Category Archives: Manage Service

The Benefits an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP) Could Bring to Your Business

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Woman with beautiful smile holding a tablet and managed services concept in transparent bubble

Is it time to make a change?

No matter what industry your company works in, having an experienced team of IT technicians at your disposal is crucial in helping to ensure your team’s efficiency as well as in ensuring your company’s digital security. However, if you still have not outsourced these service, then you may be discovering that it is becoming costly, time-consuming, and stressful to maintain an in-house IT department. Thusly, if you have not considered doing so already, you should take a moment to seriously consider turning over your business’s IT needs to a managed service provider.

What is a Managed Service Provider?

At this point, you may be asking yourself what a managed service provider is, and how they could benefit your company. A managed service provider (or MSP) is a third party company that provides all or part of a company’s IT needs either on or off-site. An MSP is essentially a company that specializes in providing businesses with IT services, allowing them to free up resources within their company by outsourcing their IT department. Outsourcing IT to a managed service provider is growing increasingly popular amongst businesses due to the benefits they can provide. Here are just a few of the reasons you should consider transferring your company’s IT needs to an MSP.

Cut and Control IT Costs

As you have likely begun to discover for yourself, maintaining an in-house IT department can be extremely expensive. In fact, ballooning costs and costs that can fluctuate greatly from one month to the next are amongst the most common reasons why companies choose to outsource IT. By outsourcing your IT needs to an MSP you can control costs and help to make your monthly IT costs more predictable, as MSPs often charge a flat rate fee for their services. Additionally, outsourcing IT can save you money as you will not have to invest in hardware, software, or on hiring and training IT personnel. These costs will be spread out amongst the MSP’s clients helping to make IT costs more affordable for all parties involved.

Access to Highly Skilled Technicians

In order to ensure your company’s efficiency and security, it is critical that you have access to skilled IT technicians who are experienced in their field. However, many small to medium-sized businesses find it difficult and time-consuming to hire IT professionals. Alternatively, by partnering with a reputable MSP you will have access to a team of highly qualified and experienced personnel without having to do any of the headhunting yourself. MSP’s have the resources and experience to find the best people in the IT field who will be able to provide you with the highest quality of services.

Gain Access to the Latest Technology

For many smaller organizations, it is difficult to maintain their current IT department, meaning that they often are unable to keep up with the latest innovations in IT. However, as IT is their sole focus, MSPs work diligently to research and implement the latest IT technology, and they have the time and resources to train their staff on the latest techniques. By partnering with an MSP you stand to benefit from the latest technology without any of the risks and costs that can come from implementing this technology yourself.

Flexible and Scalable Services

When working with an MSP it is much easier to scale your services based on your current needs. This can be particularly beneficial for growing businesses, as you will not have to constantly work to expand your IT department to meet your growing needs. As the needs of your company evolve, your MSP will provide you with the flexibility to scale your services as needed without any headaches or hassle.

Outsourcing your IT needs to a managed service provider can provide your company with a variety of benefits. Contact us to learn more about these benefits as well as to learn about the services that we provide.

How Can Managed Service Provider (MSP) Help Your SMB?

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Corporate Manager Pushing MANAGED SERVICES

Do you have a team of engineers to tackle your next problem?

Many small businesses and medium-sized businesses have to make the decision to seek help from local specialists and experts to help them solve various problems on an impromptu basis. The lack of clarity with the “fix it when it breaks” model can be very damaging to a promising business. Furthermore, this type of model does not provide the necessary functions an up-and-coming business will need, including the following:

  • disaster recovery
  • IT management
  • network security
  • applications management

If your small business is currently operating under a model that lacks the necessary expertise and key functions, this will likely mean you are falling behind due to the push towards mobility, the use of cloud applications, and operating in a complex business industry.

Where Can Managed Services Help Your Business?

