A service can be defined as ‘the means of delivering value to customers’ by facilitating outcomes customers want to achieve without the ownership of specific costs and risks. When the delivery of these services is carried out effectively, it benefits your company as a whole.
Good Service Delivery processes should include:
- Clearly defined list of services being provided
- Clearly defined list of the roles and responsibilities of the customers and service providers
- Setting realistic expectations – Ensure that the customer understands the SLA’s associated with the service provided
- Tailored to meet the specific needs of the business – Something that may be beneficial to one customer may not be for another. This can be established through a good onboarding process
- Service Desk
- Measuring results through meaningful metrics - used to drive continuous improvement and again tailored to each customers requirements
- Weekly reports/calls – Important to stay on top of outstanding issues
- Monthly reports/calls – More in depth reporting on SLA’s
- Quarterly service review meetings – Review performance on a quarterly basis and review IT strategy over the coming months
- Focus on customer service – Regular case quality assessments ensures that customers are happy with the service being provided and that you are striving for excellence.
All these items may seem pretty straight forward but not every managed service provider provides all of them. Those that do tend to have an experienced in-house Service Delivery Manager whose sole responsibility is a leadership role to ensure that all of the above takes place in a coherent and timely fashion.
One of the key areas of focus, and one our service delivery manager here at ICE ICT feels is very important is regular meetings with our clients.
This facilitates dialogue and allows us to build a relationship with our clients which is not just focused on targets and SLA’s but to gain a greater understanding of our clients business allowing us to deliver a better service.
While the meetings do not solely focus on SLA’s they do form an important part of any managed service. It is important that any business understands what their managed service partner is responsible for delivering. Lack of clarity in this area often leads to unreal expectations and ultimately frustration.
It is only by building a good relationship with your managed service provider and ensuring that they not only have meaningful SLA but also understand your requirements and pain points will any relationship succeed.
If you would like to know more about how ICE ICT treat their managed service clients and understand what we can do you for you please follow us to TheICEway at www.theiceway.com.
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