User support, or emergency computer help. How it is done and how much it costs
Repairing computers at workplaces and solving business users' problems in the event of any incidents often resembles extinguishing fires — the response to failures and breakdowns should be as quick as possible. Without a special service is not enough. But it’s not so easy to answer the question whether to create your own department or to contact an outsourcer without numbers and examples. I figured out how much tech support can do for medium and large companies.
I took up the article because I and my colleagues from Onlanta often have to explain to potential customers how the cost of technical support for users is shaped. Talk about an adequate comparison of prices and organization of the IT outsourcer and its own IT service remains relevant, although the service is standard and well-known.
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“User support” is the most typical task for both enterprise IT services and IT outsourcing companies. Here we are talking about the maintenance of an automated workplace (AWP) of each employee, which in addition to the computer may also include a printer, scanner, and other peripherals.
Readers who want to get acquainted with how the processes of technical support of users are organized and which specialists are involved in these processes can look under the cat. We turn to examples of calculating the cost of technical support.
We offer calculation and comparison of the cost of “User Support” services by our own IT service and when outsourcing in four options: with a number of users 200 people, and then with an increase of this number to 400, 1000 and 3000 users.
Below is a table of results of typical calculations, which shows how much will have to be spent on support with a different number of users.
The table shows practical cost estimates prepared in the framework of feasibility studies for a number of customers. The cost of outsourcing also includes taxes and overhead costs of the company.
Note that in the version with its own IT service, the customer, when increasing the volumes, is forced to take on a staff of additional specialists to fit into the internal SLA. And an outsourcing company has the opportunity to increase the proportion (%) of employment of specialists with the necessary qualifications.
A source
When comparing your IT service and outsourcing with a volume of up to 200 workstations, the cost of support will be more profitable for your own IT service. But with an increase in the staff of more than 400 AWPs, the cost of services provided by an outsourcing company becomes more attractive than its IT service. With a further increase in workplaces, outsourcing increases the advantage thanks to a non-linear increase in the involved AWP support specialists and streamlined support processes.
Above, we compared the cost of customer support for the outsourcing model and through our IT service. When choosing your option for implementing the service, here's something else worth considering.
Service "User Support", as a rule, is paid at the rate of one supported AWS. If the automated workplaces are serviced less, then the monthly payment is reduced. This is beneficial to companies experiencing seasonal business fluctuations.
An example of outsourcing elasticity
Ice Cream Aquamarine sells ice cream. Imagine that in each tent there is one AWP, one printer, a cash desk and a camera, and there are about 100 such tents in Moscow. Let the SLA be "light": solve the incident for 8 hours in 8x5 mode.
In such an environment, both an outsourcer and its IT service will need at least two employees. But when the “dead season” (autumn-winter-spring) comes for the ice-cream tent and the ice-cream sales fall significantly, the company will decide to reduce the number of mobile tents to 50.
Now, one specialist of his own IT service will become underutilized and the customer will have to pay wasted for about half a year (with an average salary taking into account taxes it is 80 thousand x 6 months = 0.5 million during a difficult business period of calm. At the same time, the outsourcing company employs an engineer with a small load on other projects, and the customer will only pay for the support of the remaining workstations of the AWPs.
Comparing the price of an outsourcer and the cost of its own specialists, the customer often does not take into account taxes: “Why are you asking for 55 thousand? I will hire an admin and will pay him 40 thousand. ” At the same time, the costs for in-house IT specialists include the following payments:
Total: 43% *
If you add these 43%, then, most likely, prices will be comparable.
In addition to taxes, it will be useful to include in the list of expenses for your own IT service recruiting payments, that is, the costs of finding employees, posting vacancies, interviews, etc.
* The figures are given for the case when the amount of employee benefits does not exceed the marginal base for the calculation of insurance contributions established by the Government of the Russian Federation (for our calculations, this is usually the case).
Practical example
Just a few months ago, I received a request to calculate the cost of supporting user workplaces. The volumes were not very large - around 200 users plus server and network equipment. I wrapped the calculation nicely in the commercial offer and sent it to the customer.
Two days later, the customer said that he liked the composition of our team and the principles of work, but he completely disagrees with the cost of services. It turned out that the customer reasoned quite banal: “I pay for two specialists about 80 thousand rubles a month - 40 each. And your proposal contains a figure almost twice as high. "
We calculated and added all taxes to the cost of the customer’s specialists, and the figures turned out to be comparable. The customer appreciated that we can, if necessary, select an engineer of the required specialization, who would solve specific problems, and also replace the missing specialists (on vacation, at the hospital), and still chose to outsource.