A Managed Service Provider will have the necessary tools and experience to solve any issues you may be having, and any issues that may arise in the future. A Managed Service Provider(MSP) will take care of the main responsibilities of your business and allow your employees to focus on other key business operations.

A Managed IT Service provider will also allow a small business or medium-sized business to perform better even with fewer resources. A Managed Service Provider(MSP) will regularly evaluate your business’s IT infrastructure and the current network. The MSP will also perform repair and maintenance activities remotely, and this will include upgrades and updates.

Not only will the right Managed Service Provider(MSP) partner provide you with the proper protection if something breaks or fails. With the assistance of the right MSP partner and expanded availability, your small or medium-sized business will less likely experience any interruptions or downtime. Your SMB can also avoid employing more in-house IT workers as your business grows because the right MSP will provide you with the workforce your growing business will need.

You may need managed service to manage some of your basic technical needs or you may want to outsource the entirety of your business technology and IT infrastructure. The majority of MSPs will have a pay-as-you-go plan, and this means you will be able to get the services you need without breaking the bank. You can choose a plan that will align with your business needs and requirements.

Productivity Increase

When you partner with a Managed Service Provider, you can expect your business processes and systems to be simplified. A managed service provider will take on issues that come to light because of technology. How can a Managed Service Provider(MSP) take on these issues? An MSP will be able to successfully fight these issues through the use of monitoring and experience. Even before issues come to light, an MSP will be able to uncover the problems, carefully plan for them, and prevent them from becoming worse through all the elements of a managed service plan.

Reduce Downtime

An MSP is able to do more than uncover issues and track them; it can also predict how big of a threat each event may be. When an MSP is able to predict how dangerous an event may be, this will allow them to use a strategy that will prevent it from occurring in the first place. This means your SMB will be able to continue running with no interruptions.

Someone On Your Side 24/7

How much would you like having instant access to IT professionals and experts on a 24/7 basis? An MSP will not only give your business access to IT professionals, but your business will also have access to the following:

  • virus protection
  • firewall protection
  • infrastructure management
  • internet monitoring
  • disaster recovery

An MSP will have everything you need when it comes to monitoring and managing your IT needs. An MSP will also address any problems you are having, keep your business data safe, and ensure your business operation is functioning as it should be.

Are you ready to have an IT plan that will be a perfect fit for your business? Please do not hesitate to contact us today for more information on Managed Service Providers(MSPs).

IT Monthly Management Reporting: Incident Tracking

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IT meting over monthly management reports - IT help desk

Communication on a help desk is key to providing quality service

Consistent and organized IT monthly management reports will give your organization or your business will help keep all of your strategies on track. We understand it may take some time, energy, and patience to get past some of the common management reporting issues that other businesses and organizations have faced. Once you have moved past the common issues, you will be able to improve your entire process and the monthly management reporting will be worth it.

Your IT monthly management reporting software will only be as good as the vendor or provider who will offer it. One of the questions that many people have about monthly management reports is what are the features of a well-built monthly management reporting system. You may already have a sound report format or you may just want to be sure that you have covered everything, we hope we can help provide you with the information you need.

Your IT help desk or service desk solution may already come with a set of reports, but sometimes these reports are not the most essential metrics for your team to track. You should focus on the metrics that will help you achieve the most critical aspects and objectives of your business.

Response Time

Incident response time is the number of hours, minutes, or days that have passed when the issue was reported and a resolution was actually found. A fast response time with moderate reopen rates will specify effective customer service.

Resolution Rate

The resolution rate consists of the percentage of problems that were resolved the first time they were brought up. First-time resolution rate will not consist of any repeated calls. When your organization has a high first-time resolution rate, this will generally correlate to outstanding customer service and outstanding customer satisfaction.

Where Are The Highest Incidents?

You will have an opportunity to determine what business departments have the highest need for products and services. Reviewing incidents per department will give you the best chance to identify any holes in your service and provide as an aid in assigning agents correctly.

