7 Reasons why Documentation is Critical for your MSP
BY IT GLUE | April 17, 2018
Why is documentation so important? Imagine being told to go through your day with a blindfold on – constantly having to search for any information that would help you find your next step. It’d be pretty difficult wouldn’t it, and you’d probably waste a significant amount of time. That’s what it’s like without documentation.
With documentation, you’re able to move forward throughout your day because your documentation holds all the necessary information you need to complete your processes. No more blindfold, and no more searching blindly for information. Instead, tasks become easier to complete, and goals become more possible to achieve. Your documentation is no longer a side project, instead, here’s 7 reasons why documentation is foundational for your success:
1) Reduced Time Waste
Consistency equals efficiency. One of the main causes of wasted time is having inconsistent processes. Documentation is how you combat those. If your processes vary depending on which staff member is completing the task, or worse, if your processes vary simply because there is little process to follow, time is being wasted. Chances are high that certain employees complete tasks more efficiently than others. It’s even possible that one specific employee completes a task more efficiently depending on how they decide to do it that day. Good documentation allows you to choose the most efficient way to complete a task, and document it so that all staff members go about it the same way.
2) Fewer Errors
Documentation not only reduces time waste, but decreases the chances of potential errors occurring during even the more complex processes. If you leave processes up to individual discretion, errors are bound to be made. But if you strategically document your processes so that they are easy to follow by even your most junior tech, they’ll have a much better success rate.
3) Superior Customer Service
Have you ever had a client ask a question that you didn’t immediately have the answer to? The momentary panic initiates fluster as you search for the right information and the next thing you know you’re stuttering through your response. Having all of your clients’ information documented, alongside your processes, allows you to ensure you are always providing a superior customer experience. Simply access the information you need in IT Glue, and spend less time searching under pressure. Not only does this save you the frustration and embarrassment, it demonstrates your investment in the client and builds their trust. The more they trust you, the more likely they are to provide you with business.
4) Lower Training Costs
How long do you think it takes to get a new tech at 80% efficiency? For the average MSP, it takes about 3 months. Now how much do you think that period of training costs you? Approximately $35,088. However, it doesn’t have to cost that much, or take that long.
Best-in-class MSPs can effectively train new hires to be 80% effective in their position after just 4 weeks, reducing the total cost to approximately $12,642. How do they do that? Through good documentation. For new hires, and your company, documentation is the key to success. Step-by-step processes allow a new tech to spend less time relying on the guidance of an already busy staff member, and more time directly increasing their efficiency.
5) Competitive Advantage
With good documentation in place, not only can you can achieve a lot more, but you can prove it. With the saved time documentation gives you, you can start setting better SLAs with the confidence that they will be consistently met. Documentation speeds up your service times, allowing you to increase the frequency that you can be available to your customer. Prove this to your clients – and your prospects – by showing them how you will document their information, and providing evidence of your track record. It will be obvious that your service is superior to your competitors.
6) Greater Accessibility
At IT Glue, we recognize the necessity of using the cloud to store information due to a specific problem that many businesses have. Imagine one of your most valuable techs leaving the company – when they leave, they leave with all of their knowledge as well. However, if that knowledge has been documented and stored in the cloud, you’ll still have access to the material even after the source leaves. This boosts your reliability significantly and therefore generates further trust between you and your client.
Moreover, storing your documentation in the cloud allows it to be readily available regardless of your location. Say you’re looking to hire remote workers and need them to access specific processes from afar, all of the necessary processes will be available at their fingertips despite the distance. In another scenario, imagine your office location is moving in the near future. The cloud ensures that you won’t risk losing the data that you’ve stored during the moving process. Ultimately, creating good documentation and storing it in the cloud offers you greater accessibility, consistency and the confidence that all of your information is available at all times, in all places.
7) Trusted Security
Your clients are trusting you to ensure that their information is safe and secure at all times. To do this, you must cover all the necessary steps for providing security. Start by implementing multi-factor authentication and single-sign on for accessing information. This gives both you and your client the confidence that the person accessing the information is who they are supposed to be.
At IT Glue, we utilize MFA and SSO alongside being SOC 2 compliant in order to provide the utmost security for you and your clients’ information. With your documentation being as important as it is, you don’t want to leave it up to the risk of a security breach.
While the importance of your documentation might feel overwhelming, IT Glue offers you everything necessary for maximizing the efficiency, accessibility, and security of your information. As a central hub for all of your data and processes with customizable accessibility for all of your staff, using IT Glue for your documentation practices will lead you to documentation mastery. To learn more about the need for great documentation, we’ve compiled an e-book that outlines the case against waste.
