types for different billing rates allows you to fairly charge the Customer for work requiring extra effort or discounting Network Administration agreements. Work Types also allow you to fairly compensate the Technician when the impact goes beyond a reasonable expectation of duty.

Read more about Service Level Agreements:

What Every IT Support Manager Must Know About SLA’s & Scheduling Objectives

An IT Service Manager’s Guide to Scheduling Objectives and SLA’s

 

Service Level Agreements are a strategic way to track performance and automate the service delivery process. SLAs provide the mechanism for Continuous Quality Improvement.  Workflow Rules based on SLA triggers can notify us of impending due dates as well as automate the use of SLAs based on the Contract field

 

This may surprise you - but turning on SLAs does not activate Service Level Management. By default, the PSA tool does not come configured for use. Setting up SLAs based on Priority level is a base level configuration needed before using the SLA function

 

This goes in tandem with dividing Incidents (Break/Fix or Reactive) from Service Requests. SLAs only make sense for Incidents because Service Requests carry a different Urgency and Impact criteria.  Also, SLAs are driven by contractual obligations and usually the Managed Service Agreements only reference Incident response.

 

Having the Due Dates locked down assures proper SLA communications and reporting.  It is the best way to implement Service Level Agreement management.

 

Note: There are two ways to look at SLAs. One is to drive performance. The other is to let performance organically float and use the SLA reports guiding quality improvement discussions. 

 

This is a simple checkbox in the Contract module and saves countless hours of billable Resource time during the intake and remediation process, as well as 100% Contract to SLA matching.

Read more about tickets, templates, and checklists:

IT Service Managers: The Impact of Open Tickets on Profit

IT Managed Service Provider: Customer Service or Triage; Which Model is Best for Us?

 

Ticket Categories change the Employees’ experience when working with Tickets. Fields with information that is important to them at that moment or fields they need to update on a regular basis can be moved to the top and put in logical sequence order. Fields that contain useless information to them at that moment can be hidden from view, relieving them of the noise and process impediment.  Using additional Ticket Categories can improve all Service Delivery efficiencies and are well worth the effort of setting them up.

 

These are speed codes or templates that speed up the remediation process and make the billable resource time more efficient

 

These are speed codes or templates that speed up the remediation process and make the billable resource time more efficient

 

These are speed codes or templates that speed up the remediation process and make the billable resource time more efficient

 

These are speed codes or templates that speed up the creation and scheduling process of Network Administration, Staff Augmentation and other recurring scheduling.

 

Checklists are a powerful feature of the PSA tool. They remind the engaged Technician of all that needs to be done, and in what order based on importance. They also serve as a tracking and management intervention alerting tool for when a step is missed, thus avoiding Customer disappointment

 

This is a specific high-value Checklist that’s typically the first Checklist created in the PSA tool.  It goes a long way to elevate a recurring challenge for an MSP and that is onboarding a Customer’s new hire.

Read more about automation here:

IT Service Managers: Here’s Your Pot of Gold

 

Different banners go a long way to alert the Employees on the thread if the Customer is receiving the emails.  Banners also inform the recipient very quickly why they are receiving the notification.

 

Good customer communication is the key to reducing churn. HDI’s Customer Service Representative training points out that 80% of Customers leave their Managed Service Provider due to lack of communications, not the inability to fix their stuff.

 

WFRs are the power of a PSA tool. Automating Internal communications goes a long way with keeping everyone in the loop, avoiding potential Customer disappointment, and driving operational efficiency

 

This goes in tandem with Service Level Agreement management and automates the process while ensuring good clean data

 

Audit trails in the PSA tool are at a minimal, including how many times a Customer’s request is revisited. Ticket UDFs provide the audit trail, and WFRs automate the populating of the UDF and tracking the re-opening rate

 

This is a money saver. The PSA software vendor allows no-charge API users for the machine to machine integration. Not using this Security Level is paying the PSA software vendor money for no reason.

