Are you really doing everything in the scope of your position for your MSP’s customer? In the TAM and vCIO roles in particular, doing every facet of the role is incredibly important for the TruMethods model to work as well as it can. Luckily, what each of these roles do can easily fit on one graphic representation.
Let’s take a look at the TAM slide (which used to be called the Network Administration role). The top blue box describes the impact the role should have on the client, the business, and the impact the role has on the person fulfilling it. The Technology Alignmeny Manager fosters the value of the alignment process, brings down RHEM, and they themselves learn both technical and business communication skills over time. Is this something you’re always doing? Are you letting your clients direct you to reactive work while doing your TAM visit? Are you always learning more about your client’s business and the tech world? Are you always focused on bringing down RHEM?
The green box is the essence of the TAM role; how what they do ties to the core of what Technology Success really is. This is also the spirit of the role. Do you love standards and alignment? Do you tell your clients about how important standards and alignment are? And while it may seem like you are only there to gather information, you really are the front line in starting and maintaining a technical relationship with your clients. Do you talk to them like this is part of your job?
Finally, the yellow boxes below discuss the metrics (left) and processes (right) involved with this role. Are you hitting your numerical goals? Do you have all of your visits scheduled out for the next year? What does your documentation look like? Have you been working with the standards committee to make sure we are checking standards on a good cadence?
The TAM role is only one of the main pieces of the Technology Success Process. The vCIO role is incredibly important to Technology Success and how (and if) your client values an MSP’s services the way they should. How are you doing with the vCIO role? Let’s take a look at the slide:
The vCIO has a huge impact on the business and the clients you work with. They are the main inflection point of the Strategic Business relationship that every MSP should have with each of their clients. Is this what is actually happening? Are you doing VCO things (Virtual Captain Obvious) instead of vCIO?
The Essence of the vCIO role is to really develop that business value-added relationship. How does your client see you? Do you get a seat at the table with their landscapers and building cleaner, or a seat at the table with their accountant and their lawyer? Are they saying ‘yes’ to most of your recommendations? Do clients see the connection between the technical data the TAM has collected and your recommendations?
Finally, there is a strong cadence needed for an effective vCIO. How many clients are being managed? While there should not be a hard and fast number for a vCIO to meet, how much NRR is being generated? Is every client having a Strategic meeting when they need to, or are other things getting in the way? Are scheduled meetings being kept and attended?
While there are a lot of facets to being a successful MSP, we find that a focus on Technology Success (the TAM and vCIO roles, to not put too fine a point on it) leads to success for all of our TruMethods members. Once noise is controlled and the client has a business relationship with your company, everything else seems easier. As customers continue to evaluate their vendor relationships and rely more heavily than ever on their technology needs, it is critically important to evaluate these roles on a regular basis to ensure sustained success.
