5 things that drive IT managed service clients up the wall

Buying in IT management as a service should reduce both the time and money an organisation spends on IT, and turn it into a working, secure and worry-free background force that enables and empowers the business. That is not too much to ask, is it?

Often this expectation is not met, and the client experiences considerable frustration. Here are 5 aspects of IT managed services that make users particularly angry and prompt them to switch partners. Do you recognise yourself?

1. Communication with the partner is slow, and I am the one keeping the conversation going

Our own problems always matter most, and we want them dealt with first. Understandably, a service provider may have far more critical tasks on the table, and as long as the agreed SLA is met, prioritising one issue over another should not cause major problems.

What really gets clients’ backs up, however, is when they receive too little feedback on progress and have to keep “pinging” the partner to move things forward. Proactive communication is the foundation of good service.

2. User support seems incompetent and has no overview of my company and situation

First-line user support is usually where an IT professional’s career begins. It is not reasonable to expect that when you call the help desk, the person who picks up will help you find a firewall configuration error or casually complete a server migration.

It is, however, reasonable to expect user support to be somewhat more knowledgeable about IT than the average user. It is also reasonable to expect user support to have access to the wider context of the specific client’s infrastructure, key systems, applications and so on. And that, drawing on their expertise and this context, the specialist can find the way to a solution, either on their own or by quickly bringing in the right specialist in their organisation. And that communication does not break down when the problem is more complex (see point 1).

3. The IT partner only fights fires and does not prevent problems

Things sometimes break during use. That is normal. Most faults and surprises can be avoided, or their impact minimised, through regular maintenance, lifecycle management, security patching and other preventive measures.

Prevention also includes a development and improvement plan, which requires a thorough, clear understanding and documentation of the current situation.

If things break frequently, unexpectedly for both partner and client, and cause unexpected costs and downtime, the preventive work has not been done.

4. The IT partner does not get to know my business and cannot set priorities

If a service provider thinks only about keeping IT running, almost all incidents have the same priority for them and all clients are the same.

If a service provider thinks about how to keep your business running and support it, clients become distinct, priorities differ, and there is a real need for the provider to know the client’s business.

5. The cost of the service keeps rising even though I keep investing

In general, it is perfectly understandable that the more problematic a company’s IT and the greater its technical debt, the more expensive it is to manage and keep running, simply because it takes more working hours.

At the same time, when a company keeps paying down technical debt and investing to reduce problems, it is fair to ask: why do costs rise year after year?

Yes, wage growth in the IT sector and general inflation make each working hour more expensive every year, but investing in worry-free IT also means fewer hours are needed. Combined with the efficiency gains from modern tools and smooth processes, this could slow the growth of the unit price of the service, if not bring it down.

Did you recognise yourself in any of these points? Or in all of them? You are far from alone. At Replicant IT, we believe Estonian companies deserve a service that does not make them angry. And although we are ready to delight a limited number of clients from the autumn, today is the right time to start the conversation. Do get in touch.