One of the most common problems I see in IT organizations is the backwards nature of how their IT service delivery department is structured. Transitioning to the correct form can be tricky, yet hugely rewarding. It is much easier to just start it the right way.

By backwards structure I mean the disproportion of lower-level engineers, like desktop-technicians; to higher-level engineers, often called NOC or RMM engineers. It is easy to see why and how the backwards structure came into existence. As a small IT shop grows and brings in its first engineer, the company is usually not drowning in profit. Money is tight and the founder knows they need help because the 80 hours of weekly work is killing the founder. So they hire what they can afford, which is generally a desktop technician or an equivalent lower-level technical position.

The problem with this strategy, especially for an MSP, is that it is a complete slap in the face of profit. In order to carry a profit from MSP clients, a solution provider must reduce the number of technical problems.  By reduce, I mean prevent them from happening, or fix them automatically before the client experiences the problem.

It is a fact that the majority of solutions providers do not use their RMM tools to their full potential. According to one industry report, only 4%of solution providers use the whole system functionality, while only 56% use only half the functions. This means that most solution providers pay huge fees for an RMM tool that they barely use. Usually it is only remote control and patch management, with probably a poor patch management policy.

If a solution provider wants to squeeze more profit out of their operations, the RMM tool needs to be developed and utilized to its fullest potential. Solution providers that get this have fewer lower-level engineers than they do higher-level engineers.  Those higher-level engineers follow strict processes and procedures to find weaknesses and then write scripts and additional monitoring to fix or prevent any possible problems.

Let me give you some examples.  Instead of optimizing a computer and giving it back to the client, spend the time to document what is slowing it down.  Is it a registry key that is starting up some program, maybe something added to the start-up folder, perhaps a service that should not be there or a program that needs to be uninstalled?  Whatever it is, write it down and script detect it in order to remove the problem. Test scripts immediately on the infected system. This will produce a long-term scalable solution; even though in the beginning more time will be spent on the problem.

Another example is virus removal.  Every IT owner knows that cleaning-up viruses can suck profit faster than just about any other activity.  Most RMM tools have the ability to monitor and block certain file types and names.  Record the viruses and add them to this blocking feature or write a script to detect for that type of file in case the AV does not detect it, or even better, prevent the user from going to the websites that cause infection.  I am just scratching the surface on this one….

We did a lot of this scripting at my old company and after several years we had developed a script that we figured equaled about 2 hours of technician time, yet executed in under 10 minutes. It contained the removal of hundreds of registry keys, dozens upon hundreds of services and start-up folder items and a myriad of other things that ultimately brought us profit. We still billed the client for 2 hours.

So instead of stacking the service delivery department with reactive employees; stack it with proactive ones that can prevent the problems from happening.  If you cannot spend the money to hire the level of engineer to do this, then outsource the development and/or trade scripts and monitoring sets with other solution providers.  Many of the RMM tools come with loads of pre-installed scripts, use them.

Ultimately you are probably in business to make money, don’t sabotage yourself by creating an upside down support structure that steals your profit and time.

This post was written by Todd Nielsen. Todd has served as CEO, COO, President, & Vice-President, of various IT & Telecommunications companies over the last 15 years. You can read more about his experience in his .

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