10% Profit Increase in 17 Weeks or Less: Part 3: The Search for Profit  

Written By Guest User

Did you miss Pars 1 and 2 in our series? Read them here: 

  

This article is for you if you want to learn more about how each of the following can help your MSP boost profits:  

  • Service Managers that are on top of the important trends and where to focus  

  • On-Time & On-Budget Projects (because of great planning and communication) 

  • Dramatically faster invoicing time and accuracy (even Accounting will be happy) 

  • Actually…being able to finally leverage ALL the stuff in Autotask to be an all-around better MSP 

  

If this is up your alley, then… 

  

Welcome back, Autotask Explorers. Have you been enjoying the Amazon Prime series Fallout? Many MSP team members have not only been watching it individually but holding watch parties and having long discussions during meeting time.  

  

How about your MSP? 

  

If your MSP doesn’t have the time or the Team comradery to talk about movies, events, or even everyday life happenings, I ask why not?  Is the staff overworked, overwhelmed, and stressed to the max because your focus is trying to keep the lights on?  Are you experiencing an Orange Colored Sky? 

  

This is NOT the way. Mental health and stress are killing Owner and Tech lives throughout the industry. And for what? …Since most of you aren’t even making much money anyway. 

  

Let’s change that. 

  

This is Week 3 of a series for those of you who want to build your business, are tired of carrying a laptop to the grocery store, and would like to go on a date night without taking a Client call during dessert. We’re going to bring you the truth – no matter how bad it hurts (yes, some of us have probably played too much Fallout 3). 

  

So, let’s leave our Vaults to explore the unknown concepts (for many MSPs) of a healthy, profitable, business that is a great place to work.  

  

We hear it all the time: 

  • Techs are productive less than 50% of the time 

  • We believe we are writing off a significant number of Billable Hours as Managed Service Support 

  • Steve, we do not have time to meet with you. We don’t even have enough time for Sales or focus on growing the company. 

  

Now, we can’t care more about your business than you, so we can’t do it all for you. But if you’ll work with us and put in some time and work now, you’ll have: 

  

  • A Zen Work Environment for your Service Delivery Team 

  • Raving Fans driving Sales and Marketing efforts 

  • Freedom from Service Delivery Issues to Grow the Business 

  • Date Nights 

  

TLDR: Here is how we get these results: 

  1. Service Managers knowing the important KPI trends and where to focus  

  2. On-Time & On-Budget Projects because of planning and communication 

  3. Dramatically speeding up invoicing time and accuracy 

  4. Actually using all the stuff in Autotask to be a better MSP 

  

Service Managers will know which of all this data is important and where to focus their energies: 

This is accomplished by narrowing down the sea of open tickets to the ones they need to pay attention to, look into root causes or places where the Team or Process is failing to meet Client expectations.  

  

Widgets are great for showing transactional activities happening at the moment, day, or week. To really manage performance, it takes trend reports. For example, you probably know there are a 120 open tickets for your 6-tech shop, but is this just a bad day, is this normal, is the trend growing or shrinking?  

  

Almost always, the Techs are saying the Team is short staffed while the Owner and CPA are saying we are just working inefficiently. How do you know?  One way is to look at the Open Ticket trend. Is it flat, growing, or shrinking?  With the Trend info, you can really see what is going on. 

  

The way this works in an Advanced Global world is to train up your Service Manager on the 4 LEAN Process Profitability KPIs and the 10 Leading and 4 Lagging KPIs that provide in-depth information on what is going on and driving the 4 LEAN Process Profitability KPIs.  

  

Have a good Service Manager? They will be top-notch when we’re done. 

  

Don’t have a Service Manager? Want them working on other things? We also provide a Monthly Monitoring and Maintaining program that empowers the Service Manager (or a service done for you) on: 

  1. 10-point Black Hole Stuck Ticket Evaluation 

  2. Review and Analysis of 14 Advanced Live Reports 

  3. How to decide what to focus on over the next month, quarter, year 

Project Managers are able to complete projects on time and on budget: 

This is accomplished by managing the volume of disruptions, knowing who is available to work on projects and when, and how to keep the Client in the loop as the project is executed. Such things as: 

  • Start and End of the Project work 

  • Planned/Scheduled disruptions to production 

  • Out of Scope billable work 

  

The way this works in an Advanced Global world is: 

  1. We work with the Client to clearly define what a project is in terms that are easy for everyone to understand. 

  2. We require all project work to be scheduled. Dumping it in a queue and asking the Techs to figure it out DOES NOT WORK. Projects need to be scheduled with Tech Allocation and Scheduling SOPs that we are happy to share. 

