Service Management for MSPs
If your Service Manager is not taking ownership of these three things –fire them, or at least get them some guidance on their Role and Responsibilities.
A Service Manager is responsible for:
Holding the Service Coordinator accountable for doing their job as expected
Holding the Techs accountable for doing their job as expected
Holding the Team accountable to meet profitability expectations
a. Resource Utilization above 80%
b. SLA Performance above:
i. Triage - 97%
ii. Tech Engagement - 95%
iii. Completion - 90%
c. Reactive Hours per Endpoint per Month to less than 1 hour of work for every 4 Endpoints
WOW, that is a tall order, and if a Service Manager did step up and take responsibility for these three things, my goodness, the Service Delivery would:
Meet expectations
Maximize profitability
Provide a Zen work-environment
EXACTLY our point
Over the next few weeks/months, we will dive into what a Service Managers Role and Responsibilities are, painting a vision for the future that is obtainable.
Schedule an intro call with Chris here if you want a shortcut to the end of the series..
MSP Service Delivery Management Structure:
Before we take a deep dive on the Role and Responsibilities of the Service Manager, we should outline the other Service Delivery Management roles at an MSP and clarify who is responsible for what.
Each of the 4-5 Service Delivery management roles essential to every MSP needs to have clearly defined responsibilities with equally defined expectations that can be measured and monitored.
The non-Service Manager roles are:
Service Coordinator
Operations Manager
Owner
Project Manager (optional)
Service Coordinator:
A Service Coordinator’s core responsibility is to manage all open tickets and shepherd them from New to Complete. Therefore, they need to always know how many open tickets there are, the workload across all Technicians / Engineers, where the Techs are and what they are working on, and most importantly - which tickets need intervention to meet Customers’ expectations.
If a Service Coordinator can pull this off, they will naturally become the hub of the company and the Customers’ go-to person. They will also build trust in the Service Delivery Team so everyone else can do their job. We see too much time being spent by Techs, Service Managers, Operation Managers, Project Managers, and Owners focusing on open tickets rather than their under-defined jobs.
Operations Manager:
An Operations Manager’s responsibilities are the processes. For Example:
Client Request intake process
Tech engagement/disengagement process
Client Facing Communications Protocol process
Note: While an Ops Mgr. is responsible for developing or optimizing processes, and a Service Mgr. is responsible for performance in following the processes; many times, in the world of MSP, the same person is wearing both hats. However, it is critical they know which role they are in at any given moment.
Operations management is an area of management concerned with designing and controlling the process of production and redesigning business operations.
-Source: Wikipedia
“Eighty-five percent of the reasons for failure are deficiencies in the systems and process rather than the employee. The role of management is to change the process rather than badgering individuals to do better.” https://www.azquotes.com/author/3858-W_Edwards_Deming
Owner:
The Owner’s responsibility is to leave Service Delivery Issues for the Service Manager to handle.
According to the Visionary Academy, an Owner still wears many hats.
Visionary for the Company
Sets overall trajectory
Plays with ideas
Solves big problems
Manages External Relationships
Leadership within the Company
Defines the Business Plan
Sets Budgets & Policies
Outlines Business Priorities
Hires and Leads Managers
But the most important responsibility to focus on is…growing the Business and guiding it through the growth phases. This sometimes means sales; other times, it means growing the Leadership Team so they can focus on Sales, Administration, and Operations.
Or, to put it more simply: “Go Sell Something!”
Project Manager: (optional)
The most important Project Manager responsibility is to keep the Customer updated on every facet of the project - especially when the project will start and end and when there will be disruptions to production. At the end of the project, the MSP's Project Manager is responsible for closing the project, including facilitating the handoff between the project and support teams.
The MSPs Project Manager is responsible for ensuring all the information needed to deliver a project On-Time and On-Budget is available and gathered. They are also responsible for taking ownership of the project so the salesperson can be released to go out and sell something.
