Chapter 1 Would your expect the garage to upgrade your engine on an oil service? – Understanding the difference between standard service and change.

 In nearly thirty years of working, selling and building a business in the computer services industry perhaps – well more than perhaps, one of the most frequently discussed areas of contract and service delivery is what should be included and what shouldn’t.

 It is only in recent years that I have really tried to understand this and the not unsurprising conclusion I have come to is that the reason this can be such a contentious issue is that no one explains at the start and in layman’s terms the basis of a successful technology services partnership.

 Unsurprisingly this doesn’t always lead to the smoothest of contract transitions or starts to a new client relationship and yet…….with a little planning and forethought those initial gripes and queries could be avoided so easily.

 So why is the question that hangs around like well a bad smell…..Why isn’t fixed fee, fixed fee?

 The simple truth is if nothing changed it would be, but those pesky users want support out of hours, to upgrade their laptop or setup a cluster of machines at an exhibition. You as the contract owner on the other hand want to fix the price for all the reasons that you believed in managed service in the first place. You are looking for:

 No Surprises

Fee certainity

Flexible pricing that reflects your headcount changes

 In fact all the drivers that have led to a year on year growth of the technology managed services industry.

 This nirvana is certainly achievable and all mature well run MSP’s will be able to provide scores of references detailing long term contracts where the additional billing activity has been literally a few dollars.

 They will also be able to give you scores of references where change is an integral part of the service delivery model and handled in a professional and mutually beneficial style.

 These relationships are based on clarity as to what the service is and what constitutes a potential additional charge. There are each unique but share some common fundamentals.

 1. Understand the rules of engagement

 Contrary to main stream belief, technologists like us absolutely adore certainty and a bill of assets and requirements that is crisp and clearly understood. This will include:

 Hardware Assets

Software Licences

Hours of Cover

Agreement on responses and escalation

A well designed process for change

Regular review meetings –  a plea please make time to invest in your digital future

 2. Manage their relationship through trends not incidents

 It is so easy to ring the fire bell every time a VIP cannot get their e-mails through their blackberry whilst on holiday in another time zone.

 The best of us will always respond to those calls and do our best to resolve them, yet to really thrive our relationship must be based on what’s happening across your whole infrastructure, vital service reviews can be derailed from service improvement discussions to effectively  arranging ‘local rules’ to avoid unpleasant feedback.

 3. Ensure the change process is an integral part of the relationship

 Change and its potential associated cost is often the elephant in the room when it comes to technology service relationships.

 To deliver fixed fee services we have to put a boundary around what we offer and when, without that discipline you wouldn’t be dealing with a credible business. The flip side of this is that we are honour bound to put our hand up politely when you pose a request outside this.

 The sophisticated client ensures that change is understood, debated in an adult manner and an agreed process is in place to handle it before the first change.

 Finally perhaps ask yourself would you expect your local garage to upgrade your engine for no additional charge whilst changing the oil filter – probably not.

Tags: Digitial vision, Fixed fee services, IT Managed services, SLA's, trusted IT partner, work ethic