Managing Techs - A Service Manager’s 3rd Responsibility
Welcome to Week 4 of our series on the responsibilities of the Service Manager. Here’s what we’ll cover in this article:
A Quick Series Recap that Won’t Bore You (really!)
Resource Utilization Fast Facts
Get Ready to Leverage the Power of Autotask
Benchmark: What’s Your Resource Utilization #?
Track: Use the Advanced Autotask Resource Utilization Report
Focus: Make More $ Through Resource Utilization
Resource Utilization Summary
Pop quiz: What’s the #2 most important job of the Service Manager?
Answer: Managing the Service Coordinator.
Guess the #1 most important job of the Service Manager?
You are correct if you said driving profits.
If you’ve been following this popular article series, you’ll recall what we covered in Weeks 2 and 3. In case you’re interested, we also mentioned what happens when you run out of Service Delivery arrows and have to use a chicken. For the answer to that, you’ll need to go back and read it for yourself.
Here’s a little background on why we kicked off this series by focusing on the Service Coordinator: Back in 2019 when Carol and I started rolling out the Autotask Service Delivery Foundational Improvement program, we were surprised to see that the majority of the Service Delivery issues went away organically just by focusing on improving the intake process – the Service Coordinator’s #1 responsibility.
When we talk about the most important thing for a Service Manager to do, it is managing the Service Coordinator. The Tech’s hearts are in the right place – most want to:
Meet the Client’s expectations
Perform a high-quality job
Make money for the Company (which means job security and bonuses)
So, if the Tech’s hearts are in the right place, and the Service Coordinator is doing their job…what is left for the Service Manager to do? Well, as we all know, hearts in the right place, does not mean their heads are in the right place.
Thankfully, you can leverage the power of the Autotask software – specifically, Advanced Live Reports - to make the process of getting a Tech’s head in the right place a positive, collaborative coaching/mentoring experience for the Service Manager.
Before we jump in, here’s a quick recap of the purpose of this series:
Your Service Manager should be taking ownership of these three things. If they are not, you need to fire them (or at least get them some guidance on their Role and Responsibilities).
A Service Manager is responsible for:
1) Holding the Service Coordinator accountable for doing their job as expected
2) Holding the Techs accountable for doing their job as expected
3) Holding the Team accountable to meet profitability expectations
a. Resource Utilization above 80%
b. SLA Performance above
i. Triage – 97%
ii. Tech Engagement – 95%
iii. Completion – 90%
c. Reactive Hours per Endpoint per Month to less than 1 hour of work for every 4 Endpoints
“WOW,” I imagine you are saying, “That’s a tall order.”
Yes, it is. But – if a Service Manager did step up and take responsibility for these three things, my goodness, the Service Delivery would:
1) Meet expectations
2) Maximize profitability
3) Provide a Zen work-environment
Helping you get there is EXACTLY why these articles (and Advanced Global MSP Coaching) exist!
Now on to the core Tech performance Advanced Live Reports:
There are two Advanced Live Reports that go to the core of a Tech performance, and 6 that support either leading or lagging profitability KPIs.
The two core Tech Performance reports to know about are:
1) Advanced Resource Utilization
2) Advanced Real-Time Time Entry
The leading indicators of Tech performance are:
1) Advanced SLA Performance
2) Advanced Estimated vs Actual time per Tech
3) Escalation Rate
4) Reopen Rate
5) First Contact Resolution (notice we did not say First Call Resolution – which is a huge difference)
The lagging indicator of Tech Performance is:
1) Client Survey Score per Tech
Resource Utilization:
Resource Utilization Fast Facts
Did you know? The industry average of Resource Utilization is currently 70%, with some MSP’s running at about 50%. The best in class within the whole population of MSP’s is in the 80+% range.
To reach 90% is achievable - but not sustainable. Working day in and day out, with the Technician’s efforts focused on Customer facing work across the board, it is assumed more than 90% of the time, the routine will get old quickly and burn the Technician out.
How the Advanced Resource Utilization Live Report came to be:
Since Dec 2017, Advanced Global has been living the subject of Resource Utilization. It all started with a Service Manager simply asking, “Can the standard Autotask Resource Utilization report be written as a Live Report so it can be scheduled to run?”
What grew out of that simple request was a powerful tool that has been increasing profits by 10% or more for every MSP that uses it, while reducing the time it takes to manage timesheets to 0 hours per week.
CTA: For more information on Resource Utilization, click here to download the Resource Utilization for MSPs eBook.
Benchmark: Do You Know What Your Resource Utilization Number Is?
My assumption is that you know, in general, what your Resource Utilization number is.
What if you’re not sure what your company’s Resource Utilization is? We recommend running the PSA/IMS default Resource Utilization report. For Autotask, roll over “A” -> Reports -> Resources -> General -> Resource Utilization (right hand column 2nd one down).
The default Resource Utilization (RU) report benchmarks the existing Resource Utilization levels. However, after using the report for many years, it does not seem to identify the coaching moments Service Managers need to improve the RU metric.
The default report seems to be lacking in several key areas:
It is a manual report and cannot be scheduled to run.