I fundamentally believe that Project Managers in the MSP universe are more like Project Coordinators than managers. The reason I say this is that according to the project management Institute (PMI), project managers in the MSPs world do not have total control over the project; the lead techs do.
Service Manager Role and Responsibility Overview:
Over the next few weeks, we are going to take a deep dive into the Role and Responsibilities of the Service Manager. For now suffice it to say: the Service Manager is responsible for the performance of Service Coordinators, and Techs in following the Standard Operating Procedure processes that have been established by the Owner, Ops Manager, or by themselves.
Before we jump into the deep end, let’s talk about the two things that hamstring a Service Manager.
Data and Accountability
Data and Accountability are the two things that Shackle a Service Manager and keep them from doing their job effectively.
Bright Gauge released a blog article calling for 70 KPIs every MSP needs to track. Datto put out their 10 KPIs every MSP should be following.
The problem is that neither told us where the data comes from - or how to configure the software to produce the data in the first place.
And for a Service Manager, a KPI is only any if applied to the Service Delivery Team’s performance.
Think about it: knowing that a properly configured SLA reveals the Service Delivery Team is only meeting the Contractual obligations 63% of the time does not in itself improve the Customer’s Experience.
Even worse is when a non-contract SLA reveals non-Contract Customers are receiving better service than the Managed Service Customers, and nothing changes.
So, what good is the KPI?
Accountability is Key at the MSP
This is where the second Shackle comes in, Accountability. It takes the Owner holding the Service Manager accountable to improve the KPIs within an acceptable range.
And that range is not SLAs below 63%, Resource Utilization around 50%, Mean Time to Resolve at 9+ days, or a Reactive Hours per Endpoint above .35.
These numbers are not made up, but they are the typical numbers we see when first doing a PSA Configuration Evaluation for your average Managed Service Provider.
The Service Manager must hold the Service Coordinator accountable for three key things:
Managing all open tickets
Knowing where all the Techs are & what they are actively working on
Which tickets need intervention
It also requires the Service Manager to hold the Techs accountable. This is where the major breakdown occurs.
Why?
Techs are the billable resources that generate revenue or support the MSP’s economic engine MRR.
Most Service Managers do not enjoy confrontation. Besides, they used to be Techs, so they get it. They know when the Team is underperforming…they just do not know what to do about it.
So, there you have it, Data and Accountability.
Now we need to know: what is the ideal solution?
For Service Managers, it is leveraging the Autotask PSA software and mining the data for information.
Now on the surface, you would think this is one and the same, but they are not. As Andy Kennedy from Congition360 says, “No PSA comes pre-configured.” This means in order to get the data, you need to configure the tool to provide it.
The process of configuring the Autotask PSA software for use takes anywhere from 24 business hours to 6 months.
Why such a broad delta?
It is like the sign in an automobile repair shop:
$50 USD per hour if you leave the car
$125 USD per hour if you watch
$250 USD if you help
Except in this case, you want to pay the $250 USD per hour because it is more important that you know how and why the PSA software is configured the way it is than just to get’r done (which is in our nature and how we respond to Customers’ requests).
In other words, the changes only take 24 hours to make, but for the Techs to know what is expected, for the Service Coordinators to do their job, and for the Service Manager to know how the Team is performing, it takes time.
Couple this with the fact that each MSP operates differently and has a different philosophy of how to deliver the best Service to the Customer. It is not good business to say, “just do it our way,” as one CEO of a PSA software company said to his IT Nation.
Once an MSP has gone through the pain of change and invested in improving the Tools the Company runs on, mining the data does not come easily.
On one hand, there are the canned reports written by a software company that takes great pride in their software but is clueless as to how an MSP operates beyond a few case studies. You could export copies of the database once or twice a day and use an SQL report writer to mine the data, but this sounds expensive both in setting up, continued access to the data…and that SQL programmer’s salary.
Thank goodness Autotask gives us an in-between Live Report writer, which
provides an Autotask System Administrator access to most of the data without knowing SQL writing.
The Live Report designer software has guard rails, protecting the Live Report writer from writing reports between database tables with no natural linkage. In other words, avoiding the frustration of seeing “No Data” and not knowing why.
