IT Service Agreements: Living Up to Your Promises

If you are new to the service model, you may be concerned about your ability to live up to your IT service agreements. Let’s assume that you have eight clients who will book $165,000 in yearly revenue. The greatest fear for many new consultants is getting significant IT service agreements and not being able to support their clients in the short-term. Build Confidence by Planning Ahead The best way to handle this is to take stock of what you can do today. Make an inventory skills list. Look at what your competitors are doing and figure out where the gaps are. Figure out which of your services would be useful to a small business with a real LAN, with a real network. Figure out what some of your competitors are offering in terms of services and solutions and make a plan of attack for working on those deficiencies. Then, utilize them in your IT service agreements. How Important are Certifications? The big thing to keep in mind with most of these small businesses are that, unlike big IT shops, they’re usually a couple of years behind the curve. That means it’s no big deal if your technicians don't have skills on the brand new software versions--your clients probably don't have them either. . If you’re looking for a baseline qualification, having technicians that have a basic MCP, the Microsoft Certified Professional, will be useful regardless of whether they’re certified on a desktop operating system or a server operating system. For most of the small businesses in the sweet spot, they don’t care. They really can’t differentiate between advanced and entry-level certifications. Copyright MMI-MMVI, Small Business Computer Consulting .com. All Worldwide Rights Reserved. {Attention Publishers: Live hyperlink in author resource box required for copyright compliance}