https://www.channelfutures.com/wp-content/themes/channelfutures_child/assets/images/logo/footer-new-logo.png
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2020 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
Channel Futures
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Technologies
    • Back
    • Analytics
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Cloud
    • Data Centers
    • Desktop
    • IoT
    • Mobility
    • Networking
    • Open Source
    • RMM/PSA
    • Security
    • Virtualization
    • Voice/Connectivity
  • Strategy
    • Back
    • Best Practices
    • Business Models
    • Channel 101
    • Channel Programs
    • Channel Research
    • Digital Transformation
    • Diversity & Inclusion
    • Leadership
    • Mergers and Acquisitions
    • Sales & Marketing
    • Specialty Practices
  • MSSP Insider
    • Back
    • Business of Security
    • Cloud and Edge
    • Endpoint
    • Network
    • People and Careers
    • Training and Policies
  • MSP 501
    • Back
    • 2020 MSP 501 Rankings
    • 2020 Hot 101 Rankings
    • 2020 MSP 501 Report
  • Intelligence
    • Back
    • Our Sponsors
    • From the Industry
    • Content Resources
    • COVID-19 Partner Help
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • Reports
    • Videos
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
  • EMEA
  • Awards
    • Back
    • Excellence in Digital Services
    • 2020 MSP 501
    • Top Gun 51
  • Events
    • Back
    • CP Conference & Expo
    • Channel Partners Evolution
    • Channel Evolution Europe
    • Channel Partners Event Coverage
    • Webinars
  • Channel Mentor
    • Back
    • Channel Market Intelligence
    • Channel Educational Series
    • Newsletter
  • REGISTER
  • MSPs
  • VARs / SIs
  • Digital Service Providers
  • Cloud Service Providers
  • CHANNEL PARTNERS ONLINE
 Channel Futures

RMM/PSA


Shutterstock

PSA, professional services automation

Apply CMM Thinking to the Service Desk

  • Written by Harmony PSA's Steve Duckworth
  • January 25, 2019
Take a page from the CMM model and apply its escalating levels of control to help the service desk run more smoothly.

CMM (Capability Maturity Model) is a taxonomy that was developed to help organizations understand where they are in terms of the evolution of process quality and efficiency. Historically, it has been related to the software development processes.

But the method is also useful when considering what sort of professional services automation (PSA) system you need depending on how mature your processes are, or where the organization wants to advance to in its process maturity.

CMM is similar to ISO 9001 definitions of repeatable and assured delivery.

5-Level Model

The standard CMM model has five levels, described as:

  • Level 1: Initial: Processes are disorganized, even chaotic. Success is dependent on individual efforts and isn’t considered to be repeatable.
  • Level 2: Repeatable: Basic procedures are established; successes could be repeated because they have been established, defined and documented.
  • Level 3: Defined: An organization has developed its own standard process through greater attention to documentation, standardization and integration.
  • Level 4: Managed: An organization monitors and controls its own processes through data collection and analysis.
  • Level 5: Optimizing: Here processes are constantly being improved through monitoring feedback from current processes and introducing innovative processes to better serve the organization’s particular needs.

This five-level model can be easily applied to service desk capability and the required PSA capability as shown in the table below:

Level Process Maturity PSA Service Desk Capability
1 None: problems handled by individuals as they are received based upon personal knowledge only No service desk required: issues tracked on email and/or spreadsheets. Billing by incident at the time of fix.
2 Tracked: issues sit in a central queue for people to deal with, model still lacking process definition, prioritization or SLAs, no structured institutional knowledge Basic service desk: no ticket activity time recording. Billing based on approximate but undocumented time estimate. Simple ticket status Open/Active/Close only.
3 Operational Break-Fix: ticket queue manually managed to focus on staff utilization, “My Tickets” list, SLAs offered and measured, fix process still largely driven by individual expertise Time-aware service desk: time bookings are recorded for all ticket actions. Billing based using time spreadsheet on elapsed time as single standard rate.
4 Managed Services: ticket types have workflow, relationships to assets under management, multiple queues based on priority or ticket type manually maintained, knowledge base creates enterprise knowledge model, ticket performance against SLAs measured and reported Contract-aware service desk: time is recorded against tickets and service contracts so billing can be driven directly from PSA using ticket activity and rates. Assets mapped under contract for reporting, customer portal permits self-service.
5 Agile Service Delivery: mature ticket type development and auto-creation/parsing/routing created self-maintaining queues, custom (personal and team), path-based workflows combined with conditional and nonconditional checklists provide quality assurance underpinning to processes, mature knowledge base accessible on portal empowers client self-service, custom notifications alert users to SLA breaches and automatically maintain customer communications, tickets pulled from queues by expert watchers based on criticality and knowledge, issues managed driven by distributed re-direction. Ticket and SLA performance analysis used to amend and improve ticket workflows and checklist completeness on a continual process-improvement basis. Scheduled preventative actions including patch-management and security threat pre-emption. Business goal is to reduce incidents, not just speedy resolution. Financially-aware service desk: flexible and multiple SLA modeling with overrides down to asset level, close coupling between assets contracts, knowledge base and tickets; Kanban-driven queues automatically maintained; period revenue on service contracts automatically related to ticket activity and effort to service the contract. Contract and client profitability accurately recorded in real-time facilitating price optimization. 360-degree view of customer and automated billing straight through to cash.