Current Tickets

Another thing that you should be reported is the number of tickets that are currently active. When you are aware of the number of current tickets you have, you will not be caught off-guard and you will not be overwhelmed by the tickets. Keeping track of the active tickets will also prevent you from having unsatisfied customers because you will not let your tickets get backed up.

Revisiting Tickets

Do you keep track of the percentage of tickets that have to be reopened after the initial contact? If a ticket needs to be reopened after it was marked as resolved may provide you with the insight you need to improve your training. This can also result in a need to perform maintenance and/or repairs on your hardware.

No Resolution

If you have incidents that did not receive a resolution can mean that you have holes and gaps that need to be filled when it comes to your agents. There can also be holes and gaps when it comes to knowing how to properly manage the system.

When you are able to keep track of the number of tickets, incidents, and resolutions, you will be able to do the following:

  • identify tendencies
  • identify what areas have the highest ticket volume and the lowest ticket volume
  • schedule agents appropriately during the high-volume times

You want to ensure your end users and customers are happy and satisfied at the end of the day, and proper IT monthly management reports can provide you with the assistance you need to ensure this does happen. Contact us today for more information on IT management reporting.

Is It Time To Make Adjustments To Your IT Help Desk?

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IT help desk professionals in control room

Using a managed service company can help your internal IT resolve issues faster

For businesses, the IT help desk or service desk is an essential component. If your employees are constantly being slowed down due to problems with technology, productivity and efficiency will be slowed down as well. Businesses that have a good IT help desk on their side can keep everyone equipped to be efficient and productive. When everyone is productive and effective, this will result in less downtime.

At one point, having a “good” help desk was more than enough. However, things have changed significantly. Unfortunately, there are many businesses that are still operating a help desk that would have been better suited a few decades ago. One of the most common approaches to management today is measuring an IT help desk on customer satisfaction, the number of answered calls, and the number of resolved calls. Unfortunately, using this type of strategy or approach lacks foresight.

There are a few signs that will indicate your current IT help desk model is not headed in the right direction, including the following:

You Are Only Looking At It As Another Expense

When someone calls into your help desk and shares any type of information and feedback, this is giving you free and useful intel on how your help desk is operating. When you are able to discover this information and use it to provide feedback to the rest of the organization, you are tapping into the power of an IT help desk. Using this intel and using it to improve the IT help desk is also one of the best ways to reduce the call volume. If you are not doing any of these things, you are wasting an opportunity to use one of the biggest resources you have in your workplace. Your IT Help Desk can provide you with feedback from real users.

You Have No Solution For The Mobility Problems

In many workplaces, employees are given the freedom to commute and work remotely due to the power of mobile devices. Mobility is a growing trend in the business world, and sometimes employees will need assistance when they have mobility issues. If you have not dedicated any of your technology to solving mobility issues, now will be a great time to do so. Not every IT expert will be specialized in remote devices, mobile applications, mobile headsets, etc. This is where you will need the assistance of mobility experts who have the skills to solve mobility problems. If you are not currently equipped with an IT Help Desk that can solve mobility issues, it is not too late to get one. If you cannot maintain those skills and specialties in your workplace, you can consider outsourcing your mobility help desk.

The Calls Are Not Being Managed Properly

We know that you are logging your phone calls and categorizing them, but what else are you doing? If you are not doing more, you are not doing enough. Some calls that come into your help desk will contain vital information about technical problems, downtime, outages, etc. Taking the time to assess this information and prioritize it will allow you to provide feedback to others. You will want to do more than provide the basic information that is on the call log.

If your IT environment is currently struggling, there are ways of getting it back on track. You will not have to become experts overnight and you will not have to go above and beyond to completely modernize your IT environment. You can make some improvements to your current environment to modernize your processes, and you will be able to accomplish more than you think.

If your organization is experiencing any of the above signs, it is important that your management team embrace the fact that changes need to be made. Are you ready to rethink and re-imagine your IT help desk? Please do not hesitate to contact us today for more information.