Your MSP ticketing system
Your MSP ticketing system allows the MSP to take your IT support to the next level! Let’s face it. Technology has forced companies to move at such a rapid pace that it is impossible to keep up without technology. As a result, we have to do more than ever before in a shorter period of time. Undoubtedly, the expectations in both work and private life are at an all-time high.
Indeed, customers expect an instantaneous response – immediate support. Not only put do they put this pressure on themselves, but they also expect the same from everyone that serves them. Without a doubt, I don’t think anyone is feeling the pressure more than MSPs.
The Pressure of a Managed Service Provider (MSP) to Perform
Imagine tracking all of your customer requests and orders manually. Likely, you would realize that rather quickly you need a system to track it. Similarly, that is what a ticketing system does – only on a granular scale.
Above all, a ticketing system helps the MSP be more efficient and maintain control over thousands of tickets. In particular, it tracks hundreds of metrics and ensures the systems and processes are working efficiently and effectively.
What Does the Ticketing System Measure?
Ticketing systems measure the key performance indicators (KPIs) against industry benchmarks. As a result, KPIs can help a company determine policies and standardization for continuous improvement.
Some of the more common KPIs measured in IT include:
- Ticket resolution time
- Response time
- Timeslip lag
- Average wait time
- Peak times
- Abandoned call detail
- High volume users
- Incident source – web, email, or phone
- Escalation frequency
- Meantime to resolution
Yet, an MSP must have a powerful ticketing system if they are to support hundreds or thousands of client environments across multiple industries.
Why Is It So Important?
In general, IT departments that do not have a strong ticketing system are inefficient at best. For instance, I have worked with a lot of companies that had an internal IT department. Many times, their ticketing system couldn’t even produce the most basic report, such as:
- How many calls per month?
- Peak times
- Most common types of issues?
This basic information would allow me to determine the maturity level of the organization, how I could help them, the type of work I could expect, and how to staff appropriately.
Now imagine if an MSP ticketing system was just as limited, which many are; how could they improve the delivery for you? Therefore, it is vital that you make sure the provider has invested in the right tools to sufficiently service your account.
Going the Cheap Route
Many MSPs start with a single engineer who has gone out on his/her own. Unfortunately, it can take several years before an MSP is profitable enough to do things the right way. As a result, many small MSPs can’t afford a quality ticketing system because it is expensive to license, set up, and maintain. Therefore, they go with a cheaper option and lose all efficiencies in the process.
(Note: This is a very good reason you shouldn’t follow your favorite IT guy when he goes independent. You will lose service quality.)
Why should you pay the same hourly rate for an MSP who does not have the right tools? Rather, wouldn’t it be best to hire a company that has invested wisely in their technology to service you?
My best recommendation for you is to make sure the system they use can track the information mentioned above so they can continuously improve their performance to you and their other clients.
Best MSP Ticketing Systems on the Market
There are several ticketing systems on the market specifically designed for MSPs. Accordingly, they range from free to thousands of dollars in licensing annually. Consequently, the free ones not only lack security, but they also do not have the necessary reporting capabilities to continuously improve their own performance. In contrast, the more expensive ones have all the bells and whistles, including monitoring software and asset tagging.
After reviewing multiple ticketing platforms INSI chose ConnectWise. We feel ConnectWise does the best job of eliminating time-intensive and repetitive maintenance tasks. Further, we found it to be the cleanest and most and intuitive ticketing system on the market. Last, this platform provides a full solution with both asset tracking and remote management monitoring. Most important, we can allow our clients with internal IT people to use the system on their accounts!
Do You Want to Know More About Ticketing Systems?
If you would like to know more about MSP Ticketing Systems and how it affects you, visit Amazon or Barnes & Noble for a copy of the book IT Outsourcing Secrets – A Small Business Guide to Comparing IT Support Companies.
