Where does all the time go?

As I posted recently we are in the process of implementing Autotask which is not a short process however even in this short period of time it is proving to be well worthwhile.  So what have I learned from this process so far?

Business automation is a not a simple process. This quite simply is because the processes which we have in our businesses, regardless of size, are complex and each step is usually dependant on a series of processes which have been completed beforehand. The next thing which has become apparent is that there is a great deal of work which we undertake which is “rationalised”.  You may wonder what the hell I am talking about so lets give an example;  A client calls to say that they have a problem with a notebook and they need us to take a look, we arrange to visit the client at site and take a look.  This visit, only including time onsite, takes 1.5hrs as diagnostic work is performed onsite but the unfortunately the unit has to be removed from site and reinstalled.  It is then brought back to the office to be reinstalled, the client did not have the recovery disk, this process takes a further 3 hrs including updates, drivers etc.  Then the unit is returned to site for final configuration and demonstration to the client to ensure they can see it is working which takes a further 1.25hrs.  All in the process takes a total of 5.75hrs however we know that the client is not going to pay that much for the work to be performed so we only charge for 3hrs.  Some may see this is as being too generous by not charging for this time but we believe in being fair with our clients, sadly the client still thought this was expensive but then you can’t please everyone.

The moral of this is that once you start to account for all of your time then certain things become clear and lessons to be learned.  You may not like these lessons they will ultimately benefit your business, while you still may continue to make these time concessions they will be done knowing what time is being given for free and what is being charged for.

What drives you?

Drive and motivation typically go hand in hand but it’s something that typically does not come naturally.  I love running, in fact the only thing that I love more than running is cycling, but with the hectic lifestyles that we lead today it is difficult to find the time to do these kind of activities especially when you have a young family.  One of the reasons that I love these sports is just the sheer love of the outdoors and the fact it is just a little time where I don’t have to think, just simple primal instinct.  The other reason is that it keeps me fit & healthy which ultimately is better for me.  In order to fit this in though 3 mornings a week I get up at 6.15am and I’m out on the road by 6.30am.  On Thursday I got up as usual and on this night we had carers staying over to look after our little boy (see www.potter-tate.co.uk for more on Danny), when one of them said “I wish I had the dedication to get up at this time and exercise, perhaps you can give me a little of your dedication”.  This got me thinking why do I got up at this un-godly hour and run in the cold, rain snow or whatever the weather brings.  If fact most of my friends think I am insane for doing it but I still get up and I still run.  Don’t get me wrong it’s hard, it’s tiring and sometimes I just feel like stopping and walking back home but I never do.  So why do I do it?

There’s no simple answer I’m afraid, but what I can tell you is that the need to run/cycle is NOT enough.  I want to stay healthy and more important I started about a year ago to struggle, and I mean really struggle to get into my clothes.  This bothered me a lot, I mean I am about 5′ 8″ and was weighing in at just a touch under 14 stone (196 pounds) which was just TOO much.  I thought of dieting but to be honest I love food, all sorts of food and the I couldn’t handle the concept of limiting it through traditional diets.  What I did know was I need to loose it. So I decided that the way to do it was to exercise so I started the Couch to 5K runner plan which too you from nothing to 3 miles in just 9 weeks and it was great.  By summer I was running 3 miles regular in about 30 mins but then I got pains in my legs which too me out so I started back on the bike.  I was cycling 14 miles a session 5 days a week which took about 45 minutes to do and I loved it.  Sadly the bike broke in late November last year so I am back running again which is great.  Throughout all of this, the thing that got me out of bed each morning was the fact that I wanted to be fit & healthy for myself and for my kids.

Now, your probably wondering why the life story?  Well the thing is most articles that guide you in goal setting they don’t usually help with real world examples so hopefully my experience will you.  The thing with goal setting is that you can meet the stages short-term but if you want to continue on day-by-day then you have to have a long-term goal that these little steps go toward.

I don’t have the answers to real goal setting, but I know what worked for me and maybe this can help you.  Any question then please feel free to drop me a line.

Making work-flow

Before we, as a business, moved into managed services I looked into how it was being done and the various software that is typically used to implement a managed services practice.  There are two core elements that were being repeated over and over again and these were:

• Desktop/Server agents – these will typically be used to provide the necessary features to make delivering managed services easier and more importantly efficient.
• PSA Software (Professional Services Automation) – this is the software that will be used to manage your deliverables and help you to ensure that you are delivering on your promises to clients.

The first point that we looked at was the management software that was on offer.  The key player at this time was Kaseya who at this point had a very large share of the desktop/server market.  The software itself is very compete as a package but we found that it did not lend itself well to small deployments in a cost effective manner.  This led our search deeper and it was then when we found Zenith.  At this time a relatively new player but none the less a very powerful toolset and extremely cost effective.  The product also did not have a steep learning curve which meant that the tech’s were able to quickly get on board with the product.  This meant that we were sold on the product that we’d use to manage our clients site’s, next it was on to the PSA.