Winning Formula

But here’s where it becomes even more interesting. Agile service delivery maps well to the traditional definition of an optimizing CMM level as applied to software development. Here, process maturity, repeatable processes, strong user-maintained institutional knowledge and active process improvement allows accurate pricing models for all-you-can-eat recurring contract models.

As the industry moves toward further optimization of contract-based preventative maintenance replacing historic break/fix-based revenue, the companies embracing agile service methods at CMM Level 5 will naturally emerge as the winners. Those companies will find they need greater sophistication in their PSA tooling, and they can now more easily find it in the market.

In a career that began in offshore engineering, migrated into investment banking and ended up with the co-founding of a software company 10 years ago, Steve Duckworth, CEO of Harmony PSA, has devoted his career to developing solutions solving project, accounting and business process problems. Follow him on LinkedIn or @HarmonyPSA.

Tags: MSPs RMM/PSA Strategy

Related


  • Businessman stepping up ladder
    Andy Jassy of AWS Is Movin' On Up: Partners React
    Find out what some of your peers and suppliers have to say about Jassy becoming Amazon CEO.
  • Growth depiction
    UK Channel Expects Big Growth in 2021, Cybersecurity a Big Driver
    Many partners view COVID-19 delays as one of the least important challenges they face.
  • Assessment
    CompTIA Rolls Out New Tech Vendor Assessment Tool
    Vendors may be overestimating their own channel readiness.
  • No Racism
    Racially Charged Tweet Costs Alteryx CRO His Job
    Numerous individuals, including a customer, criticized Alteryx for the tweet, which led to the CRO's resignation.

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your Channel Futures account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • The Top IT Challenges Executives Will Face in 2021
  • The Smart Money’s on a Staged Approach to Security Services Provision
  • Getting Clients Ready for an 88% Increase in Cloud Adoption
  • Law Firm Cyberattack Exposes Tens of Thousands of Patient Records

Galleries

View all

Threat Protection Vendors: Why MSSPs Have to Ramp Up Efforts Right Now

February 23, 2021

Industry Perspectives

View all

Three Ways MSPs Can Improve Supply Chain Security

February 24, 2021

SASE: The Key to Mitigating Business Transformation Risk

February 22, 2021

Public Sector IT Funding Outlook for 2021–and What It Means for Our Reseller Partners

February 18, 2021

Webinars

View all

XDR and Why it Matters to MSPs

March 24, 2021

Top Security Trends Impacting Technology Security Providers In 2021

March 25, 2021

In Case of Emergency: The Importance of Proactive Critical Event Management

February 23, 2021
  • 1

White Papers

View all

Kaspersky Endpoint Detection and Response Optimum

February 19, 2021

Product Brief: Kaseya VSA Integrated Workflows with BMS and IT Glue

January 26, 2021

Why Subscription Business Model

January 15, 2021

Upcoming Events

View all

Channel Partners Virtual

March 2, 2021 - March 4, 2021

Channel Partners Conference & Expo

November 1, 2021 - November 4, 2021

Videos and Fastchats

View all

FASTCHAT: How SOAR Eliminates Security Challenges and Elevates Service Provider Revenues

January 6, 2021

Happy Holidays from Channel Partners & Channel Futures!

December 21, 2020

FASTCHAT: How Old, Unpatched Technologies Are Creating New Security Threats for MSPs and Their Customers

December 3, 2020

Twitter

ChannelFutures

.@BlackBerry report shows rise in hacker-for-hire groups targeting #MSSPs. dlvr.it/RtQjD9 https://t.co/VYr5cEXCCm

February 25, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@PTsecurity_UK discovers #vulnerabilities in @VMware vCenter server. dlvr.it/RtQjD5 https://t.co/WQbn5SJdFL

February 25, 2021
ChannelFutures

Take #supplychainsecurity to the next level. @Sophos #MSP #MSSP #ransomware #cybersecurity #managedservice… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 25, 2021
ChannelFutures

[email protected]_inc rolls out first partner program. #securityanalytics dlvr.it/RtQhlW https://t.co/c1Xhxaf3qr

February 25, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@AteraCloud receives $25 million investment to help more #MSPs, IT pros. dlvr.it/RtPbBG https://t.co/UxHqhrUKgx

February 24, 2021
ChannelFutures

.@Infoblox rolls out new #Cloud Specialization program to increase partners' #SaaS sales. dlvr.it/RtPb7f https://t.co/CmZTwYiv1u

February 24, 2021
ChannelFutures

RT @Channel_Expo: ⏱️ Time is ticking to save on your pass to #CPVirtual next week...View all pass options and secure your virtual seat by F…

February 24, 2021
ChannelFutures

The new @Commvault #EMEA channel exec will focus attention on alliances, cloud and simplifying and expanding partne… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

February 24, 2021

MSSP Insider

Newsletters and Updates

Sign up for The Channel Report, Channel Futures Update, MSP 501 Newsletter and more.

Live Channel Events

Get the latest information on the next industry-leading Channel Partners event.

Channel Partners Online

Want more? Find more channel news and analysis on our sister site, Channel Partners.

Media Kit And Advertising

Want to reach our audience? Access our media kit

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • Channel Partners Online
  • Channel Partners Events
  • MSP 501
  • MSSP Insider
  • IoT World Today
  • Webhostingtalk

WORKING WITH US

  • Contact
  • About us
  • Advertise
  • Newsletter

FOLLOW Channel Futures ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2021 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X