Today we will discuss the topic of standards and why they are important not only to your customers but to you. It is easy to assume that everything you do as an MSP is to benefit your customers, however, you must take care of yourself in order to take care of others.
Standards—and the alignment of those standards—play an important role in both your company business model and your customer’s IT environment. Not only do they keep your clients consistent across services and products, but help align your business model to do the same. Let us see how this comes together.
Standards show preparedness
Standards have multiple functions, primarily as a method of keeping your customers in line with technology and compliance. Another important purpose is they reveal how prepared you are to handle issues and concerns. Along with the TruMethods process of streamlining the Technology Alignment Manager (TAM), vCIO, and Centralized Services roles, standards persuade them you are prepared, well-organized, and have done your due diligence. Arriving at a technology steering meeting unprepared only sets you up for failure.
Keep you organized
Managing many customers in separate locations following various rules can get hectic. It is tough to create personalized support for each client, supporting them how they want to be supported, and having a completely different ruleset altogether. Standardizing your process will keep you organized and prevent reinventing the wheel every time you meet with your customers. Standardization grants you the flexibility to create a service and support baseline across your customers and plan around their individual needs.
Shows responsibility
Arriving at your TAM meeting with well-prepared and fully-researched solutions exemplifies superb responsibility; not only for the TAM but the MSP. The purpose of an MSP is to alleviate the burden of IT from businesses that neither have nor want to have in-house IT staff. Preparedness proves you are taking responsibility for your role and removes the doubt of being an effective Technology Solutions Provider.
Efficiency
There is no efficiency in reinventing the wheel from day-to-day. Efficiency provides positive advantages to your MSP and your customers.
- Produces less waste and generates more time to concentrate on issues that need attention.
- Less waste allows you to employ a lower number of highly-trained personnel rather than a high number of entry-level positions.
- Higher efficiency is passed along directly to your customers because they will not feel the repercussions of disorganization.
- Staying efficient conclusively increases your bottom line.
It may be difficult to find your starting point and find a flow that works best for your company and your customers. After a while, you will find your niche, discover Technology Success, and be successful.