The next hurdle was to be the decision on what PSA software we would be using to manage the clients.  As with many MSP’s we initially decided to start by running a relatively manual system by keeping notes which involved a combination of both spreadsheets and completed paperwork that is then filed.  Within a short period of time we found that we started to outgrow this manual system so we then had to undergo the process of looking a tools that would be able to manage this a little cleaner.  The first product that we tried was osTicket, this worked great for simple ticketing based on email transaction as well as web based entry.  Now to be fair this worked fantastic at what it did but we needed more from it, we required more integration of the fringe elements such time tracking for onsite work as well as site documentation.  Next we looked at Shockey Monkey, this is a project being developed for the community Vlad Mazek (OwnWebNow) which is shaping up to be an amazing project but unfortunately we were quickly being over taken by our needs which meant that we needed to look for a ready made package.  After much searching we have finally settled on AutoTask.  This will truly help our business moving forward as the whole workflow will be managed from end-to-end.  From the moment the call comes in a ticket is created.  From here and work done is added to the ticket, if onsite work is required then a site visit can be added to the ticket.  For any work done on the ticket it is allocated a code which allows us to govern what charges are applied and if they have a Managed Service Agreement then the time is allocated to the account and is tracked through the account.  This means that we can see very quickly that our accounts are profitable or not.  When the work is completed we can then make any adjustments to charges and the post it for invoicing.  The final step is then to import the invoice into QuickBooks directly.  If terms of the techs onsite, they can now fill in the work as soon as they leave site from a PDA/handheld device which means we have the most accurate information possible as it is still fresh in their mind.

All of this works to make our business run smoother and more importantly make my life easier which I am all for.  Many of the lesson I have learned others have learned and documented before me, so why listen to me?  No idea, but for what it’s worth I didn’t listen but sometimes you have to work things out for yourself

If a jobs worth doing…

The old saying goes that “if a jobs worth doing, it’s worth doing well” and never a true word was spoken.  The world we live in today is fast moving and sometimes you feel as through you are in the wake of an avalanche with no way of stopping.  People today do not spend enough time on things and it is all too often the case that they will procrastinate until it is too late to do a good job.  Sometimes it is frugal to procrastinate as it gives us time to plan the work that we are  undertaking, allow the creative thought process to run so we can create the work at hand.  However, more often than not this time is not required and more importantly it is wasted with resulting work being typically of poor standard.  A classic example of this was this evening my son said that he had homework to do.  This had been given to him on Friday but he had not done it, he also didn’t have the assignment as another child had taken it from him.  Creatively enough he decided to create a document which discussed various plants as he knew this was the topic.  The resultant document was not so impressive as he had copied parts from the Internet without formatting he text correctly and more importantly he had copied one section three times.  The resultant document was just rushed and had no real effort put in to ensure that what was being presented was correct or of reasonable quality.  This may seem a harsh analysis of his work but I was raised with the understand of “If a jobs worth doing, it’s worth doing well”.  So with that I assisted him in making the necessary corrections and explained that what he had done was great but he needed to be more conscious when doing this sort of work.

The fact is that we are all judged by the work that we do for others.  This could be something as simple has helping over the phone, guiding a customer to the right place in a store or it could be a new network installation.  Whatever the task we, as individuals, should always try to strive to better ourselves and stand out above the crowd by going that extra mile to make our client happy.  Always remember that it takes a lot to impress people today but it doesn’t take a lot to disappoint them, which do you want to do?

There’s mad and there is just plain insane

I picked this link up the other day and all I can say is WOW. These guys must be completely off their heads doing this but take a look for yourself and let me know what you think.

http://tinyurl.com/9cj5el

Just for the record I would LOVE to do this…..

Some things are just wrong

I have to say that although I work in Nottingham I grew up in Derby and while I always used to get stick for it I was pretty proud of Derby, warts and everything, so to speak.  Though today after reading the following I am truly ashamed to be associated with the people of that town.  I first read about this when it first happened but hearing it again first hand is just disgusting.  If this is the evolution of people today then I think we should all hang our heads in shame: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/derbyshire/7831166.stm

My thoughts go out to Shaun’s family, I can only hope that the people involved are ashamed of themselves.  I only hope that this was a sick minority and not a true reflection of “the general public”.

Reinventing me

Intriguing title maybe but what am I talking about.  As we go through life we become who we are by the people we meet, the surroundings we live in, our role models that we adopt as well as many other things but does this make a better you?  In short maybe but then maybe not.  Personal development is all about looking at those that surround us and looking what, if any, traits can I adopt which will make me a better person.  It is also about looking at who we are now and seeing if what we have become is all that we want to be or if there are some things which you don’t like that you can change.

