BEST COMPANY ACCOLADE. February

Transcription

1 BEST COMPANY ACCOLADE February

2 Introduction INTRODUCTION HOW DO YOU FIND THE BEST IT SUPPORT? Looking for IT support? You may have noticed that IT services providers make lots of noise shouting about their client roster. Or the technologies they use. Or the services they provide. Those things are important, of course. But what about staff? Why do they so often go unmentioned? What s with the secrecy? (No wonder IT is perceived as a faceless industry.) Just as great bakeries are defined by great bakers, top MSPs* are defined by top engineers and support staff. That s what makes the difference. All of our weight is behind this philosophy, which is why we are champing at the bit to tell you how our people-focused approach makes IT Lab the best IT company you could choose to work with. 3P s: THE HOLY TRINITY OF GREAT SERVICE You can boil our service down to three elements. Our Process hits global standards and the latest best practice, while our Platform allows us to give you market-leading IT support no matter where you are based. But it s our People that really make us who we are, which will be the focus of this short document. WHO IS IT LAB? We are providers of specialist IT support. Our challenge is to make sure businesses get the absolute best from their IT and we are among the top ten MSPs in Europe. Every day 10,000 people in 400 organisations (and counting) depend on our consultancy, remote helpdesk support and procurement services available * Managed Services Provider - industry lingo for a company that provides outsourced IT support

3 Culture CULTURE Why do we spend countless hours making sure our staff have the right environment to work in? Because we know that when our people are happy, they work hard to make our clients happy. Here s a sneak glimpse behind the curtain at what we do to keep Labbers engaged. CLOCK-WATCHERS? NOT US... OF LABBERS WILL GO OUT OF THEIR WAY TO HELP EACH OTHER FEEL THEIR JOB EXPERIENCE IS INVALUABLE FOR THE FUTURE HAVE A FAMILY FEELING ABOUT WORKING AT THE LAB OF LABBERS SOCIALISE WITH EACH OTHER OUTSIDE OF WORK Finding a top MSP to work with your business is not simply a case of comparing IT qualifications and accreditations. That s only half the story. Yes you need intelligent IT engineers, proactive account managers, the list goes on. But all the talent in the world won t matter if staff are disengaged, disinterested and dreaming about the end of the working day from the moment they sit at their desks. So we put our people front and centre. We treat them with genuine respect. And for every period of hard work we make sure there s some play. You can guess the result. Without wishing to regurgitate clichés about going the extra mile, we are the proud guardians of a healthy, happy working environment where staff are ambitious to do an exceptional job. Both for each other and for our clients. It s a big part of what separates IT Lab from the rest.

4 Culture CULTURE HAPPY STAFF, HAPPY CLIENTS How do we manage our team? We are sold on the principles of the Harvard Service-Value Chain, one of the most highly respected business management frameworks out there. Its premise is that happy and engaged employees are highly motivated to deliver great service. This wonderful ethos colours everything from our recruitment policy to our employee benefits. We hire the best, give them the best tools for their jobs and get them energised about their roles. Our staff pass on the respect we give them in the form of great service. SPOILS OF LABOUR: PEACE, PIZZA AND FREE GAMES OF POOL Properly rewarded staff are properly motivated staff. So we make it fun to be a Labber. Our studios are kitted out with the latest games consoles, a pool table and table football. It gets competitive. So we compensate by championing zen-like calm with our massage chair, yoga classes and monthly masseuse visits. To fuel the body, staff can choose from fresh fruit and juices as well as breakfast staples like proper coffee, porridge, crumpets and bagels. It makes a big difference to engagement and motivation. And we have a benevolent social side too. The day before payday we buy takeaway pizza for the whole office and late on Friday afternoons we swarm our bar area to ruminate on the week s achievements over drinks and nibbles. Then there s the go-karting, paintballing and the very, very occasional trip to the casino when our staff are feeling lucky. Too many MSPs take a laissez faire approach to their people. We are proud to be different. In Q we achieved an Overall SLA success rate of 91% and a Critical SLA (10min response) success rate of 99%.

5 Culture CULTURE WE RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER TROPHY CABINET Brace yourself, it s time we blew our trumpet. IT Lab has been named in the annual Sunday Times Best Companies To Work For awards for four consecutive years, receiving the highest possible three-star accolade in We are really proud! It helps us to attract, recruit and retain some of the world s brightest IT talent. Music to the ears of our clients. RECRUITMENT: SOMETIMES THE BEST ISN T GOOD ENOUGH We work with incredibly gifted engineers. But all the IT acumen in the world is not enough to get you hired at IT Lab. Only select candidates that fit perfectly with our philosophy, our culture and our clients make the grade. IT chops alone won t cut it. Why are we so strict? Because our staff are the lifeblood of IT Lab. Our entire service is defined by the personable bonds we build with each other and our clients. And while IT qualifications are understandably important, the ability to create strong, accountable relationships matters more.

