2023: The Year of the Rabbit - Get Hopping, so the Techs Know What to Work on Next
What we’ll cover today:
2023, the Year of the Rabbit
Resource Utilization is <50% for >90%
Why are Techs underperforming?
The ROI in fixing the Techs’ problem
Prioritize, prioritize, prioritize!
Organizing the Techs’ Day
The next step is EASY…
Many of us recently watched the ball drop in New York welcoming us to the new year. (HAPPY NEW YEAR!)
And, in just a few weeks, the Chinese calendar will welcome in the New Year. This will be the “Year of the Rabbit.” If you know anything about rabbits, you know they are very…energetic. Maybe your Team runs like a rabbit now, but it’s probably burning lots of energy compared to the work that actually gets done.
When I was at DattoCon in D.C. recently, I paid great attention to what Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola had to say. He made an interesting comment: “Techs are being utilized less than 50% of the time.” YIKES, 50%!!!!!! Just think of all that lost money - and productivity - right down the drain.
We can validate what Fred V. sees in the Autotask data for MSPs, as we have seen the same data via our Free No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation. Over the last 5 years, we have repeatedly observed that Resource Utilization has been below 50% for 90+% of the MSPs we evaluated.
Based on all that Client experience, we can also tell you what the solution is and show you the typical results our Clients enjoy with Advanced Global’s programs:
But, as they say in the 3 am infomercials, "don’t take our word for it.” Here is what other past Clients are saying about the Advanced Global programs:
"THANK YOU for the help on this. You don’t know how much time I have spent trying to get this to work. Finally, with your ingenious help, it WORKS!" Karen Brewster, Accounting Manager, MasterIT
“I like your nitty-gritty Service Delivery depth of knowledge and your willingness to share” Paul Arthur, Total Care Computer Consulting
Click here to watch Evologic Video Testimony Tyrone Tee, Evologic
Back to the utilization problem. I will be the first to say that the Techs are not the problem. Techs’ hearts are in the right place. They want to help the Clients and meet all expectations. So, if the Techs want to deliver superior service to the Clients, then what is the problem?
To paraphrase W. Edwards Deming’s “85% Rule” - 85% of Employees’ underperformance is the fault of poor processes. To this, I would add:
The lack of fully utilizing the Autotask software
Not having Advanced Live Reports to guide the Techs on where they need to improve and for Management to hold them accountable.
Fred V. believes the problem is that the tool switching that Techs do is slowing them down. I am not so sure of this, as this should be billable work, but it does make sense for someone from Kaseya to say it is the problem. And also understandable since they don’t work in the software like we do, making integration the only way they can address the problem.
Are you thinking this sounds like a lot of work to fix, and it’s only a few hours a week per Tech? You might be a bit shocked at what not addressing this issue costs an MSP in wasted available billable hours:
If 80% is a reasonable Resource Utilization number (and it is), and the Techs are working less than 50% of the time as billable resources, then the difference is 30% or 12 hours per week, 52 hours per month, 624 wasted billable hours per year. Hours that could have been used to support new Managed Service Clients or additional project work.
If the Standard Role Rate for the billable hours is $150 USD, that equals an additional $93,600 USD PER TECH per year in additional revenue without increasing expense – meaning pure profit.
So, what is the Return On Investment (ROI) in fixing the “Techs not knowing what to work on next“ problem? It depends on the # of Techs:
One Tech shops – 2.6X the investment
Note: Special payment plans, and a slower phase approach is available
Two Tech shops – 5.3X the investment
Three Tech shops – 8X the investment
Four Techs or more - a no brainer
Now we know what the cost is of not doing something. We know the return on the investment is for doing something. So next, let’s talk about what that “something” is.
The first phase of fixing the problem, which provides the first 10% improvement and gets you on the road to fixing the rest of the problem (optimizing the Service Delivery operation), consists of 3 significant mindset changes:
Categorizing Client Requests
Prioritizing the worklist of tickets
Organizing the Techs’ day
Categorizing Client Requests
“How many different types of Client Requests are processed through unique workflows at your MSP?” I asked this question to someone who walked up to our booth at a recent conference.
“Many. Oh, I am not sure; they are all over the place,” was the response. “CHAOS, total CHAOS,” I thought. “There are at least 11 distinct workflows every MSP needs to manage, and maybe a few more if you are using tickets for Sales, Procurement, or other internal work,” was my verbal response.
Today they are a Client and well on their way to driving the Chaos out of their Service Delivery Operation.
By clarifying what workflow each Client request is in, an MSP now has a repeatable process that can be defined, educated, and streamlined to not only drive the Chaos out of the operation, but also drive continuous improvement until fully optimized.
Prioritizing the worklist of tickets
If the only type of Client requests we received were Incidents, then ITIL’s Urgency and Impact Matrix (which is where Autotask gets the list of four priorities from) would work just fine for MSPs.
It’s not that simple. Our Clients can tell you there is way more than a single Urgency and Impact dimension that goes into the “What should the Tech work on next” priority decision:
There is the relationship with the Client – Managed or non-Managed.
Even if they are Managed, there is what level of service they have purchased – Bronze, Silver, Gold, or Platinum.
Then there is where in the journey from New to Complete the ticket is (Triage? Tech engaged? Waiting? Resolved?).
And, of course, the big one, how do you mix Incidents with Service Requests in the worklist - and get them to play nicely together?
Needless to say, we need a better way to prioritize the Techs’ worklist than just four priorities. This is where SLA Automation serves us well. Not just for Clients with an Agreement that spells out response time but for all non-project tickets that are open and calling for attention. Leveraging the SLA Automation will prioritize what needs to be worked on next, considering all dimensions listed above.
Organizing the Techs day
Great, now we have an intake process that categorizes every Client request into a workflow and a multi-dimensional priority worklist.
But how does the Tech see it to know what to work on next? You might say, “Easy, sort their worklist by Next SLA Event Due Date” - and that would be great if all tickets were ready for the Tech to engage on. But that is not the world our Clients live in…
New Tickets that have not been Triaged (this is critical for small shops without a Service Coordinator or a mature MSP using the Hybrid Intake process What Chick-fil-A has to do with your MSPs Intake Process
Tickets scheduled for a specific day and time
Those pesky Waiting Tickets that just seem to get in the way – you know the ones that are destined to see their 1st birthday Tired of playing the waiting game with Clients? Try this.
What about being totally aware of everything they are responsible for?
Yes, I love my queue view, just like most Techs. When Autotask introduced the dashboards back in 2014, I was not an early adopter. As a matter of fact, it took until September 2016 before I tried using a widget.
I dislike quoting Autotask, but to solve the Techs’ knowing what to work on next, “there is a widget for that.” And to be totally aware of all they are responsible for, it takes a dashboard filled with 5 to 15 widgets.
The main 5 are:
Triage
Ready to Engage
Scheduled
Waiting
All Open Tickets
As a shop grows and matures, things can be added, like PTO, Team Hours Worked This Week, etc.
If this sounds both exciting and confusing, the next step is EASY. Advanced Global offers a FREE NO-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation that will provide you with a roadmap that will allow you to harness the energy of your rabbits and multiply your profits in 2023, the Year of the Rabbit. Then you will be ready to ROAR in the Year of the Dragon (2024). For more information, please email Advanced Global at Info@AGMSPCoaching.com.
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.
Steve & Co