News Feature | August 4, 2016

10 Ways TSPs Can Take Action For Better Performance

Christine Kern

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

POS Buyer Trend Report

Tracking key metrics is crucial for proper management of services.

According to Gartner, “To remain relevant to their clients, technology service providers (TSPs) need to be in sync with the disruptive innovations in the technology sector and operating/service models,” but Gartner's research concludes this isn't necessarily happening. Gartner provides 10 recommendations for taking action with the tracking of key metrics at the top of the list because “what is not measured right is not managed right.”

Their recommendations include:

  • Rationalize metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs), and make them business-relevant.
  • Move toward business-driven SLAs, reporting, service pricing and billing models.
  • Reinvent the service part of IT service.
  • Redefine and differentiate IT services by their business value contributions.
  • Demand futuristic tool functionalities and differentiated capabilities from tool vendors.
  • Do “just enough” processes to avoid the dangers of overdoing ITIL.
  • Focus on mature and transparent change management practices.
  • Create “bright spots” to bring organizational change for service orientation and to promote the desired behavioral traits of the I&O staff.
  • Build IT service business cases jointly between internal IT teams and business functions.
  • Make a conscious, planned switch in the responses of I&O teams, from reactive mode to proactive mode.

Gartner also recommends tracking fewer than 10 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) at a time to ensure that they are “specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.” Autotask Corporation has created its Top 5 KPIs” List to achieve the best management results. They are:

1.Profitability: Understanding what is driving and/or draining your profitability is crucial to your organization’s success. Tracking by service type, contract, and customer will help drive improvement and bolster profit.

2.Service Response Compliance: Tracking this data helps determine whether or not you are meeting the 95+ percent compliance goal for meeting response and resolution targets. These numbers can help you consistently deliver on brand promise, establish trust and drive retention with customers, as well as allowing you to tweak the system to improve service when numbers lag.

3.Ticket Backlog Trending: Monitoring changes in ticket backlog volume will help identify problems in service delivery to help adjust resources accordingly to ensure continued customer satisfaction.

4.Sales Pipeline: Often multiple versions of the sales pipeline exist that are often outdated. Tracking to a single, real-time pipeline helps to ensure cash flow and accountability.

5.Customer Satisfaction Score: While most service organizations cite this as a key performance indicator for retention, surprisingly few providers actually poll customers regularly to gauge it.

Following these Gartner and Autotask guidelines will help TSPs be more efficient, accountable, and capable of data-driven decisions about the performance of their service delivery operations.