6 What can we do for you? WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU? With the right support, systems and guidance, IT can transform your business and get you working smartly towards your targets. WHAT IT SERVICES CAN WE PROVIDE? It would be quicker to tell you what we can t provide. We have the depth and breadth of IT knowledge to give you support across every area of IT, from the nuts and bolts to the super-intricate stuff. Security. Networking. Cloud migration. You name it. We have helped hundreds of clients save money, stay safe against ever-evolving cyber threats and use IT in a way that makes it easier to nail business targets. Account management Helpdesk support (available 24/7/365) Onsite support Systems monitoring and reporting Case management Setup Auditing and road-mapping Consultancy on IT strategy Project services Staff cover Applications, software and database development Cloud consultancy Cloud audit and strategy Cloud migration Cloud native support Cloud hosting Cloud applications management Backup and disaster recovery Office 365 and Sharepoint Data and network services ADSL and SDSL EtherStream and EFM Mobile broadband P2P, MPLS and leased lines Cloud telephony SIP trunking MobileOffice Call Centre ACD Call recording Managed security Virtual CSO Managed firewall Managed IDS/IPS Authentication Penetration testing Vulnerability scanning Log management

7 What can we do for you? WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU? HOW DO WE PROVIDE THE SERVICE? Outsourcing can be a godsend if you are looking for extra convenience or expertise. But often you lose the personal touch. So we challenge ourselves to be as familiar with our clients as an internal hire would be. And we are set up to form relationships that bloom over weeks, months and years. Let s say you chose to become an IT Lab client today. You would promptly be assigned a dedicated client advocate and IT manager. They work diligently to pick up the subtleties and nuances of your business. (IT advice isn t going far without a good grasp of your business context.) It s their job to make sure every single thing we do is right for your business, budget and ambitions. Your IT Manager will create a detailed profile of your infrastructure, support history and ongoing IT performance. We can then spot trends in your IT use, thwart recurrent niggles and plot where your infrastructure could be improved - both in terms of performance and reliability. Your systems improve incrementally over time based on the realities of your working world. OUR ENGINEERS ARE THE CREAM OF THE CROP, WITH THE QUALIFICATIONS TO BOOT As businesses become more dependent on IT, IT faults have increasing potential to cause serious disruption. If part of your setup goes haywire in today s business environment it can cripple your productivity, strangle cashflow and send stress levels soaring. Access to good, prompt support is a must. At IT Lab we employ 85 of the sharpest IT engineers in the world. It gives us a deep pool of expert knowledge and enables us to fix complex IT problems fast, dramatically mitigating their impact. Our support team is available 24/7/365 and chock-full of specialists fully qualified to answer queries, resolve IT errors, improve operational efficiency, train your staff and fill in-house knowledge gaps.

8 What can we do for you? WHAT CAN WE DO FOR YOU? THUMBS UP FROM SOME OF THE BIGGEST NAMES IN IT It s not just our 400 clients that trust us. We have received numerous industry accreditations during our decade of existence, a very public endorsement from major players in the technology industry For the third consecutive year IT Lab has been honoured at the Mimecast Partner Awards. The awards recognise partners who have excelled at implementing and providing support for Mimecast products over the past 12 months. It demonstrates our sustained levels of customer service and technical expertise when implementing Mimecast s market-leading systems. GET THE BEST NEW TECHNOLOGIES, WITHOUT BLOWING YOUR BUDGET Over the years IT Lab has forged strong links with leading technology providers. What s great about that is we can bring you game-changing technologies at a snip of their normal price. From familiar names like Apple, Microsoft and Google to lesser-known (but equally great) organisations such as Colt, Exponential-E and Zabbix, our industry partnerships mean we can give you access to a portfolio of cloud, connectivity and communications systems that would not otherwise be available to endusers such as yourself. We have excellent access to third party vendor support too. IT Lab has earned Microsoft s Cloud Accelerate Partner accreditation several times over. It s a totem of our expertise in providing support for Microsoft s marketleading cloud services and ensures we are on the pulse of all the latest Microsoft developments. In 2013 IT Lab was ranked as the 41st best MSP in the world and the 8th best in Europe.

9 From people to practice FROM PEOPLE TO PRACTICE Having top people is the (rather obvious) secret to being a top MSP. But to utilise the talent there has to be a strategy, a philosophy, an ethos. 3P s: THE HOLY TRINITY OF GREAT SERVICE For more than a decade we have been perfecting the art of great service by focusing on three elements of our business: people, process and platform. Apart from hiring and retaining some of the best people in the IT industry, we incorporate the very latest best practice standards into our process. And at our core is what we believe to be the best management platform in the game, automating workflows, empowering us to repair IT glitches remotely and liberating our engineers to focus exclusively on service. The 3P s combine to form Service Obsession - our public promise to hit the highest levels of customer service. This is not sales pitter-patter or some gimmicky sound bite. Service Obsession underscores everything we do. We even trademarked the term. That s how fundamental it is to us. Service Obsession has transformed our offices into hives of resourceful, sharp and synchronised experts - and we measure it by surveying client satisfaction using something called Net Promoter. We are the first IT business in the world to rank up alongside topperformers like Apple, Amazon and Virgin Atlantic in terms of customer satisfaction.

10 For more information or to discuss how IT Lab can help your business make more of IT, call +44 (0) or Sign up to receive the next white paper in our series at itlab.com London, UK IT Lab Big Studios 1 East Poultry Avenue London EC1A 9PT Birmingham, UK IT Lab Midlands Management Office 191 Fazeley Street Digbeth Birmingham B5 5SE Cape Town, SA IT Lab South Africa The Harbour Bridge Roggebaai Canal Lower Long Street Cape Town