Our service reporting: how it works, what’s behind it and how it benefits you
It is highly automated, provides deep insights, does not lie and is apparently not only well received internally. Our service reporting has reached a level of maturity that makes us proud. But more importantly, it brings real added value to our Managed Service customers. A look behind the scenes.
We were delighted to receive the winner’s award for our “Transparency in service reporting” project at the SMFS 2023 (Service Management Forum Schweiz). From the jury statement: “ITpoint’s winning project impressed us with its clear objectives, innovative implementation and demonstrable impact.” For us, the award was confirmation that we are tackling the right things and doing them well. After all, the SMFS Award stands for recognition of service management projects and innovations in Switzerland. It was nice! But for us, it’s not about winning prizes. We want to continuously improve our services and benefit from them together with our customers. Read on to find out why the topic of “reporting” is so important to us.
Armin Büeler and Cuno Vuillemin (both ITpoint) at the presentation of the SMSF Award 2023. The trophy is given a place of honor.
Trigger: inefficient service management exchange
Anyone who has been using infrastructure/IT as a service from us for several years will remember the content of the regular service management meetings. The service managers came prepared with a multifaceted report document that they had created manually from various data sources before the meeting. Given the amount of work involved, it was no wonder that the service manager always took the time to go into detail about what had been prepared. This not only led to boredom for our customers, but also meant that a large part of the meeting was filled with reviews of the past that no one was really interested in – provided the service levels had been met. In addition, the transparency of the reports was insufficient. Manually prepared reports are one-dimensional and do not necessarily show what the person who is supposed to assess them really wants to know. We had to change something!
The new way: one tool, everything at a glance, completely transparent
The core component of our service reporting is now a web application. Because standard software was not sufficient for our or our customers’ needs, we developed the platform ourselves. We call it the “ORIA Portal”. It gives our customers a completely transparent view of everything to do with the contractually agreed IT services and SLAs: monthly billing, service level agreements, security reports, usage and analysis of all IT services, technical documentation, information on configurations and assets as well as an overview of request management.
The web portal not only provides a real insight into the status quo, but also allows you to look back at past periods. Countless data sensors constantly feed the portal’s database and enable queries to be made in real time. Operation is intuitive, “on demand” and does not require any IT knowledge.
Easy to use, informative, real-time and truthful. With just a few clicks, you can find all information relating to IT services, contracts and SLAs in the “ORIA Portal”.
The main benefit: from reactive service reviews to proactive customer care
Thanks to the portal, the coordination between our Managed Service customers and our Service Managers has largely changed. As our customers now cover their information needs almost entirely “on demand”, there is much more scope for us to make ourselves useful to them. Namely, by:
- better understanding and supporting your business and IT strategy
- have the ability to provide timely support for customer initiatives and projects
- being able to focus on the continuous improvement of collaboration
Another benefit for our customers is that they can now reuse data internally quickly and at will. Be it when information about assets is required, costs need to be charged internally or internal or external audits are pending.
From Service Provider to «Trusted Advisor»
When you see the ITpoint logo, it is often accompanied by “Trusted IT for Business”. We launched this slogan in parallel with the development of the ORIA portal. We no longer see ourselves solely in the role of service provider, but want to support your business with future-oriented, first-class, affordable IT services and a managed service concept tailored to your needs (including our “Enterprise Cloud”). As proactively as possible. We believe that with the ORIA portal and our transparent service reporting, we have launched a game changer that is particularly useful for managed services and cloud customers in the SME segment.
We really like the ideas of the BRM (Business Relationship Management Institute) – especially their Relationship Maturity Model. It shows the impressive gap between “ad hoc provider” (level 1) and “strategic partner” (level 5) in five stages. In our collaboration with you, we see ourselves at level 4: “Trusted Advisor”. We would like to use our IT services for you in such a way that your business benefits from them. We would not presume to see ourselves as a “strategic partner” for you. We are too close to infrastructure and too far removed from business software and your processes for that. What is not, could theoretically become. First of all, we would be delighted if you saw us as a “trusted advisor”. Or where do you see us? We look forward to any feedback!
Inspired by BRM’s Relationship Maturity Model and Maslow’s pyramid of needs: our own interpretation of the various stages of working with you. Hopefully you see us where we see ourselves.
Questions and suggestions? Please contact:
Armin Büeler
Senior Service Manager & Chief Process Officer
[email protected]
+41 41 798 80 63
