Question for anyone who works at an MSP

I have a question regarding working at a MSP. I am trying to determine if this is indicative of MSP's in general or just an issue at some MSPs.

My biggest complaint is that we are limited to doing things in a timely fashion every time. When I say timely fashion, I really mean time = money ($155/hour) therefore they are of the mindset that we hurry up and finish this before it gets more expensive. The downside to this is that doing it (whatever "it" is) the right way is almost always more time consuming therefore it is more expensive.

Because of this, I frequently find my self getting things up and running but then stopping when I know I should really spend some more time on this and work all the bugs out and devise a plan to follow up an test further. It drives me crazy! I also find myself noticing all sorts of little things that add up to big problems, but because the "primary issue" is what needs addressed I am unable to go back and fix these little things.

I brought this up to my manager and gave him a few examples. He mentioned that we should be pushing them to do it the right way every time and that we should be bringing these "small" issues to their attention but ultimately they cut the checks. If they don't want to do something (no matter how dire the consequences) we cant make them do it. Otherwise, he agrees with me. But if we push the client to spend the money and go the extra step, then we risk driving them off to the cheaper competitor that will let them slide and do things as cheap as possible.

Is this a common theme among outsourced IT?

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Comments

networker050184

It is common that clients don't want to spend one more penny than absolutely necessary when you are working with small clients. When you get to the bigger multi million dollar customers they'd rather spend the money to get it right the first time.

--chris--

networker050184 wrote: »

It is common that clients don't want to spend one more penny than absolutely necessary when you are working with small clients. When you get to the bigger multi million dollar customers they'd rather spend the money to get it right the first time.

That makes sense. We definitely cater to your average small business (10-50 employees) and only have 2 publicly traded clients. Both of them are like what you described...I never made the connection until now.

it2b

The MSP I work at expects all issues to be resolved within an hour. If they can't be we are supposed to escalate to an account manager or senior member. At times I think it's an unrealistic expectation. A virus scan takes so long to run. Software won't install any faster.

I also like to be thorough and document solutions or builds. That is lacking here as well.

Having worked in larger companies as well, I also can attest to the monetary comments made here too.

eansdad

Your manager is right, you aim for right but sometimes the customer wants right now. All you can do is inform and document when they won't go the extra mile to complete a project right. At least then when they come back about it breaking or not working as expected you can show them why.

markulous

it2b wrote: »

The MSP I work at expects all issues to be resolved within an hour. If they can't be we are supposed to escalate to an account manager or senior member. At times I think it's an unrealistic expectation. A virus scan takes so long to run. Software won't install any faster.

I also like to be thorough and document solutions or builds. That is lacking here as well.

Having worked in larger companies as well, I also can attest to the monetary comments made here too.

The MSP I'm at actually has a 30 minute window, however we can ask for extensions with a clear path to resolution (e.g. malware scans and software installs).

TylerBarrett

The MSP I work at has many many customers as you describe. Generally they leave us do our job and do it the right way. Most of them have tried to cheap out and they have gotten bit in the butt by doing so. So now they let us do our thing. We're also at the point that if doing it the wrong way means that they are going to keep calling us to fix the same thing over and over again (@ $125/hour unless then have our monitoring then it's $100/hour), that we tell them they either have to let us do it properly, or we remove them as a client.

In regards to virus scans and such, we have a remote control/monitoring product that we install and charge a monthly fee for, that includes antivirus which catches the vast majority of items. If however a system does get infected, we bring out a loaner system and set it up and bring the original back to the office for a complete virus scan and charge them our instore virus removal rate. We have the system for a couple days and don't have to worry about the user/company being down.

NetworkingStudent

We have 2 sets of cleints
1)One set of cleints are prepaid with a support contact for thier whole site and they get unlimited tech support during business hours.
If you call this customer or need to take action on something it goes very quickly.
2) Set two is a group of customers that are a mix bag of customers, households, businessnesses, ect.
These customers often need to know why they being billed, what is the cost, is there a chaper way to do this or that ect. ect. ect.
Set number is 2 is the hardest to work and it's harder to make a profit off the work we do for them.

Our escalation window on any ticket is 15 minutes

--chris--

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

We have 2 sets of cleints
1)One set of cleints are prepaid with a support contact for thier whole site and they get unlimited tech support during business hours.
If you call this customer or need to take action on something it goes very quickly.
2) Set two is a group of customers that are a mix bag of customers, households, businessnesses, ect.
These customers often need to know why they being billed, what is the cost, is there a chaper way to do this or that ect. ect. ect.
Set number is 2 is the hardest to work and it's harder to make a profit off the work we do for them.

Our escalation window on any ticket is 15 minutes

Thats a fairly accurate break down of our clients, unfortunately we are:

10% category 1 and 90% category 2

This thread has really underscored our need to move as many clients as possible to the manged model and away from break/fix. With the managed model billing is straight forward and consistent, and I would be left alone to do things the right way

Johndi

Tis the nature of break/fix clients. I too work for an MSP, and break/fix clients want the job to be done as quick as possible, and if its working, no matter if its not working in the optimum configuration, then its good enough.

Not going to change until your company gets your b/f converted over to fully managed, and if the majority of your clients are SMBs with 15 or less employees? Good luck!

gespenstern

That's a problem with most smaller shops. I currently don't work for MSP, but I did in the past for 13 years.

Eventually, as time goes on, young sysadmins develop "I could care less" approach and do only what business wants them to do instead of achieving perfection. However, some clients (most likely bigger ones with more lucrative business) may need some long lasting issues be resolved then your skill to work until you get A+ could be in demand. You should develop ability to switch between two modes, "don't care and do what I'm told to and nothing more" and "I'll do my best to fix this long term" and use them according to business needs.

ThePrimetimer

Happens all to often.

We have clients that need the attention on clean up (data closets, cabling, server and desktop cleanup, etc...), but with the number of clients and sometimes the amount of time it takes to resolve the issues, you fall into the mentality of getting it fixed and moving one to the next one.

That has been my experience. Seems that the tree grows faster than the roots and then it's hard to catch up. I try a little here and there by staying after hours when I'm not expected to work on client issues and don't get bothered. I don't mind it since the over time is nice.

At any rate, I can see where your coming from OP. I would like to take the time to cleanup, document, and become more proactive as I know it would greatly help in having less client issues.