You know what a challenge it can be to keep your IT Support Team focused on the Customer. One way to drive self-management in this area is using a big board reporting Team and Individual performance on Key Service Delivery and Individual Resource metrics

 

This is the best way to drive a Real-Time Time Entry.  It uses Team competition to encourage Techs to get their time in on time. See Kim’s widget configuration steps below

 

Dispatchers Workshop is a powerful module in the PSA tool that allows you to see a workgroup of Employees’ calendars for a week at a glance. Calendars are the best place to schedule on-site visits, block out queue coverage, and manage Internal time.

Read more about issues here:

IT Service Support Issue with Issues and Sub-Issues?

 

The standard way is a two-level Issue and Sub-Issue structure.  By using Ticket Category as the top level, a three-level Issue and Sub-Issue structure can be implemented.

 

By using Ticket Category as the top Issue level, a three-level Issue and Sub-Issue structure can then be implemented. This also has the advantage of leveraging Issue and Sub-Issues for Service Requests (non-incident) without burdening the Incident Support Team with a long list of Issues and Sub-Issues.

 

By having the Sub-Issue at the device level, the Issue/Sub-Issue reporting structure can be kept up to date with Industry changes.

 

Without reporting on Issue and Sub-Issue, it is a waste of the IT Service Support Team’s time as they pause the remediation process to populate the Issue and Sub-Issue fields.  Great gains can be made by reporting Remediation Effort and Time to Completion by Sub-Issue and by Resource.  The results of these reports can drive Quality Improvement programs as well as guide Resources to the need for additional training.

Read more about reports and resource utilization here:

How Resource Utilization Can Help Your IT MSP Prosper

How Resource Utilization Can Help You Boost Profit

Why Resource Utilization can help you balance Internal time in your IT MSP

How Resource Utilization can Help You Find Lost Profit 

 

Resource Utilization is one of the key metrics impacting profit.  Weekly attention to this metric is justified by the increase in net profit without increasing costs. The number one reason for not managing Resource Utilization is the 4-6 hours it takes each week to review Timesheets. We offer a Resource Utilization Automation system which reduces this lengthy process to less than an hour per week.

 

SLA, when properly configured, reports on how well the company is meeting its contractual obligations, a key to improving the Customer experience. There are two schools of thought on using SLA reports. One is as a performance review of the team and may be tied to compensation. The other is to benchmark performance and collaborate with the IT Support Team to improve the performance and thus Customer satisfaction

 

Live Reports is a powerful PSA module. With Live Reports, much of the benchmarking, tracking and management of key metrics can be automated, and can also move the IT Service Support and Delivery Teams into a Self-Management collaborative environment.

 

We are here to Help! We offer Live Report writing services as well as Advanced Live Report Training courses. Learn more by clicking here.

  

Time to Completion is a key metric impacting profit, and according to Jeff Rumburg of MetricNet, the only metric that Customers care about.  SLA performance by itself does not tell the whole story.  I have seen MSPs that have 97% SLA performance and still be 4 times the national average in Time to Completion / Customer disappointment.

 

This is a complicated two-part report that speaks to the efficiency and competitiveness of supporting the Managed Service Offerings. It is, therefore, a key metric impacting bottom-line profit. The average Managed Service Provider needs 7 people to support 1000 endpoints under Managed Service Agreements. By implementing proactive Customer request reduction programs, the best in class get their RHEM number down to .25 - or needing 1.5 people to support 1000 endpoints under management.

 

Reactive hours are predictable. There is no need to fully schedule every available resource and then figure out how to respond to Customer’s requests. With a Customer Request Forecast report, staffing can be adjusted and on standby for when the Customer requests come in.

 

It seems someone always wants to know if we are going to make a budget or not. It can be a laborious 4-6 hours per week figuring it out. With Live reports, it can be automated and distributed without any manual labor.

 

Standard reports are OK at best. Live Reports are good…but limited. Highly complicated reports can be written in the Data Warehouse using SQL Reports to drive BI and other high-end cross-category reports.

{name}, Based on your submission, I would like to offer you a complimentary PSA software review.

Interested?   Yes / No <--Just click on your answer