Your IT support products are slowing down your business. How can you speed them up?

IT products like any other product have life span. It is imperative to be current and in sync with the latest and best of the breed solutions. IT is not just a support function but also a catalyst that can improve business productivity if effectively executed! Based on the industry and the way of working, IT managers need to provide effective solutions for business efficiency.

Many organizations have a lot of support products and tools. Yet, the IT teams struggle to respond to incidents efficiently. It is, therefore, very important to assess whether you are spending valuable investment $$ on the right support products. Understand if you have skills in the organization to set up and use these products for optimal outcomes. Evaluate whether you have the right processes in place to leverage the support tools effectively. Determine whether the support tools integrated or disjointed. Understand what tools are implemented fully and what are sitting on the shelf (unused or partially implemented).

You should always ask business stakeholders when setting up your IT support goals, typical question you may want to ask: what downtime of the services/products your stakeholders can tolerate before it starts impacting the business. You might be surprised that for some products you consider as important ones, the answer would be ‘no impact at all’ or ‘one month’, however there might be those that should be recovered in hours or even minutes. Such business impact analysis would allow you to prioritize your efforts and investments in IT support, HA design principles and help you to set up proper SLAs for the support teams

Enhancing IT product speed and personalization involves analyzing competitor strengths, adopting best practices, and responding to user feedback. Study competitors to identify successful features, then prioritize their integration. Actively engage users through surveys to understand preferences and pain points. Address specific user concerns highlighted in feedback, whether related to response times or customization options. Upgrade infrastructure and technology for improved speed. Regularly gather and analyze feedback to guide ongoing improvements, ensuring your products remain competitive and align with evolving user expectations.

Conduct a mapping of current IT support products and customer usage metrics Send out a survey on the pain points of customers using those products Take user driven feedback and metrics and streamline product quality through product ops Break support into simple complex medium Bots can answer simple support questions such as “resetting accts, finding downloads, documentation” Medium and complex can cater to solving larger problems Request user feedback on your support services often

Once you have data sets related to your desired objectives for your IT support products, it's time to assess the gap between your current state and your future state (which should move you closer to your objectives). Support gap abatement with corrective actions to address specific deficiencies in your IT support tools.

Setting clear, tangible goals for IT support goes beyond mere technical upgrades. It's about envisioning a support structure that's not just functional but propels business agility and growth. Utilizing frameworks like SMART or OKR, focus on outcomes that resonate with broader business objectives, such as enhanced customer service capabilities or streamlined internal processes. This strategic alignment ensures that IT support transformations directly contribute to the overarching business vision, turning IT from a cost center into a value driver.

Clearly define what an optimized IT support system looks like for your business. This could involve faster response times, more efficient problem resolution, or streamlined workflows. Establish specific, measurable goals, such as reducing system response time by 50% or improving resolution time for IT tickets by 30%.

It's important to threat handling such issues as a project. So besides goals - make sure to organize and provide enough resources.

One of the desired outcomes has to be preventing downtimes proactively. Reaction is costly, no matter how efficiently issues are handled. IT teams have to maintain an ongoing risk matrix and prioritize fixing identified issues proactively based on probability of occurrence and impact of occurrence. Communicating risks transparently to business teams will result in getting the needed funding. This will help IT teams becoming business enablers as opposed to order takers.

One additional criteria that needs to be considered is consolidation of tools. The more tools you have, integrating them to get a holistic view of your environment becomes a challenge. As you look to replace or upgrade tools, you need to look at your toolkit in its entirety and get rid of duplications. This will also reduce your ongoing support and people costs.

Based on your assessment and desired outcomes, research and select solutions that can help speed up your IT support. This might involve upgrading hardware, implementing new software solutions, optimizing existing systems, or even outsourcing certain IT functions. For instance, if the assessment reveals that your servers are outdated, consider upgrading to more powerful hardware or moving to a cloud-based solution.

Use uma maneira que os clientes possam dar feedback offline sobre os servi?os desenvolva com Langchain (frame para automatizar usando LLms como o chat GPT) um bot em linguagem natural que acessa embeddings de documenta??o e terminologia dos seus produtos, o bot permite capturar toda informa??o falada necessária para o suporte e offline e quando o nível 2 ligar nao precisara repetir as informa??es. Todo mundo ganha tempo.