I repeat that the introduction of a centralized customer support service in your company involves debugging business processes, creating the Service Desk service, implementing the ITSM system, training specialists, maintaining a knowledge base, working with service partners, and organizing the supply chain logistics.
A source
If the SLA is not fully completed and is below the KPI threshold, then the outsource provider recalculates the monthly payment, reducing bills. For its IT service, creating a mechanism of material incentives and responsibility for the non-fulfillment of requirements for the quality and promptness of technical support is a complex and sometimes unsolvable task.
In many cases, it is physically difficult to achieve an acceptable level of SLA from full-time IT staff. For example, small and medium-sized companies, as a rule, take an IT specialist for a fixed payment. He is the “unit” that must maintain the equipment in working condition. With such an employee, they do not sign the SLA to perform work — he simply does the job as much as possible.
A source
Practical example
An outsourcing company pays fines for violating SLA. More precisely, the amount of the invoice is reduced by a fine. In our practice, this rarely happens, and yet no one is immune from it.
One day we didn’t fulfill the SLA due to the fact that the regional partner at the “inappropriate moment” decided to refuse to work under the contract. We had to quickly (within a day) look for a new partner. But during the search, an incident happened - one user PC did not work. Our engineer arrived, performed the necessary work and restored the AWP, but already with some violation of the SLA. At the end of the month, when the dedicated manager of our company wrote a report to the customer, he made a recalculation in favor of the customer because of this violation of the SLA.
When choosing an outsourcing scheme, the customer removes the problems associated with the lack of specialists at the time of vacations and sick leave.
A source
Practical example
A small travel company had in its staff an administrator who faithfully came to serve the IT infrastructure. Nobody thought that one administrator at the office was the risk of being in a situation when the infrastructure was not working due to his unexpected dismissal, illness, or even planned vacation. This is what happened. During the week when the administrator got to the hospital, the company had a failure at the PBX and several AWPs failed. By the time when the administrator found a replacement, the company’s losses from idleness totaled hundreds of thousands of rubles.
Another point - the outsourcing company has accumulated competencies in the form of a knowledge base, reducing the time to solve some incidents.
Possible increase in the cost of services. Under the current contract, it is difficult to raise the price, but when signing a new contract it is possible. This probability can be reduced by choosing a performer on the basis of competitive procedures, the conditions of which, among other parameters, take into account the cost of services.
Transition period. The service provider needs to get comfortable with the customer's IT infrastructure, to debug the processes — this can take from several weeks to several months. The term depends on the experience of the outsourcing company and the size of the client company. In order to avoid disputable situations, prescribe an adequate transition period in the contract and, if possible, provide the outsourcer with the fullest information and means to provide services (knowledge base, list and composition of the supported equipment, etc.).
Information security issues. To ensure that customers comply with information security requirements when providing IT services, the service provider is certified annually for compliance with the ISO 27001 international standard. And the service provider must be ready to inform the customer about the information security policy adopted by him.
That turns out this picture.
Count, analyze, choose. How to organize user support - you decide. And less you "fires" in the IT infrastructure!
A source
I took up the article because I and my colleagues from Onlanta often have to explain to potential customers how the cost of technical support for users is shaped. Talk about an adequate comparison of prices and organization of the IT outsourcer and its own IT service remains relevant, although the service is standard and well-known.
')
“User support” is the most typical task for both enterprise IT services and IT outsourcing companies. Here we are talking about the maintenance of an automated workplace (AWP) of each employee, which in addition to the computer may also include a printer, scanner, and other peripherals.
Readers who want to get acquainted with how the processes of technical support of users are organized and which specialists are involved in these processes can look under the cat. We turn to examples of calculating the cost of technical support.
How is the User Support Service organized?
A source
In order to understand the structure of cost and the method of calculating the total price, let's look at what elements and processes the user support service usually consists of and which specialists implement it. For the time being, it doesn’t matter to us whether this is an IT service or an outsourcing company.
In the minds of many, the support service is personified by an engineer (or several engineers), who, as the saying goes, "is both a reaper, and a reaper, and a player at the dude." Ideally, it works 24 hours a day, is available through all communication channels and is ready to fix any problem in less than half an hour. Otherwise - “simple because of your fault”!
A source
For small companies, it is. But if the account of serviced jobs goes to hundreds, then one engineer will definitely not cope. Here, a team of specialists armed with specialized software (ITSM) and involving a number of other constituent services, which will be discussed below, should take up the task.
