2011: What We Have Accomplished
As each year comes to an end we reflect on things accomplished and completed throughout the year. Considering the current economic climate of our country, we’ve made strategic investments in our corporate team, processes, and technology to begin 2012 with a well prepared and strategic approach to reach and exceed our future goals.
Benjamin Enterprises commitment to listening to our customers resulted in the development of eLearning programs that dramatically extend our traditional classroom-based training into the workspaces and homes of employers seeking better qualified talent, and allowing employees to improve themselves.
Read MoreThe Five Questions You Should Be Asking a Managed Services Provider: Overview
In late October, CEO Ms. Benjamin mentioned in a blog post the right questions that companies should be asking about Managed Services. She followed with a series of blogs, each addressing a specific question regarding Managed Services.
The first of the series addressed how a Managed Services engagement could help an organization do its job better. Ms. Benjamin simply states that “The ability to refocus and realign core resources to improve your product or service, while enjoying the benefits of reduced operating costs and improved efficiency that we bring as your partner, is how a managed services engagement helps your organization”.
Read MoreHow Will a Managed Services Engagement Reduce Operational Costs?
Reducing costs has always been a key component to a Managed Services Engagement, especially in today’s uncertain economy. Although cost reduction matters, it should never come at the expense of sound and steady operational performance.
The sole rationale for outsourcing as a means to improve on the performance of non-core functions makes for a sound strategy, regardless of financial savings. We have said it before and we will say it again, asking an expert to do these functions better than you makes good business sense.
Read MoreThe Answer: The Service Level Agreement
A Managed Services engagements starts with your decision to outsource the responsibility for business functions that are not your core competencies. Your decision rests upon the recognition that the functions you are outsourcing to us are our core competencies From the moment the transition begins, your expectation should be that is that they are clearly defined in the Service Level Agreement between us.
The SLA not only defines expected performance, but it can include contingency performance and address how service levels can be modified, if business conditions change.
Read MoreWhat Is the Level of Service Performance Transparency?
As we all know from personal and professional experiences, trust is the foundation to proactive and successful operations. To us, transparent reporting is how we prove ourselves, gaining trust.
As a Managed Services provider, we need to deliver the functions that you have outsourced to us, while providing you with visibility into your operating environment and to all actions taken to resolve operational issues. You should have ready access to a self-service management portal that provides operational visibility to our performance of work. The portal should offer, performance reporting (KPI’s), real-time alerts, event information and resolution, notifications and updates, and the ability to submit change requests.
Read MoreDoes the Customer Experience Include Managed Startup Implementation and Post-Startup Service Assurance?
From the moment a contract is signed, a Service Level Agreement (SLA) lays the processes and responsibilities that we as the provider, and you as the customer have in play. The SLA includes how the transition of operations will run from your team to ours and how we will manage the startup process, while keeping you informed at each step of implementation.
Once the SLA operations are completely transitioned, post-startup reporting commences in accordance with the requirements included in the SLA. The requirements spell out frequency of reporting, Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s), management issues, and other operational characteristics that are defined and flagged as important to your understanding of our performance.
Read More