User Experience Design: More Than Just a Pretty Face
Is your web-based management platform easy to use and simple to navigate? Can you identify problems and inefficiencies at glance? Can you quickly find the information you need?
If not, then your software is costing you both time and money. Here's why.
Don’t think that good design is relevant only to Apple products or end users. Good design makes good business sense. A harmonious relationship between MSPs and the software they use to manage their businesses increases efficiency, quality, and ultimately customer satisfaction.
Victim of Success
Web-based management solutions allow you to not only access the information most critical to your business, but proactively manage your accounts wherever you may be. These advances have allowed MSPs to provide increasingly fast and effective service to their clients. However, client expectations have increased along with these technical innovations.
It’s not enough to provide fast service; in today’s climate it needs to be immediate. It’s not enough to put out fires, but to prevent them in the first place.
Data, Data Everywhere
Your management platform contains almost unimaginable amounts of information—most of which is useless if you a) can’t find the information you’re looking for b) can’t distinguish the critical information from the inconsequential data.
Management software that has an easy-to-use navigation, on-demand reporting, and intuitive information architecture will help you find exactly what you need when you need it. Beyond search capabilities, a smart management platform that alerts you to the trends and issues that you weren’t looking for is an invaluable asset to your business.
Ease of Use = Better Service
To illustrate, Intronis just launched a new partner portal beta that provides a centralized summary of all client accounts, real-time reporting, and automated alerts and notifications. A smart interface in this class allows MSPs to improve their time management and augment documentation.
As your business grows, the greater is your need to automate recurring tasks, uncover trends, and receive immediate notification of problems. Having the information you need elegantly presented and easily understandable helps your company move beyond the reactive “break-fix” model to proactively managing your client’s needs. Now that’s proof positive of added value.
Eric Webster is VP of sales and marketing for Intronis. Find Intronis partner program information here. Guest blog entries such as this one are contributed on a monthly basis as part of MSPmentor’s 2010 Platinum sponsorship. Read all of Eric’s guest blog entries here.
