If yes, read on. There are three common problems that can arise when you take on the job of managing IT provider responsibilities.
- You get stuck simply acting as a traffic director passing requests between parties without adding a lot of value
- You are unsure on how to hold the IT provider accountable or lack the best practice knowledge to know how to efficiently do so
- You are unsure how to build a successful relationship with your IT provider
Problems can occur because people are unaware of the best practices for successfully managing outsourced IT relationships – and rightly so as often the person assigned responsibility around “IT” has no industry certification or qualification.
This leads to a scenario where you simply become a glorified traffic controller, passing off requests back and forth, rather than building an effective structure that can enable you to leverage your IT partner to their maximum potential, and minimise the organisations risk effectively.
Fortunately, there are ways to overcome these challenges. Let’s look at four solutions that can help you deliver better value for your organisation, and maximise the value generated from the outsourced IT relationship.
Recommendation #1: Understand and Implement IT Service Management
The first item of business is to understand the principles of “IT Service Management” (ITSM). ITSM is a globally recognised best practice service framework used by internal and outsourced IT departments. Most reputable IT outsourcers will have ITSM processes, and if not, 99% will know what it is.
Essentially, IT service management requires you to classify the different types of IT issues that are occurring and execute separate processes depending on the type of issue.
One of the key areas in order to resolve issues before they become ongoing headaches, is to know about incident management and problem management.
- Incident management: An incident is a one-time issue. For example, a PC gets the blue screen of death or a server stops working correctly. Resolving this issue might be attempted by someone on the Helpdesk and should be resolved as quickly as possible to get the user up and running.
- Problem management: If the same incident/issue occurs again, it becomes problem management. There needs to be a separate process for problem management where more senior engineers must conduct “root cause” analysis. By fixing the problem at a root level you can prevent the issue from occurring again.
By understanding and properly categorising incident management and problem management, you can ensure your IT provider is held accountable. Communicating in their language ensures things move swiftly and efficiently and the relevant processes are triggered. An example of this might involve calling the helpdesk and saying:
“No, this issue has occurred more than once, I’d like for this job to be assigned as problem management.”
If an IT provider treats every job as an “incident”, this will manifest itself in the same problems re-occurring over and over. Consistent issues are a bigger problem and need to be handled differently. Your job as IT contact is to clearly articulate that the issue in question is reoccurring, so your IT provider can immediately implement their problem-management processes and protocols.
One of the fundamental purposes of IT service management is to help break down problems and incidents so you can increase efficiency and resolve problems faster. This will in turn help you better track the types of issues that are occurring and hold your IT provider accountable for these issues.
Recommendation #2: Keep a Register of Issues for a Comprehensive Record of Incident and Problem Management
Keeping a register of issues is an absolute must for recording incidents and problem-management issues. Build a documented list of all issues in the form of an Excel sheet. This list acts as a running record that you can use to keep your IT provider accountable.
By specifically separating incidents from problems, you can clearly follow up issues that need root cause investigation versus general day to day IT problems.
This register of issues will help you monitor all known issues so you can cross check the information given by your IT provider. You can also circulate the register to management so they can be kept up to speed on how your IT is performing.
Recommendation #3: Understand the Contracts and Service Level Agreements
Another common pitfall involves understanding expectations on both sides. You must take the time to understand all the important aspects of the service level agreement (SLA) and the contract. These two items offer helpful information about the IT provider's expectations and deliverables. You need to know what is and isn’t supported.
Make sure you obtain a copy of the contract and sit down and go through the details with your provider. By better understanding both parties’ expectations, you can set up a win-win relationship where everyone is on the same page. The IT provider will also appreciate this.
If expectations are not aligned, work with your provider to realign them so you are both happy. Expectations are the corner stone of a great IT provider relationship; you will use them to hold your provider accountable.
Recommendation #4: Request Major Incident Reports
In IT there are always going to be major incidents that occur regardless of how effectively you manage your IT. When these do occur, it is important to ensure that you always request a thorough incident report. This is a formal way to report incidents and gives you an avenue to provide feedback back up the chain. Make sure that every major incident is reported with the following format:
- What happened
- What was the cause
- How it was fixed
- What is in place to stop it happening again
Store these reports in a separate folder so you can reference them in the future.
Incident reports are an essential part of best practice IT service management. They offer a formal way of tracking major IT incidents and their subsequent reporting.