In general, the scheme of work is as follows:
The Service Desk service is a single “login” window for user requests. Service Desk specialists in 24x7 mode accept all incoming requests by mail, telephone or via the web interface and record all applications in ITSM systems (IT Service Management, IT service management).
ITSM-systems allow you to monitor the stages of work and adhere to the terms specified in the contract or regulation. Service Desk specialists - “first aid” in case of malfunctions in workstations. They must understand the cause of the problem with the words of the user or diagnose it by connecting remotely to the AWS.
In response to the user's request, the Service Desk specialist either gives the employee recommendations or remotely fixes the problem using the accumulated knowledge base (a list of typical references).
A source
If the Service Desk specialist cannot solve the problem, he will redirect the request to the next “defense” line - to the engineers of the second line technical support.
Second-line support engineers, or anikayshchiki, determine the next steps: decide the call remotely or go to the site.
The Service Desk and the second line form the “core” of the technical support process. The process may seem cumbersome, but when it is completed, it is a pipeline that operates according to regulations that ensure the efficiency of service delivery and compliance with the SLA.
What other specialists and resources are involved in the process of providing services "User Support"?
A source
If an IT company is supported by an outsourcing company, then each customer interacts with a dedicated manager - a project manager who oversees the services, prepares monthly reports for the customer and is actually ready to resolve any issues of interaction between IT professionals and users 24x7. There is such a role in our own IT service too, only it can be called differently.
This specialist performs the following functions:
If you need to support the customer's IT in the regions, and the outsourcer does not have any branches there, then it turns to service partners - small IT companies in the field, with which the outsourcer concludes an agreement under the same conditions as with the customer, and sometimes for more "Hard". Own IT service in the organization of centralized user support can also work with service partners in the regions, so as not to keep on staff not always loaded professionals. In this case, it is necessary to independently “build” partners: to establish interaction processes and document flow (contracts, acts, applications ...), to make calculations, to solve questions and problems arising in the course of interaction.
For technical support, substitution equipment is required for the period of repair broken, spare parts and consumables that need to be quickly delivered to the field, including in the regions. This requires well-organized logistics and storage facilities near the service facilities (applies to its own IT service, and to an outsourcing company).
A source
I have listed the main components of the User Support service. A rather big list that should work as a single coordinated mechanism. These components, respectively, are included in the calculation of the cost of support.
A source
In order to understand the structure of cost and the method of calculating the total price, let's look at what elements and processes the user support service usually consists of and which specialists implement it. For the time being, it doesn’t matter to us whether this is an IT service or an outsourcing company.
In the minds of many, the support service is personified by an engineer (or several engineers), who, as the saying goes, "is both a reaper, and a reaper, and a player at the dude." Ideally, it works 24 hours a day, is available through all communication channels and is ready to fix any problem in less than half an hour. Otherwise - “simple because of your fault”!
A source
For small companies, it is. But if the account of serviced jobs goes to hundreds, then one engineer will definitely not cope. Here, a team of specialists armed with specialized software (ITSM) and involving a number of other constituent services, which will be discussed below, should take up the task.
In general, the scheme of work is as follows:
Who is who on this scheme?
The Service Desk service is a single “login” window for user requests. Service Desk specialists in 24x7 mode accept all incoming requests by mail, telephone or via the web interface and record all applications in ITSM systems (IT Service Management, IT service management).
ITSM-systems allow you to monitor the stages of work and adhere to the terms specified in the contract or regulation. Service Desk specialists - “first aid” in case of malfunctions in workstations. They must understand the cause of the problem with the words of the user or diagnose it by connecting remotely to the AWS.
In response to the user's request, the Service Desk specialist either gives the employee recommendations or remotely fixes the problem using the accumulated knowledge base (a list of typical references).
If the Service Desk specialist cannot solve the problem, he will redirect the request to the next “defense” line - to the engineers of the second line technical support.
Second-line support engineers, or anikayshchiki, determine the next steps: decide the call remotely or go to the site.
The Service Desk and the second line form the “core” of the technical support process. The process may seem cumbersome, but when it is completed, it is a pipeline that operates according to regulations that ensure the efficiency of service delivery and compliance with the SLA.
What other specialists and resources are involved in the process of providing services "User Support"?