In my current journey I am looking at who I am now and seeing what things need to be changed to get me to the person that I want to be and in some respects the person that I was.  The last few years have taken their toll on me which, some of you may have read before, has been a very trying time with building what was basically a new business as well as our newly born son being very sick in hospital.  This time allowed certain aspects of me to develop for the worse, something which I am not proud of but I do seek to change.  These characteristics are something that I know I’m doing but are consciously allowing to continue so these are things that I am trying to tackle.  Why be so honest and open about this? Well in short because I am not perfect nor would I ever claim to be.  What I do claim is to try and do better each day, one small step at a time.  So what can you do to be better each day:

• Look at the things that you do each day and think to yourself, “Would you be happy to be on the receiving end?”
• Do you think that you are achieving the best out of your day.
• Could you be a better person

Once you have answered these questions then it’s a good place to start and from here you can build an idea of what you need to change and how you’ll change it.  Do I have the answers? No just some questions that you can ask yourself and just maybe what I am figuring out can help you too.

Friend or foe?

This week has been an important week in terms of IT, Technology and gadget lovers for this week has been CES (Consumer Electronics Association) in Las Vegas.  For those not familiar with the event this the annual show where technology vendors get an opportunity to show their wares to the international community both in terms of the general public as well as the trade press.  So of the best upcoming gadgets are seen here before anywhere else.  This years big showing from Microsoft is Windows 7, a product which has received a great deal of attention ever since it was first discussed.

Once of the reasons has been due to the dismal failure of Windows Vista, that is not to say that the product is bad because to be quite honest it isn’t, but initially it received a lot of bad press due delayed deliveries as well as, once launched, poor compatibility with hardware as well as some software.  Now what we have to understand with this is when any new product is released there will always be teething problems, this is not unique to technology this applies  to cars, motorbikes just about anything really.  This is because not matter how much you test something there is always going to be someone that will do something in a way that was never imagined or it will become visible through simple length of use.  Windows Vista itself has been a very solid stable product for a great deal of time now, I have been using it myself for over a year now and it really just works, that’s all there is to say on the matter.  But it never won the hearts of the IT community which resulted in poor uptake, this then left a poor legacy for Microsoft which is going to be hard to shake.  One of the biggest challenges it had to overcome is that Windows XP is just so good, it had been a solid operating system that is highly compatible which has left it with an almost “cult-like” following.

So what does this mean for Windows 7?  Well simply put it has a very hard path to find in life, it must first overcome that love and passion that is held by the Windows XP followers.  Then, if it overcomes XP, it must then work its way through the minefield of the Windows Vista naysayers which in itself is going to be a challenge of its own and I believe that in itself will be more difficult.

So what of Windows 7 itself, well I have not yet had chance to install it myself however I picked up a twitter from Scott Ullrich (the developer behind pfSense) overnight which said

Upgraded windows Vista -> Windows 7 and holy <beepers>, it’s fantastic! No, seriously… Not kidding!!

 

Still in the meantime take a look at these videos courtesy of BBC news and see for yourself:  BBC News

Service with a smile

I believe that the current economic climate helps us all to appreciate that we need to nurture the client base we have much more than we have previously.  As businesses start to hunker down to weather the oncoming storm they need to know that their trusted advisors, whether this be IT or other services, are there to huddle up to them to help weather the storm.  Part of the process is to interact with our clients on a much more proactive way than previously, getting involved in there business and seeing where you can help them to save money.  Sadly some people just are not getting it.

Here is an example of how NOT to perform customer service:

We recently had to make a claim on our insurance due to a leak in our central heating system, this resulted in a number of our carpets being ruined.  While that other areas are still being sorted the carpets have been ordered and I was contacted by Carpet Right over at Derby yesterday to inform me that they were in and to sort out fitting.  The conversation went like this:

Me: Hello can I help?

Man: Hi this is Carpet Right at Derby we’ve got your carpet in, can we sort out fitting it?

Me: Yeah that’d be great, but I am just with someone now would it be possible to give me a call back this afternoon to arrange a time?

Man: What me call you?

Me: Errr yes please.

Man: Errr Ok I guess I will if I remember

Me: Oh..O K … thanks

I have done a course in customer service in that past and while I do not profess to be an idol to look up to on this subject I know what is poor customer service and clearly this man should not be in any job which requires him interacting with a paying customer.  Needless to say that when I do want carpets in the future, which I am paying for myself, I will NOT be going to see this company and as we are always taught “If someone has a good experience with your company they may tell 1-2 people, if they have a bad experience they will tell 20+”.  Guess which category I fall into!  Oh and just for the record, he never rang back so clearly he didn’t remember.

Security via Interguard

I have just had the heads-up from a good friend of mine to let me know that he will be sending over my copy of Interguard software for home, laptop and corporate security.  All being well I should have the stuff over this evening and all things being equal will get something posted up over the next couple of days.  As products go this is shaping up to be a great product with a very comprehensive range for features for such things as monitoring web access.  DataLock which helps prevent data leakage from a business as well as laptop security so should your beloved laptop be stolen or lost then it can located, data retrieved and the notebook disabled from ever working again.

Awesome stuff so you’ll have the review as soon as I have it.