The value of support services from your tech partner

I have now worked on both sides of the ‘support’ fence – in-house IT service support in law firms and now at Ascertus, a technology partner to professional services organisations. On reflection, it is only now that I truly see the nuanced difference in approach, focus and service delivery between the two roles. 

If you are part of an in-house IT support team, you may relate to the following sentiment when your support partner asks you to perform certain actions in response to the ticket you raised: “We have already done these steps, why do they need to be repeated?”; why do they need these logs and reports?”; “why do we need to go back lawyer’s desktop to re-capture information?”; and so on. Right?

Your frustration and impatience is understandable. Due to the nature of legal work, IT teams are often under tremendous pressure – and especially when a lawyer’s desktop is not functioning as it should. The issue needs to have been resolved ‘yesterday’! 

The reason support partners ask for the above-mentioned information is so that they can review the pertinent data in the log reports, identify error codes and so forth, all of which helps to get to a resolution quicker. This kind of data offers underlying insight that goes beyond the issue raised in the ticket. 

Recently, a client performed a back-end change in a system, not realising that it might have a knock-on effect on another business-critical system. Whilst we troubleshooted, the issue at hand, by reviewing the reports that provided information outside of the business system in question. 

Do you know what to expect from your tech partner?
Tech partners also have a well-honed, best practice approach to delivering support. For instance, we at Ascertus have a three-tier structure – i.e., the technical service team, who is responsible for troubleshooting as soon as a ticket is raised; the Consultants who are technology experts alongside having in-depth vertical expertise; and finally, the Client Advocates who help clients optimise technology deployment.    Whilst the technical team is the first port of call for the tickets raised, the Consultants offer knowledge and expertise to both pre-empt the problem from surfacing again and often even identify and address issues that could potentially rear their head, either in the future or in related systems. 

Flexible and adaptable practices
This layered approach helps to provide the best possible assistance to clients. Support is not just about troubleshooting; it is equally about proactive advice and consultancy to enable clients to effectively adopt technology to meet business goals. So, in our case, this tiered system enables us to be flexible. We have standard processes, of course, and escalation procedures too, but we are not dogged about them. The goal is to ensure that technology delivers on its promise in clients’ environment. 

A partnership-led mindset
To deliver on this undertaking, we invest time in developing a close and mutually respectful relationship with clients. This helps establish a partnership-led mindset for both parties, breaking down the typical barriers that can come in the way when a tick box-led approach is adopted. It is so important for support to be underpinned by a solution-driven mentality, as opposed to a contractual obligation led one.

To conclude, perhaps that is the biggest difference between in-house IT service and external tech support partners. The latter can easily accommodate fluctuating IT needs, be that in sheer numbers of staff that may be needed to be deployed to resolve a problem, or indeed in the specialised skills that may be required in clients’ diverse environment. 

For more information on how Ascertus can help you maximise your iManage ROI, reach out to us via the contact form below.