A source
Project Manager
If an IT company is supported by an outsourcing company, then each customer interacts with a dedicated manager - a project manager who oversees the services, prepares monthly reports for the customer and is actually ready to resolve any issues of interaction between IT professionals and users 24x7. There is such a role in our own IT service too, only it can be called differently.
Quality Service Specialist
This specialist performs the following functions:
- prepares a specification for adding a new customer to the ITSM system;
- according to the appeals of specialists, the Service Desk solves non-standard situations that are not described in the documentation;
- based on reports received from the ITSM system, analyzes SLA violations;
- based on the results of the analysis, it carries out corrective measures, changes in the documentation (regulations, instructions ...) or in the settings of the ITSM system. In its own IT service, this role can be performed, for example, by its manager. In an outsourcing company - this is a separate position.
Service Partners
If you need to support the customer's IT in the regions, and the outsourcer does not have any branches there, then it turns to service partners - small IT companies in the field, with which the outsourcer concludes an agreement under the same conditions as with the customer, and sometimes for more "Hard". Own IT service in the organization of centralized user support can also work with service partners in the regions, so as not to keep on staff not always loaded professionals. In this case, it is necessary to independently “build” partners: to establish interaction processes and document flow (contracts, acts, applications ...), to make calculations, to solve questions and problems arising in the course of interaction.
Order materials, shipping and storage
For technical support, substitution equipment is required for the period of repair broken, spare parts and consumables that need to be quickly delivered to the field, including in the regions. This requires well-organized logistics and storage facilities near the service facilities (applies to its own IT service, and to an outsourcing company).
A source
I have listed the main components of the User Support service. A rather big list that should work as a single coordinated mechanism. These components, respectively, are included in the calculation of the cost of support.
Calculating the cost of user support
We offer calculation and comparison of the cost of “User Support” services by our own IT service and when outsourcing in four options: with a number of users 200 people, and then with an increase of this number to 400, 1000 and 3000 users.
Below is a table of results of typical calculations, which shows how much will have to be spent on support with a different number of users.
The table shows practical cost estimates prepared in the framework of feasibility studies for a number of customers. The cost of outsourcing also includes taxes and overhead costs of the company.
Note that in the version with its own IT service, the customer, when increasing the volumes, is forced to take on a staff of additional specialists to fit into the internal SLA. And an outsourcing company has the opportunity to increase the proportion (%) of employment of specialists with the necessary qualifications.
A source
When comparing your IT service and outsourcing with a volume of up to 200 workstations, the cost of support will be more profitable for your own IT service. But with an increase in the staff of more than 400 AWPs, the cost of services provided by an outsourcing company becomes more attractive than its IT service. With a further increase in workplaces, outsourcing increases the advantage thanks to a non-linear increase in the involved AWP support specialists and streamlined support processes.
Important financial and non-financial aspects
Above, we compared the cost of customer support for the outsourcing model and through our IT service. When choosing your option for implementing the service, here's something else worth considering.
- An outsourcer can provide price elasticity - a proportional change in cost when the number of supported users changes.
Service "User Support", as a rule, is paid at the rate of one supported AWS. If the automated workplaces are serviced less, then the monthly payment is reduced. This is beneficial to companies experiencing seasonal business fluctuations.
An example of outsourcing elasticity
Ice Cream Aquamarine sells ice cream. Imagine that in each tent there is one AWP, one printer, a cash desk and a camera, and there are about 100 such tents in Moscow. Let the SLA be "light": solve the incident for 8 hours in 8x5 mode.
In such an environment, both an outsourcer and its IT service will need at least two employees. But when the “dead season” (autumn-winter-spring) comes for the ice-cream tent and the ice-cream sales fall significantly, the company will decide to reduce the number of mobile tents to 50.
Now, one specialist of his own IT service will become underutilized and the customer will have to pay wasted for about half a year (with an average salary taking into account taxes it is 80 thousand x 6 months = 0.5 million during a difficult business period of calm. At the same time, the outsourcing company employs an engineer with a small load on other projects, and the customer will only pay for the support of the remaining workstations of the AWPs.
- Do not forget about taxes.
Comparing the price of an outsourcer and the cost of its own specialists, the customer often does not take into account taxes: “Why are you asking for 55 thousand? I will hire an admin and will pay him 40 thousand. ” At the same time, the costs for in-house IT specialists include the following payments:
- Personal Income Tax (PIT) - 13% *,
- Pension Fund of the Russian Federation (PFR) - 22% *,
- Social Insurance Fund (FSS) - 2.9% *,
- Mandatory Medical Insurance Fund (MHIF) - 5.1% *.
