Fixing MSP Short-Staffing: Conclusions
Over the years many MSPs have wrestled with how to fix their Short-Staffing level:
The techs tell us they’re overworked and we need more techs. But are they really overworked? And is hiring more techs the right answer?
The accountant says they’re underutilized, but are they? If time sheets are incomplete, how can you tell?
Where does efficiency come into the picture? If the tech worked smarter, not harder, would all the work get done with the existing Service Delivery staff?
These are tough questions – and hard one to answer, or you would have figured it out years ago. One reason you have not figured it out, is because of the time it takes. So, take just a few minutes, and follow our thought process…
There are three components that go into knowing the right decision:
1) Utilization (Supply/Inventory)
2) Workload (Demand/Sales)
3) Service Delivery Efficiency
Each of these three components merits a discussion on its own, which we’ve covered in the previous 3 parts of this topic. And as we’ve told you already, the Short-Staffing exercise takes a few hours to get through. So if you would like to walk through the process, please email us at info@AGMSPCoaching.com.
Summary:
Exciting news! Here at AGMSPC, we have spent the last month developing a new Short-Staffing Evaluation tool. We are now rolling it out to our community.
What’s been interesting to learn along the way are all the small things that have significant impacts. Things like:
Tickets Created not equaling Tickets Completed in times of ticket tidal waves or ticket backlog reduction efforts.
Impact on PTO, which in the United States is 2-5% and in Europe 11-15%.
Finding that the MSP is operating at maximum efficiency and still struggling to get the work done within expectations.
Building a baseline of Total Worked Hours per month and adding in all the unaccounted time drives deep conversations on how the Service Delivery Team is (or should be) processing requests.
When it comes to Resource Availability, what gives an owner a clear picture of what they’re seeing? Knowing what the Actual Availability is plus PTO, compared to:
Weekly Billable Hour Goal Targets
Industry Averages
Best-in-Class performances
Sure, their gut may be telling them - but data either verifies or disproves the suspicion that Colonel Mustard did the work in the Library with an Axe.
Knowing exactly if there’s an efficiency problem or not - and if there is - whether it is on the technician’s effort or noise per endpoint side, allows for many restful nights.
I once had a co-worker who said half of the problem solving a problem is developing a good question. So, we are now halfway home.
We have developed the Quadrangle Calculator. It’s the heart of the Short-Staffing Equation.
First and foremost, it asks these questions:
1) What is the true workload?
2) Based on our availability, how many techs do we need?
3) What if we improve the utilization?
4) What if we reduced the amount of technician effort needed?
5) What if we reduce the number of tickets per endpoint?
Asking each question is not helpful without benchmarks that provide the delta between performance and reasonable expectations. Benchmarks such as:
1) Resource utilization – 70% is the Industry Average
2) Technician effort – Average is less than 1 hour per request
3) Noise per endpoint – less than 1 request per 4 endpoints
Summary of Summaries:
With the aforementioned questions and reasonable expectation benchmark, we can go to work and evaluate if we need to:
1) Hire more techs
2) Improve resource utilization
3) Reduce average technician effort
4) Reduce the noise per endpoint
5) All the above
For access to the Short-Staffing Evaluation, please email us at Info@AGMSPCoaching.com.