It is missing markers that highlight the most common profit loss areas.
It mixes internal company time with customer non-billable time.
It is hard to compare with the budget that is based on dollars rather than hours.
It does not call out the technician’s unknown time so that it can be managed.
It cannot be customized to match how your business operates.
It blows up on holiday weeks – And this is the real kicker!
Track: Use the Advanced Autotask Resource Utilization Report
Back in November 2017, a Service Manager asked if there was a way to re-write the Autotask default RU report in Live Reports.
The reason for his request was so it could be scheduled to run and not built each time it is needed. It took some time to write, but as I showed it to other Service Managers, they liked what they saw and requested changes to highlight the coaching moments listed above.
With these big changes, along with a few minor ones, the IT Service Managers were able to improve RU by 4-8%, increasing the company’s profit by $12K to $25K per technician per year.
How to Improve Resource Utilization each week - in just 30-45 minutes
1) Make sure all the time is in. The Advanced RU report highlights the technician’s time that is missing. By letting technicians know you are checking their time every Monday or Tuesday morning, they get with the program within a few weeks.
2) Unknown time. We realize at the pace we resolve issues, not every minute can be tracked. The Advanced RU report highlights unknown time that is more than 10% of the work week. A quick conversation with technicians can inspire changes to their habits, so they pay more attention to getting their time in…before they forget what they did.
3) Company time. The importance here is less on the technicians and more on management (although I did find a ticket in our company name that should have been a customer facing T&M billable). How many hours are being spent on company projects and tickets impacting the schedules? Some are required, but too much hurts the company’s cash flow. The Advanced RU report highlights how many hours are being used for the company on an individual, department, and company-wide basis.
4) Customer facing non-billable time. This is where most of the wins are. Almost every week, I find $300-$500 in time coded as non-billable that should be billable. Some of it (about 25%) is covered under Managed Service Agreements and does not really impact bottom-line profit, but it is impacting the managed service’s profitability picture. The rest is like finding “Gold” (profit). Some non-billable time is legit, such as warranty or business development time. Often a significant portion is either miscoded or looks like business development, but in this case, is billable – for example, a paid Network Assessment.
5) Billable hours’ goal not met. This is just a flat-out coaching moment with technicians. The company has expectations. Those expectations roll into the budget process, which impacts finance and spending decisions. If the majority of the team is not meeting the goal, then maybe the company is expecting too much out of the team. If one or two people are not meeting the goal, then you have a case of individual technicians not pulling their weight.
Focus on Resource Utilization to Make More Money for the Company
The impact on profit for each 1% increase in Resource Utilization per technician is about $3K per year per Resource. On average, for Service Managers focusing on Resource Utilization, the percentage increase is between 4% and 8% per year per Technician/Agent/Engineer, etc. - or about $12K to $25K on the bottom line. This alignment alone between Service Manager’s focus and the company’s #1 goal (profit) is significant.
Resource Utilization Summary:
Here is the process of how to effectively use a good Resource Utilization Report (one that has been scheduled to run each Monday morning) to evaluate last week’s timesheets:
Was the timesheet completed? In other words, wasere 40 hours reported?
How many hours are regular time - and what can we do to reduce that number?
How many hours are unknown time used to true up the time sheet - and how can we help the Tech to remember more of what they did? (Hint: Real-Time Time Entry)
How many hours are Company time (Task or Ticket time entries for the Zero account), and what can we do to reduce that number?
Review each non-billable time entry to verify it was non-billable work. If not, coach the Tech on what is and is not non-billable work.
Is the Tech meeting the Weekly Billable Hours Goal? If not, what are they working on that is non-Customer-Facing work?
CTA: For more information on Resource Utilization, click here to download the Resource Utilization for MSPs eBook.
I know the above looks pretty scary at first – like the Thunder Road race in Carol’s favorite movie (1978’s “Grease”) or the motorcycle chase in 1982’s “Grease 2.” Many MSPs can do this alone and get good at it in a few years. But if you want your Service Manager and Service Coordinators moving like “Greased Lighting,” then it’s simple: you should reach out to us. We start our engagements by offering a FREE No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation. Get started today.
The elephant in the room:
Who is Advanced Global, and why should we listen to them?
Recently someone we’ve been in communication with since DattoCon 2018, who was faithfully reading our articles, commented that up until a few months ago, “I really did not know what Advanced Global does.” So 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:
a. techs know what to work on next
b. someone is managing all open tickets and driving them to completion
c. the staffing levels are correct, and the workload is balanced
d. Real-Time Time Entry is a cultural habit
e. the Client has a great client experience
f. profit is maximized
g. Autotask is being fully leveraged
h. the historical data that is in the Autotask software is accessible to benchmark, track & USE effectively
i. the Service Delivery operations can scale
j. projects are completed On-Time and On-Budget
k. the company can grow
l. MSPs know what they don’t know
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 31+ years of Service Delivery experience, bringing real Service Delivery Improvement change, profitability, and Best in Class performance.
We start our engagements by offering a FREE No-Obligation PSA Configuration Evaluation