By Daniel Garcia

Daniel Garcia

In today’s current technological climate, managed services providers (MSPs) are in demand more than ever. With more businesses looking to outsource their IT, there are endless opportunities to seize. That said, it’s important to recognize that the need to scale operations is equally key to business growth.

As an MSP, you know that your technicians play a crucial role in your business. They’re the backbone of your service desks and often are the first people in the office and last out. Having an entire service desk operation, complete with technicians, enables you to deliver on the promises you make to your customers. However, all too often, the technicians get stuck doing mundane and repetitive, time-consuming tasks. Password resets, new user creations and user terminations are just a few examples. Doing the same repetitive tasks can often lead to employees becoming dissatisfied with their roles and looking for the nearest exit.

What if there was a solution to this? What if there was a tool you could implement that would free up your tech’s time, enabling them to focus more attention on more complex areas of their roles? Sounds too good to be true, right?

Automation Is Key to Success

Implementing an automation solution will help your company improve its service desk. By definition, automation is the process in which technology is used to complete daily tasks with minimal human interaction. So, rather than your techs working their way through an endless stream of tickets, you can use the automation tool to quickly and efficiently sieve through the noise. The result? A better night’s sleep for your techs and improved operational efficiency across the board, which will result in higher customer satisfaction rates as tickets are being resolved promptly.

Automating tickets will enable you to improve your operational efficiency. According to Logic Monitors’ recent research report, “The Next-Gen Managed Service Provider” (registration required), 95% of the 600 businesses surveyed say automating their processes is necessary to gain the time to focus on innovation and strategic goals. This suggests that if you automate the most time-consuming and repetitive tickets, your techs will have more time to focus on growing their skill set, building relationships with customers and working on areas that will help you grow your business and become more profitable.

Let’s take the number of errors you usually see across your service desk. As humans, we all make mistakes and get a little burnt out sometimes. However, an automation solution will help reduce the number of errors. This is because when a ticket is logged in, specific instructions for that ticket and those like it will be triggered and performed the same way each time, leaving little to no room for error.

In the same way that you will see a reduction in errors, you will also see an increase in productivity. Again, this is because each ticket has a set of specific instructions, which are automatically performed the same way each time, even if your techs are out of the office. This speeds up the resolution process and gives your techs more time to focus on other key aspects of their roles that will contribute to business growth and improved customer satisfaction.

Which Type of Automation Is Right for My Company?

As with any solution, the options available are endless, but finding the right one for your business can be challenging. Do your research before you dive headfirst into purchasing and implementing an automation solution. Spend some time hopping on a few demos and seeing how the solutions work and integrate. You should also consider if the solution can help mitigate your pain points. Can it help to save you time, money, and resources? Will it deliver faster ticket-resolution times? And most importantly, does the vendor align with you and your business needs?

Automating ticket resolution is a game changer for MSPs. However, going through the buying and implementation process can be challenging as you need to fine-tune what works for you and your business. What can be said for automation is that in doing it, you will be allowing yourself to provide your customers with a lot more, which will ultimately contribute to ensuring your MSP remains profitable and grows in the right direction.

Daniel Garcia is chief customer officer at Pia, an automation platform, where he accelerates business growth through sales, marketing and channel teams. He also is CEO at Virtual IT Group, an Australian MSP. You may follow him on LinkedIn or follow Pia on LinkedIn.