At Chalkline, we aim to deliver the best client experience and enjoy the journey whilst doing so, and that starts at the very beginning – onboarding.
In this day and age, where technology is intertwined in almost every part of a company, changing Managed Service Providers can be a challenge!
Worry not – Managed IT is our bread and butter, and through onboarding hundreds of companies across diverse industries and of various sizes, we have learnt a great deal about the potential pitfalls. We are constantly improving our processes so that we stay on top of the complexity of IT, to keep it simple for you and guarantee a smooth transition.
We’ve boiled down the challenges of onboarding into five key points:
1. Communication
One of the first hurdles is clear and effective communication between all relevant parties. On top of our relationship with the client, there can be several third parties involved in a company’s existing IT support. We make sure there are regular meetings so that everyone has clear expectations and timeframes to work with, and that all information is captured.
This isn’t just up to the point of onboarding either – we catch up days, weeks, even months after the initial transition date so that clients can raise concerns and provide feedback. All our teams, ranging from sales and logistics to projects and service desk, are in sync throughout the process so that they’re ready to help out (the perks of having an open office!).
2. Documentation
Proceeding to next steps, there’s plenty of data to be handed over. Anything relating to users, devices, infrastructure, logins, guides, photos, past tickets – the list goes on! We know we may not get perfect information in our handovers, but we try our best to gather as much as possible and adapt where we lack data.
Our “Service Transition” process documents ask relevant questions in an easy-to-follow manner, so that both the client and existing IT support can provide the right info. We then update our systems, and once our services start and calls come in, we fill in any gaps as we go. All our teams have a great ethos of ensuring new discoveries are thoroughly documented so that repeat requests can be addressed in a matter of minutes rather than hours.
3. Timing
At times, third parties and clients can’t pick the best date possible for everyone involved. Clients may even be stuck in circumstances where they require IT support as soon as possible. Whilst we’d love to have as much time as possible to allow for the smoothest transition, we are able to accommodate these scenarios. We have dedicated onboarding engineers who can commit themselves to the handover process, as well as project managers keeping everyone on track.
4. Changes
With changeovers, especially for those who aren’t as tech-savvy, it can be a major shift in terms of tools and processes. We run our points of contact through these to help with familiarity – our ticketing system, remote tools, systems for common processes like setting up users and devices – and we like to think they’re all sensible and user-friendly!
Our teams handle running users through these tools and processes with patience and understanding, and we’re always receptive to feedback. We have these systems well documented such that we’re able to share guides on how to use them as well. Whilst our solutions are standardized to optimize support, we can afford to be flexible when needs must.
5. Security
We take Cyber Security very seriously. The security landscape changes on a daily basis, so we have many layers of protection in place to help keep our clients secure.
This does inevitably come with some “friction” – logging in to services will often require two factor authentication, installing software will need admin approval, and so on. However, these small extra steps to access IT greatly outweigh the potential repercussions of a data breach. Plus, we are always improving our processes to ensure both security and convenience are kept in mind – for example, any applications a company may require can be automatically deployed, removing the need for admin access.
