How to Improve IT Service Delivery Process

Your IT Managed Service Provider operation wants real results, right? You got ‘em!   Optimizing IT Service Delivery can net some big benefits, including: 

• SLAs >95% 

• $250K per Tech in Revenue 

• 85% Managed Service Profit Margin 

• <12 Hours Average Incident Time to Completion

Over the last few months, our articles have focused on the fundamentals of PSA utilization and how PSA configurations can improve IT Service Delivery. Our next series will combine the fundamental elements into various workflows and processes.  

Upcoming topics you don’t want to miss:  

• Customer request workflows - from cradle to grave  

• Customer facing communication flows 

• Agreement>Support>Billing workflows 

• Leveraging your data to drive continuous improvement  

(go figure – a Resource Planning Analyst wanting to talk about data) Here’s a sneak peek at each of these topics… 

Customer Request Workflows: Cradle to Grave 

Discussion on how to funnel all the sources of a Customer’s request to a single Triage point, and then parse them out into various workflows (Incidents, Service Requests, Projects, Routine Maintenance).  From there, we’ll give a brief overview of the journey the Customer’s request takes to completion in each workflow. 

Customer Facing Communication Flows 

Here, we’ll focus less on the value of Good Customer Communications and how it reduces CHURN, and more about the ins and outs of leveraging the PSA tool to automate the process.  Automation isn’t focused exclusively on saving time and energy (even though those are great bonuses)**. It also emphasizes consistency and delivering a great customer experience. With a strong Customer Communications plan, automation can help you easily reach both goals. ** One MSP is reducing non-billable time by 2/3’s by automating the Customer Validation, Pending Close and Completed Ticket processes, which we will discuss in detail. 

 Agreement, Support, and Billing Workflows 

Ok, I’ll be straight with you here: this article may not have any raving fans (unlike our other posts on Afterhours On-Call, and Managing Millennials).   That said, if your IT MSP wants to stand out from the competition, this is one article that you do not want to miss. Why?  One of the most overlooked aspects of IT Service Delivery is tying the knowledge and actions of the Support team into what was sold, promised, and expected under a Managed Service Agreement in the first place.  This article isn’t about why you should care, but instead takes you on a journey through the workflow to explain how all the individual pieces impact the flow. 

Leveraging Data for Continuous Improvement  

This is your chance to get into the head of a Resource Planning Analyst (Me!). Yep, that’s right… I’m sharing my best learned and most unique knowledge. Over the years, one MSP has enjoyed record profit thanks to the work of my hands.  Want to know how we did it? Here, I’ll give you the details on the most impactful reports that drove those profits: 

• Net Admin mapping, so project availability is maximized 

• Forecasting the volume of Customer’s requests, so we could pre-position Resources before the Customer calls 

• Project Portfolio Management, so we could manage and adjust project scheduling quickly to take advantage of new opportunities 

• Forecasting Project Availability, which provided Sales with a tool to close opportunities 

• Resource Utilization Automation System, which allowed us to increase profit by more than $30K per year per Tech, with 45 minutes of work each week 

• Tracking the Cost of Supporting Managed Services, we are doing good running at two Technicians per 1000 endpoints 

• Average Incident Time to Completion, this is the latest report and shows we are not doing well (4X national average), and the next Service Delivery improvement area so as to increase our competitiveness 

Here’s Your Go-To Reference of Our Previous PSA Articles 

Don’t get left behind! Over time, we’ve dug deep into the Fundamental PSA elements. Whether you missed an article or two, or just need a quick, easy reference, this guide will help:   

• GSM Live Expert article: Modeling the IT Service Delivery after the Medical Industry 

• Prioritizing the Priority of Priorities for the IT Service Manager  

• Working as Designed, IT Service Requests are a Dilemma  

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

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

• An IT Managed Service Provider’s Guide to Scheduling Objectives and SLA’s 

• IT Service Support Issue with Issues and Sub-Issues? 

• Workflow Rules: The Hemi of the IT Managed Service Provider’s PSA Tool 

• IT Project to Support Handoff – A Key Step in IT Service Delivery 

• Widgets or Reports: Which to Use?

We’re so excited to roll out our upcoming series over the next several weeks! We’ll show you how to leverage key fundamentals into comprehensive workflows to achieve noticeable IT Service Delivery improvements at your Managed Service Provider business. Stay tuned & subscribe so you don’t miss out on all the info this new series is guaranteed to bring!   

Hey! Want to know how you’re currently doing in leveraging the PSA tool, and/or optimizing IT Service Delivery? Take the quick and easy Free PSA Self-Evaluation checklist.