  3. The Project work starts deep in the sales process with: 

  4. Sales Engineering creating the SoW and BoM 

  5. Leveraging Opportunities and Proposed Projects so the project team can track the opportunity before the Client signs  

Everyone (Owner, Salesperson, Client, Project Manager, Lead Tech, and Project Team) knows what is going on with no surprises 

  

Accounting folks spend 75% less time in Approve and Post and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that what they are invoicing is correct: 

This is accomplished by closing the knowledge gap between Service Delivery and Accounting and leveraging the Cascading Contract Automation (CCA) to transcode “What Type of Work was Done” to “What is the Relationship with the Client” on a Client-by-Client basis.  

  

Once there is a clear understanding as to what is in the MSA and the CCA is configured properly, 95% of the Time Entries hit A&P properly coded; thus no need to send the Time Entry back to the Service Manager, Service Coordinator, or Tech for correction or the lengthy conversations investigating if the Time Entry is correct in the first place. 

  

The way this works in an Advanced Global world? It starts with understanding what is in the MSAs. We have a survey template which we are happy to share. The first time I used the template, it took the Sales Team 90 days to figure out what was in the MSAs. Once, I asked an owner, “What is in the MSAs?” and the Accounting Manager rolled forward in her chair, turned to the Owner and said “Yes {put your 1st name here}, what is in the MSAs?”. I rest my case. 

  

Once the survey is complete, it is easy to reconfigure the PSAutomation software to automatically transcode the Techeese to match the MSAs on a Client-by-Client basis, therefore easing the A&P burden by 75%. 

  

The Autotask software can be fully leveraged: 

This is accomplished by telling the software what type of Client request we are dealing with and telling the software what Type of Work was done. 

  

Without Categorizing the Client request, the software treats all tickets the same. By simply segmenting requests into different Workflows (we are back to talking about SOPs, not Rules), the software can be configured to do the same Automated Processing as many AI services claim to be able to do without spending a dime. 

  

The way this works in an Advanced Global world is we start by Categorizing Client requests into at least 11 Workflows (5 Incidents and 6 Service Requests Workflows) and then leverage Workflow Rules, SLA Automation, Dashboards, Cascading Contracts, 10 Automated Mechanisms, and Advanced Live Report scheduler to automate most of the post-Triage manual processes just like most of the AI proponents… 

  

FYI:  When Advanced Global first started rolling out our Improvement Programs, we found doubling down on the Triage process fixed 70-80% of the Service Delivery issues organically. The #1 challenge MSPs have with their Service Delivery operation is a poor intake process. The #2 challenge MSPs have is the lack of Standard Operating Procedures; this includes creating, documenting, training, and holding the Team accountable to follow them.  

  

The #3 challenge is having a Champion or Guide on the Side to: 

  1. Plan the Improvement Program 

  2. Set, Benchmark, Track, and Report the progress on a Success Criteria 

  3. Hold the Team accountable to stay focused, put in the work, and deliver on individual promises 

  

Advanced Global fulfills its mission: Helping MSPs to THRIVE 

Is accomplished by providing free resources, access to experts, and developing improvement programs with: 

  • Successful track record 

  • 160 hours per week dedicated to finding, documenting, and communicating the Best-in-Class procedures and configurations 

  • Offering Money-Back Guarantees 

  

The way this works in an Advanced Global world is we start focusing on the Standard Operating Procedures that every MSP needs and Collaborating with the MSP to make adjustments to their unique products, Clients, and Culture. We then provide recommended PSAutomation configurations to support the SOPs and provide Advanced Live Reports. Our Weekly and Monthly Advanced Live Reports allow managing tickets and empower the Team to be Self-Managed. Our Advanced Live Trend Reports direct the Service Manager on where performance needs coaching and mentoring. 

  

Summary: 

No need to go out in the Wasteland alone. Like Galaxy News Radio, we’re broadcasting the information you need to hear and we’re your companion on the entire journey. You’ve paid for Autotask, why shouldn’t your team be using it properly so they can enjoy better lives? 

  

(Before I spend my money, tell me…) Who is Advanced Global and How do they Know what they Know: 

  • A team of Autotask/Datto/Kaseya Certified PSA/RMM experts with 61 years of experience 

  • A team that has worked with 227 and counting MSPs from around the world, capturing the best ideas and rolling them into a “Best-in-Class” Standard Build 

  • Available as a Guide on the Side for 1/10 of the cost of going it alone with a proven Operational Improvement Programs and Money-Back guarantee results 

  

Advanced Global is here to help with these FREE offerings: 

  

Thanks for reading this. If you’re looking for some good tunes, try the Fallout soundtrack. 

Steve & Co 

Guest User
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10% Profit increase in 17 weeks or less: Part 4 - The Voyage Home 
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10% Profit Increase in 17 Weeks or Less Part 2: The Wrath of Chaos