Yield Better Business Results with NENS Managed IT Services & Care

Unless you have a massive budget and team for IT, your organization is probably looking towards managed IT service options and asking the pivotal question: Are managed IT services a commodity, or a value add?

While most organizations originally look to managed IT services for cost-cutting purposes, managed IT services offer a lot more than just decreased IT spend, and can help create a whole new value add to the technological side of your business.

Managing an IT World

In the digital age, not having an IT presence is pretty much impossible. Whether it be strictly for IT maintenance of personal computers, setting up and running networks, or implementing new and improved technologies to increase customer engagement and revenue, having access to proper IT management isn’t just a good-to-have aspect of business, it’s critical.

Large corporations work in the digital age by hiring massive amounts of people to run their IT departments, and can do it all in house. Smaller organizations, however, have had to become a little craftier with their IT budgets, leading to increased use of managed IT services for day-to-day operations and digital transformation.

More Time To Do What’s Important

For most organizations without the budget to house a massive in-house IT team, managed IT services are the way to go. Traditionally, these services have been seen as the best cost-effective way to ensure IT management, but as the digital age progresses, it’s becoming apparent they can offer a lot more value than simply keeping your network afloat.

When you choose to work with a managed IT services provider, you’re getting more of what’s most valuable to you – your time. You’re essentially handing over your IT responsibilities to a team of experts who focus solely in that field which allows a busy C-level executive a bit of break when it comes to managing their team – because it means they have one less aspect of the company to worry about. For smaller companies, handing over IT to managed service providers gives their executives more crucial time to be working on the most important problems facing their business – those affecting revenue and the future of the company.

Innovation Has No Speed Limit

Value add for managed IT services doesn’t stop simply at more time for overworked executives, but also in the technology at play. If you work with a managed IT provider, your choices aren’t limited – which means to keep your business, a good managed IT provider is going to keep their technology and strategies top-notch to fend off competitors.

If you decide to run all IT in-house, any updates needed to keep up with your competition in the IT spectrum will be coming from your budget and bottom line – and in the digital age, those updates are numerous as technology continues to grow. When working with a managed IT service provider, their system updates and upgrades to keep them competitive will not be tied to your revenue, meaning you won’t need to spend nearly as much to ensure your business is operating at the technical proficiency of your competitors.

In human history, innovation has never had a speed limit – but that rate of innovation has started going even faster as our technological growth has skyrocketed. Falling behind can mean complete failure depending on your market.

Getting Started

Whether you’re looking to add value to your company or simply save money by considering managed IT services, finding the right fit for your organization is important. Working with a trusted and local managed IT service provider helps guarantee your organization’s IT needs are in in the right hands – for the problems facing today, and whatever the digital transformation of tomorrow may bring with it.

The IT help desk may seem a world away from the executive spotlight, but that doesn’t mean management should be oblivious to it’s effectiveness – namely in the 5 key help desk metrics executives should know about.

Money wasted on inefficient processes is money that can be recouped by effective management, and when it comes to IT help desk it’s all about processes. Understanding how your organization takes care of IT issues is the first step in making sure those processes are as effective as they can be both financially and technologically.

1. Satisfaction – Are the customer’s of your IT help desks leaving happy? If not, they should be. In the era of “the customer is always right,” this is a key element for executives to know pertaining to their help desk processes. Unhappy customers could be due to a flaw in the system – and likely means they won’t stay customers long.

1. Volume – An executive can’t ensure an effective process if they have no idea how much it handles, and IT help desk are no different. Understanding the IT ticket volume, or how many requests come through over a given time, is one of the first steps in understanding the entire help desk process. Proper metrics should be able to show how this number fluctuates given different variables, such as hours worked per project, time of year or project type, that will help narrow down improvement possibilities later on down the line.

1. Ticket Response Time – The time it takes to complete a ticket, or ticket response time, directly coincides with efficiency and customer satisfaction, which means it’s one of the metrics executives should keep their eyes on. Lower ticket response times means quicker outcomes for customers and clients, which leads to happier clients overall. It’ll also free up more time for your employees to be working on other projects. If your customer satisfaction is low, and your ticket response times could be improved, this may be one of the first variables to work on for improvement.

1. Channel – How does your team receive the brunt of their IT tickets? With organization’s using new methods of customer outreach such as social media or web chats, IT help desk support can receive help tickets in numerous ways. Knowing which channel is the most – and the least – effective is important in prioritizing changes to improve IT help desk efficiency.

1. Ticket Classification – Perhaps the most important help desk metrics executives should know is specific types of the problems at hand. Finding trends in popular or upcoming problem areas can provide insight for a savvy manager to move ahead of the curve, leading to improved response times, increased customer satisfaction, and elevated brand loyalty from your customers.

In today’s tech savvy world, metrics are the new gold standard for improvement. Tracking these metrics, either within your own team or with the help of an IT partner, can help improve operational efficiency and increase customer appreciation, which is what’s going to continue to drive sales later on down the line.