Simply the Best (Practices): Lifting the Fog of Autotask Contract Configurations: The SLA
Welcome, Autotask Warriors! Here’s what we’re covering today:
Quick recap (BONUS! a Top Gun throwback)
Using SLAs to drive profits
How SLA’s Relate to Incidents for an IT MSP
The Smart way to apply SLAs
2 Ways the Next SLA Due Date Can Help You
Measures of SLA’s at the IT MSP
Is your MSP “simply the best”?
I am so glad you’re here, and I extend a warm welcome to those new readers I had the pleasure of meeting at the CMIT conference. I enjoyed such great conversations, and I promise to make good use of your valuable time – and I truly mean that.
Since there are so many new MSPs reading this week, allow me a quick minute to go over what we talk about here and what you can expect every week.
Have you ever seen the movie TOP GUN? Then you’re familiar with the famous Maverick quote when asked about an encounter with an enemy MIG fighter, "It's classified. I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you."
Sounds just like the kind of answer you get to your Autotask questions from consultants and support folks, doesn’t it?
For many MSP’s, improving the Autotask software just feels like “Mission Impossible.” As a result, they give up and accept mediocrity and Chaos. But there is a better way, and that’s why I’m here week after week, giving away my “secrets” and years of experience.
For those true Gladiators out there, you can get more from our Member Community, and you will absolutely save time and money in a consulting engagement with Advanced Global. And for you Autotask Warriors who “feel the need, the need for speed,” I continue to write away.
Back to business: As I mentioned, I recently enjoyed some time away with the CMIT folksand there were plenty of questions that were asked. One question an MSP asked last week seemed to fit in with this series. So, like last week when you got Part II plus, I’m going to delay Part III of our series (and the retirement of Tina Turner) just a bit to give you Part I-IIe and discuss where SLAs fit into the Autotask Contract.
I promise we will get to the end, and you will have a complete manual on Autotask Best Practice Configurations that will NOT self-destruct in 5 seconds. So, crank up some Tina Turner on YouTube, and let’s get going.
Using SLAs to Drive Profits
If you recall, we discussed using SLAs to drive profits back in the Service Manager series, but it’s been a while since we covered them in-depth. ITIL divides Priorities into two work groups:
Incidents
Service Requests
We’ll follow this separation by saying that SLA’s are to Incidents what Scheduling Objectives are to Service Requests. If you think about it, SLA’s measure response, resolution planning, and remediation - which are applicable measurements to Incidents but not applicable to Service Requests.
However, there is a sister concept with a Service Request that asks: “How long will the Customer wait for engagement for a priority level of a Scheduled Event?”
How SLA’s Relate to Incidents for an IT Managed Service Provider (MSP)
There are two ways to look at the value of an SLA:
1) A measure of IT Support performance that can be benchmarked and used as a basis for continuous quality improvement. (Tip: Research Total Quality Management (TQM) by W. Edwards Deming.) Here we are just monitoring, tracking, adjusting and letting performance to float to whatever level the IT Support Team can deliver.
2) To drive Automation and workforce performance to meet a predefined goal. The Automation is primarily a communication system used to engage management when needed to meet SLA goals.
Notifications of this system include:
Critical Service Request has been received
Service Request due within X of hours or minutes
Service Request is in jeopardy of missing an SLA goal, etc.
The Smart Way to Apply SLAs
The best way to apply SLA’s is to use them as a benchmark for TQM. Most of the time, we think of Service Level Agreements as being tied to the Agreements signed with the Customer - and they are, in many ways (Priorities, Response Times, who goes first, etc.).
But what’s important is that they are also tied to non-Agreements not signed with the Customer. As mentioned, one of the best practices for Incident Service Requests is to use the Next SLA Due Date to prioritize which Ticket needs to be worked on next.
This is great for Contractual Customers, but what if they do not have a Contract with you? I ppropose that if they do not have a signed agreement with you, then they have an unsigned agreement (T&M) and a non-contract SLA is applied to the Ticket.
2 Ways the Next SLA Due Date Can Help You
1) We can now use the Next SLA Due Date to prioritize all Tickets in the Queues – both for Contract and Non-Contract Customers.
2) Non-Contract SLA’s drive upsell opportunities. My recommendation is that the SLA for non-contract service requests be set at 4X the Contract SLA’s. We have set it at 2X, but non-Contract Customers seem to be okay with this.
At 4X, they will ask to be expedited/escalated, to which the response is, “Sorry, we have Contractual Obligations that need to be met first. We will get to your request with our best effort as soon as our Contractual Customers are taken care of.” Their response most the time will be “How do I get one of these Contractual Obligations?” …At which time, the CSR or Tech sends them to the Account Manager.
Measures of SLA’s at the IT MSP
SLA’s are used to measure or drive IT Support service to the Customer performance. As long as the expected First Response, Resolution Plan, and Remediation due dates/times are the same across different Service Levels, then the same SLA can be used.
For example, if the Platinum Level includes 7/24/365 and the rest of the levels (Gold and Silver) are Business Hours, then three SLA’s can be set up and used.
The Three SLA’s are referred to as:
7/24/365
Basic SLA
Non-Contract SLA
While all three metrics are set up & used across all Incident Priorities, all levels of service, and used for Contract and Non-Contract agreements, they are not all reported to the Customer.
The only part of SLA performance that the MSP has complete control over is the First Response. The others are impacted by Vendors, Weather, and the Customer themselves.
This is not to say the MSP is completely off the hook. They are still responsible for Staffing Levels, Skill Levels, Tools, and processes. Therefore, only the First Response should be discussed with the Customer and reduced to writing in the Agreements.
However, the other metrics are critical to be benchmarked, tracked, and managed for the Technicians, so that Customer satisfaction can be maximized. ** W. Edwards Deming’s 14 points for Totals Quality Management
Hopefully, Nick, that answered your question from last week and helps everyone have a better understanding of how Best Practices are important for Autotask Contract setups.
If you haven’t read the whole series, you should. Why? Because we have covered:
Recurring Service Contracts (of which SLAs are very much a part of)
If you’ve been following along and implementing what we’ve discussed, you should be seeing noticeable gains in your MSP’s productivity, Client satisfaction, Tech happiness, and Profits.
You should be “simply the best.” (I promise the Tina Turner references will end soon). If you are not, PLEASE DO NOT DELAY in emailing Info@AGMSPCoaching.com with this week’s code word “Tomcat HELP” in the subject line, and we will provide you with some free help, just for being a reader of this column.
Or, why not attend our free weekly “Ask the Experts” Webex for any help you may need? (See AGMSPCoaching.com for meeting times/links).
Until we meet again
next week, Happy Trails.