Total: 43% *
If you add these 43%, then, most likely, prices will be comparable.
In addition to taxes, it will be useful to include in the list of expenses for your own IT service recruiting payments, that is, the costs of finding employees, posting vacancies, interviews, etc.
* The figures are given for the case when the amount of employee benefits does not exceed the marginal base for the calculation of insurance contributions established by the Government of the Russian Federation (for our calculations, this is usually the case).
Practical example
Just a few months ago, I received a request to calculate the cost of supporting user workplaces. The volumes were not very large - around 200 users plus server and network equipment. I wrapped the calculation nicely in the commercial offer and sent it to the customer.
Two days later, the customer said that he liked the composition of our team and the principles of work, but he completely disagrees with the cost of services. It turned out that the customer reasoned quite banal: “I pay for two specialists about 80 thousand rubles a month - 40 each. And your proposal contains a figure almost twice as high. "
We calculated and added all taxes to the cost of the customer’s specialists, and the figures turned out to be comparable. The customer appreciated that we can, if necessary, select an engineer of the required specialization, who would solve specific problems, and also replace the missing specialists (on vacation, at the hospital), and still chose to outsource.
- Outsourcing implies that you get the finished result - the service according to the signed SLA.
I repeat that the introduction of a centralized customer support service in your company involves debugging business processes, creating the Service Desk service, implementing the ITSM system, training specialists, maintaining a knowledge base, working with service partners, and organizing the supply chain logistics.
A source
- The outsourcer is legally and financially responsible for failing to comply with the SLA.
If the SLA is not fully completed and is below the KPI threshold, then the outsource provider recalculates the monthly payment, reducing bills. For its IT service, creating a mechanism of material incentives and responsibility for the non-fulfillment of requirements for the quality and promptness of technical support is a complex and sometimes unsolvable task.
In many cases, it is physically difficult to achieve an acceptable level of SLA from full-time IT staff. For example, small and medium-sized companies, as a rule, take an IT specialist for a fixed payment. He is the “unit” that must maintain the equipment in working condition. With such an employee, they do not sign the SLA to perform work — he simply does the job as much as possible.
A source
Practical example
An outsourcing company pays fines for violating SLA. More precisely, the amount of the invoice is reduced by a fine. In our practice, this rarely happens, and yet no one is immune from it.
One day we didn’t fulfill the SLA due to the fact that the regional partner at the “inappropriate moment” decided to refuse to work under the contract. We had to quickly (within a day) look for a new partner. But during the search, an incident happened - one user PC did not work. Our engineer arrived, performed the necessary work and restored the AWP, but already with some violation of the SLA. At the end of the month, when the dedicated manager of our company wrote a report to the customer, he made a recalculation in favor of the customer because of this violation of the SLA.
When choosing an outsourcing scheme, the customer removes the problems associated with the lack of specialists at the time of vacations and sick leave.
A source
Practical example
A small travel company had in its staff an administrator who faithfully came to serve the IT infrastructure. Nobody thought that one administrator at the office was the risk of being in a situation when the infrastructure was not working due to his unexpected dismissal, illness, or even planned vacation. This is what happened. During the week when the administrator got to the hospital, the company had a failure at the PBX and several AWPs failed. By the time when the administrator found a replacement, the company’s losses from idleness totaled hundreds of thousands of rubles.
Another point - the outsourcing company has accumulated competencies in the form of a knowledge base, reducing the time to solve some incidents.
What other issues concern companies when they are considering outsourcing?
Possible increase in the cost of services. Under the current contract, it is difficult to raise the price, but when signing a new contract it is possible. This probability can be reduced by choosing a performer on the basis of competitive procedures, the conditions of which, among other parameters, take into account the cost of services.
Transition period. The service provider needs to get comfortable with the customer's IT infrastructure, to debug the processes — this can take from several weeks to several months. The term depends on the experience of the outsourcing company and the size of the client company. In order to avoid disputable situations, prescribe an adequate transition period in the contract and, if possible, provide the outsourcer with the fullest information and means to provide services (knowledge base, list and composition of the supported equipment, etc.).
Information security issues. To ensure that customers comply with information security requirements when providing IT services, the service provider is certified annually for compliance with the ISO 27001 international standard. And the service provider must be ready to inform the customer about the information security policy adopted by him.
That turns out this picture.
Count, analyze, choose. How to organize user support - you decide. And less you "fires" in the IT infrastructure!
A source
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/336646/
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