What is a Project Manager?
Simply put, no matter what your project is, the PM does the same job a Producer/Director does for a movie: understand the project, marshal the necessary materials and resources, direct the work, ensure that the end result is exactly what was promised, and bring the project in on time and on budget.
At IT Support LA, our CEO, Yuri Aberfeld started his career as a Project Manager, so we understand the steps required to do it right.
‘One-Off’ Projects
These have start and end dates. They take many forms in the IT world, from setting up a data center for an in-house IT department, to setting up a WiFi system, but are generally separated from the concept of ongoing IT support, which will be discussed below.
Given that the 1st rule is that it’s done correctly, the 2nd and 3 rule is that it’s done on time and on budget.
Anyone who has ever had a reasonably sized home improvement job performed knows all too well how often the 2 week job becomes 2 months, and the original budget is tossed out the window. Unscrupulous ‘low-ball’ bidders make up for the low bid with ‘unforeseen circumstances’ that require extra cash to get past.
Unfortunately that also happens in IT.
PLANNING
Benjamin Franklin said it best: “Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.”
How is it that an IT project that you signed off on, and was given a 3 week deadline still isn’t finished 2 months later? Or a simple task that should have taken 4 hours but runs into days and days? And of course, the longer a task takes, the more money it seems to require. How do so-called ‘professionals’ allow this to happen?
Poor planning or NO planning.
Lack of planning is one of the most prevalent problems in the IT industry. Too many companies ‘wing it’, and end up like a batter swinging at a pitching machine that’s out of control: too many strikes and not enough hits.
It doesn’t necessarily constrain itself to IT. Too many vendors seem to be going with the philosophy of ‘over-promise and under-deliver’. That is a recipe for disaster no matter the vendor, product, or service:
It could be your local cell phone repair shop. Estimating 2 hours but then keeping your phone for days.
It could be your local computer repair shop. Estimating a printer repair at $49 and then telling you that it will be $200 because other parts need to be replaced… and you could have purchased a new printer for the price of repairing the old one.
Or it could be the backup strategy your IT promised was going to be great, but when a disastrous issue arises, like a Ransomware attack, you realize it wasn’t bulletproof, because the IT company never performed routine data retrieval tests..
It is amazing how many companies accept data loss from circumstance like that. A “minor” data loss is still a failure of IT. This should be unacceptable!
Go With a Pro
At IT Support LA, we give every project a firm foundation in planning, whether it is simple or complex.
We meet and agree on the parameters of the project, the final, guaranteed cost and the project due date. Any ‘unknowns’ which may affect any of those three items are quickly identified, and as they fall into the area of ‘known’ adjustments are made and agreed upon. Our clients will be well aware of these potential adjustments in advance, NEVER as a surprise.
We communicate with the client throughout the process, either coordinating resources when need be, or just to give a progress report.
IT Support LA has NEVER missed a deadline. We do not ‘wing it’, because we know what we are doing, having been at it for a long time.
- What Makes the Difference Between a Delighted Client or a Furious One?
PLANNING - What Separates IT Support LA From the Pack?
PLANNING
- How Do We Redefine your IT Experience?
PLANNING
We Are Planners
IT Support LA is unique in the IT industry in a number of ways, from our truly ‘All-Inclusive’ Service Level Agreement (SLA) to the fact that we provide our subscription services and Hardware as a Service (HaaS) WITHOUT a binding contract - our clients can fire us at any time, get their money back AND keep all hardware we have installed for them.
How, and WHY do we do that?
The main answer is that yes, we are THAT good, and so confident in our abilities that we can take those risks. It gives a potential client a huge comfort zone in letting us put our money where our mouth is.
What makes us so good?
There are many aspects, from our Main Mission, which is to Redefine the IT Experience for our customers, to our iron-clad devotion to excellence that is cemented into our Policies, Procedures and Best Practices.
But on a fundamental level, it is how we run the entire infrastructure of our enterprise, from top to bottom:
Managing Ourselves Like a Project
The standard definition of Project Management is that it is temporary: A project becomes reality, management sees to the logistics and timelines involved, and once the project is done, there is no further need for the management of the project. Such future, ongoing management is then placed into other hands, either internally, with the client, or, in the case of IT projects, it becomes the ongoing responsibility of the IT consultant or Managed Services Provider (MSP)
At IT Support LA, we consider ourselves an open-ended, ongoing project, which we administer by way of a Project Manager. Our company is run day in and day out, by a Project Manager – both as part of the Big Picture of who we are and where we want our company to go, but also to the Smaller Picture.
Every ticket, every day are ‘projects’. A newly opened ticket for service is closely monitored at several levels from the moment the ticket comes in until the moment it is satisfactorily closed. Every move and procedure is noted and entered into the system and will ultimately be accessible as part of our ongoing reporting to the client. Most often, our clients don’t want to know that type of minutiae, but if they do, it is readily available to them.
For our own unique service model, we use and analyze this data to further ensure that there are no ‘loopholes’ in our network management practices. If we see a recurring issue, we know we need to go deeper into the system to prevent it, rather than just simply addressing it when it appears. As part of our philosophy, when we save money on the hours it takes to guarantee 100% network uptime, we pass those savings on to our clients.
To many ‘old school’ IT consultants and MSPs, this unique approach may sound like a lot of work for what may be viewed as a marginal reward. However, success in business can sometimes come down to a ‘game of inches’, and with our approach, we can turn those inches into feet, yards and miles that we are ahead of our competition.
This method has not only seen us survive COVID, with the quality of our service intact, but we have literally cut our average response time IN HALF: from 30 minutes to 17 minutes.
We must be doing something right.
Talk to us about your next project or about your IT needs on an ongoing basis. We promise that from the first moment you meet us, you will see that we are experts in our field: knowledgeable, logical, organized and fully accountable.
Your New and Redefined IT Experience Begins with a FREE Consultation.
Give us a call or schedule online today!