Selecting the right IT support solutions is a balancing act between current technological trends and specific business needs. It’s vital to consider not just the immediate benefits but also the long-term scalability and integration capabilities. In this rapidly evolving digital landscape, opting for solutions that offer automation and integration with existing systems is key. This step is about foresight in technology adoption, ensuring your IT support evolves in sync with both technological advancements and business growth trajectories.

Besides the input above I believe in considerations about people - looking for ways to save time and free up resources. Use a cloud or SaaS based solution with API access to make it easy to implement and integrate. Finally I would look for something with AI capabilities or integration. Soon AI will in most cases provide better support than humans - given the system has access to data.

After implementing changes, continuously monitor the performance of your IT support products to ensure they are meeting your desired outcomes. Use metrics and feedback to evaluate their effectiveness. Be prepared to make further adjustments as needed. For example, if you've adopted new software, regularly check its impact on operational efficiency and make tweaks to configurations or user training as necessary.

Monitoring is a systematic approach involving the observation, tracking, and measurement of organizational processes, activities, or systems to evaluate performance. It aids in the early detection of potential issues and deviations from planned objectives. Improvement is a deliberate effort aimed at enhancing organizational processes, making them more efficient, and optimizing overall performance. It involves identifying opportunities, strategic planning, and fostering a culture of continuous iteration. The monitoring and improvement cycle is iterative, with insights gained from monitoring guiding improvement efforts.

Continuous monitoring and iterative improvement of IT support systems are crucial. Implementing a robust feedback mechanism to gauge effectiveness and user satisfaction provides invaluable insights for ongoing refinement. Regular performance reviews against set metrics create a culture of accountability and continuous improvement. This phase is about creating a dynamic IT support system that adapts, evolves, and continuously aligns with changing business needs and technological landscapes.

Before investing in expensive technology upgrades or replacements, evaluating the three pillars can help identify where resources are needed: People: Empower your team with ongoing training and clear communication channels. A skilled and well-informed IT staff can resolve issues faster and more effectively. Processes: Streamline your support processes with clear guidelines and efficient workflows. Implementing standardized procedures reduces confusion and speeds up resolution times. Tools and Technology: Invest in modern IT support tools. Automation can handle routine tasks, freeing your team to focus on complex issues. Also, please make sure your systems are regularly updated to avoid slowdowns.

It is about the involvement and ownership of business stakeholders. This includes how tools are chosen as fit for purpose solutions based on prioritised business problems. BusDevOps and agile development with executive sponsorship removes blockers and enables faster decisions for software development.

Can you add a supercharger to a Pinto? I guess you could, but the infrastructure of the Pinto would fail. These should be business tools. Exclude IT functions from the decision-making process regarding these 'tools' and assign accountability solely to the CIO or IT leadership. This alignment should follow the objectives defined and agreed upon by your organizations senior leadership, who is responsible for developing and communicating the objectives and KPIs. Keep IT leadership informed and consulted, with their primary role being to supply data to senior leadership for this decision-making. If they cannot provide this data, it signifies a failure on the part of IT leadership up to this point, not the tools and not the IT functions.

Upgrading your IT support is not just about fixing current issues; it's about positioning your business for future success. By taking proactive steps to enhance your IT support, you can create a more productive, agile, and resilient business. Here is my humble advise for whom to aim to speed up: 1. Conduct a comprehensive audit of current IT support systems. 2. Develop a training schedule for IT support staff. 3. Research and invest in advanced IT support tools. (with AI hype and keeping in mind that process comes before the tool itself!) 4. Establish a partnership with a specialized IT support provider if the field is too diversified. 5. Create a feedback system for continuous IT support improvement.

If you cannot decide on a solution, often times the three-legged stool helps. Scope, cost, quality. If you cannot have all three, ensure at least 2 out of 3 above results. Example, if you cannot keep costs low, at least make sure you don’t compromise on quality of product and that it applies to as many scenarios as possible. If you have to give up one leg, try to keep the other two.