Great, we take six months to post-configure the Autotask Software, and at the same time we take six months to learn how to write Live Reports (or contract with someone who knows how to write reports), but what reports do we need?
For a Service Manager to be empowered with the knowledge they need to manage the Service Delivery Team and hold them Accountable, here is the list of KPI performance reports they need. The list comes in three groups:
The Necessary KPI Performance Reports
Note: while the names are familiar, these are Trend reports looking at the trend month over month for the last six months.
Service Coordinator Performance:
Service Coordinator Dashboards #1, 2, & 3
Advanced Workflow Distribution Report (PDR)
Advanced Service Delivery Forecast (SDF)
Client Requests requiring scheduling without service calls (WvsC)
Scheduled Tickets without a future service call (Sch w/o SC)
Backlog List of Tickets (BLT)
Tech Performance:
Tech Balanced Scorecard (TBSC)
Real-Time Entry Report (RTTE)
Reopen Rate Report (RRR)
Escalation Rate Report (ERR)
First Call Resolution (FCR)
Labor Profitability Performance:
Advanced Resource Utilization Weekly Report (ARU)
Service Level Agreement Performance Report (SLA)
SLA Detail Report
Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR)
MTTR Detail Report
Reactive Hours per Endpoint per Month (RHEM)
Labor Profitability Report (LPR)
With this information in hand and training on how to apply the information to the Service Delivery Operation, the Service Manager can now meet the Owner’s expectations.
The beauty of having this data is that holding the Team accountable is now much easier. Rather than me against you, the conversation is the “Survey Says,” now let me help you to improve the data.
I hear you asking, what is the benefit of making all these improvements?
Here are some numbers for you: For a 6 Tech shop, with 120 Customers of which 80 are Managed Service Customers, and 1.5 ARR, the bottom-line number is $386,400 USD per Year without hiring a Tech or adding another Customer.
How do we know? Because we have 41+ years of MSP Service Delivery Coordinator/Manager experience on staff and 22+ years of Autotask System Administration experience. This is another way of saying we have been there and done that, and we know how to leverage the Autotask software to Resolve Service Delivery Issues.
So, do you feel like we have left you hanging? We have, and we know it. Hang in there as we take some time (weeks/months) to go into detail bullet point by bullet point.
If you want a shortcut to the end of the series, schedule an intro call with Chris here.
The elephant in the room:
How do we know what we know? Because we are not philosophers! We are hands-on “How To” coaches that everyday guide MSPs on how to thrive by:
1) Fully leveraging the Autotask software
2) Providing the “Best in Class” Standard Operating Procedures
3) Leveraging Autotask Live Reports to hold everyone accountable
We are Thinkers and Doers with 49+ years of working for MSPs, bringing real Bottom-Line Improvements, change, profitability, and Best in Class performance.
Here are a few bullet points to let anyone interested know who we are and what we do:
1) We Are – the Autotask Global Service Delivery Authority
2) We Help – MSPs thrive
3) We Solve – Service Delivery issues, inefficiencies, and challenges by making sure that:
a. MSPs know what they don’t know
b. Techs know what to work on next
c. Someone is managing all open tickets and driving them to completion
d. The Client has a great client experience
e. Real-Time Time Entry is a cultural habit
f. Projects are completed On-Time and On-Budget
g. Profit is maximized
h. Autotask is being fully leveraged
i. The staffing levels are correct, and the workload is balanced
j. The historical data that is in the Autotask software is accessible to benchmark, track & USE effectively
k. The Service Delivery operations can scale
l. The Company can grow
4) Our Tools:
a. Autotask “Best in Class” standard build
b. Our MSP robust Service Delivery SOP library
c. Advanced Live Reports
d. Expertise in providing a transformational experience
Note: We are not philosophers; we are doers with 49+ years of Service Delivery experience, bringing real Service Delivery Improvement change, profitability, and Best in Class performance.
We start by offering a FREE No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation.
