The expected standard of IT services is low, and it’s the sector’s underperformance to blame. But this opens up an opportunity for you to rise above the competition. In this article, we want to consult project managers on how to exceed expectations and continuously succeed by delivering better experiences.
While IT services are crucial for companies to succeed in today’s highly technological world, they are famously lacking in quality. In fact, most people simply expect their experience to be from subpar to bad when it comes to IT. It’s so widespread it became acceptable, and occasionally the basis of a joke. But should it really be? We don’t think so. The bright side of the issue is that it’s a low-hanging fruit for you to shape the new landscape of the industry by simply raising the expectations by exceeding them. It sounds complicated, but there has never been a time for it to be easier.
In a world that’s speeding through technological advancement, project managers are better equipped for success than ever before. With a vast amount of tools available, all it takes is knowledge of how to put them to use to deliver better IT services and projects. So, let’s dig into what it looks like. But first, let’s define our goals.
What Makes a Great IT Experience?
Great IT experience can be described as quick, accurate and efficient. It is based on the understanding of the problem and the ability to quickly find out the best solution, as well as the swiftness of its implementation.
The problem most companies offering IT services face today is their inability to move away from outdated practices, bound to outdated solutions. The frameworks they utilise don’t match the demand of the current market, resulting in frustration and a lack of efficiency. The only way forward is to embrace innovation.
Improving Project Delivery
The first step you want to begin innovating is how you deliver the projects. Namely the internal process. There are many moving parts, ranging from your resource allocation to how different tasks are handled. With the right digital tools, you can optimise all of that to maximum efficiency, improving the overall quality of the projects you deliver.
Automate for Speed and Accuracy
Every project has deadlines, and the quickest way to please your client is to deliver it earlier than expected without sacrificing quality. This may sound like a one-time wonder to occur, especially when you can’t give your full attention to just one client. However, there’s a way of making this a standard practice, even when juggling multiple projects at once. By allocating a big chunk of your tasks to software instead of people. Also known as automation.
Not only can digital tools handle tasks that take hours and days in but a couple of minutes, but are also free of human error. The data used is often collected by the tool itself instead of being inserted manually, meaning there’s barely any probability of typos that would skew the results. With that in mind, your teams are enabled to focus on tasks that require their human judgement and overall are saved heaps of time. When utilised correctly, digital tools can certainly make the task of delivering better IT services much easier.
Team Management and Alignment
Even if you get your hands on the best specialists available, there’s no guarantee your project will be a success. No matter how talented the team members are, simply throwing them in together and expecting them to work out is the biggest mistake one can make. If they are not aligned and actively communicating, no matter how good they are individually - they will fail as a project team. You, the project manager, need to become the link that brings them together. And it’s easily doable by ensuring you have the right software in place.
A collaboration platform and an internal messenger are two tools you absolutely need to successfully manage a team. The former gives team members visibility of each other, allowing the creation of smooth workflows and task handovers. It also helps you allocate your resources and workforce better, as well as identify any potential issues early on. A messenger tool enables quicker communication and file sharing, as well as supports voice calls, helping your team to stay in touch with one another.
Communication with the Client
Another crucial part of managing IT projects is keeping the communication lines with the client open. Often it’s not as smooth, which brings on a lot of problems such as scope creep, misunderstood requirements and others. All of that reflects negatively on both, the project and your relationship with the client.
Transparency and Detailed Reporting
One thing you absolutely want to be when working with clients is transparent. Naturally, since they are paying for your work, they want to see how you’re getting on. Some may argue it’s only the final result that matters, but we beg to differ. Every step of the process should be visible to the client. This way they can have their say if they spot something wrong before it cannot be undone. It also gives them a chance to ask questions, make suggestions and generally maintain communication with you. It is crucial as this is how you understand their demands and expectations better. You can’t deliver a good project without them.
Reporting is the best way of building the said communication. However, often reporting is time-consuming and tasking, making it difficult to stay consistent and timely. Thankfully, most digital tools today come with integrated reporting modules and can generate insights in mere seconds, presenting them in a visual and digestible format. Not to mention, they tend to be more detailed than reports put together manually.
Document Sharing
When delivering a project, you will inevitably need some documents from the client. Think of basic things like company logos, fonts, etc. Additionally, you will be producing some additional files yourself that accompany the project - like the reports we’ve mentioned above. And, of course, there are bureaucratic bits like contracts, expense reports, invoices and many more. In other words, it is expected you will have a lot of additional bits flowing both ways.
Exchanging them via emails, as a physical copy or a mixture of both is calling for a disaster. Files will be lost, forgotten and/or not kept track of. The issues arising from that range from potential project delivery delays to serious compliance problems. However, it’s easily avoided by utilising a centralised document-sharing platform. You don’t even always need to get a separate solution for that. A lot of digital tools of today already come with one as a module. Not only will your files be easily accessible to all parties involved, but also be more secure than ever.
Innovation Drives Better Results
As we’ve already made the point, innovation is directly tied to your success. Being successful in implementing and utilising it raises your company’s standards and keeps your clients satisfied. Both of these factors contribute to a bigger picture in the long run - your company’s growth and scaling.
Better Performance Brings Growth
Naturally, the better work you deliver, the happier your clients are. And more happy clients often translate into client retention and more new clients. Naturally, having been proven your value once, the former clients are likely to return when they have need again. And if they don’t, they will probably praise your efforts to others. Even the most intricate and sophisticated marketing strategies cannot outrank the power of word of mouth.
It’s a long game that requires effort and consistency, but it pays off. First of all, continuously delivering top services builds up not just your reputation but also your expertise. Secondly, when you work with the same client on multiple projects, you are bound to start understanding each other better, hence improving the quality as you move along. And finally, you will win new clients over faster if they come based on recommendations over discovering you online. All that is easily achievable with the right software as it takes over monotonous tasks, allowing you to focus on relationship building. Not to mention, it’s absolutely necessary to scale effectively.
Summary
The delivery of IT services is something people joke about. It’s often clunky, not intuitive and leads to frustration. Mostly because of how outdated most processes are. However, by taking the step towards innovation, you can change not just how your company performs but the general landscape of the industry.
By automating processes within your company you will be building a great experience both internally and to your clients. The reduced error rate, as well as smoother workflows and communication across the teams, lead to improved speed and quality of projects delivered. In the long run, this builds trust and better rapport with either long-term or returning clients, once again improving the results. Continuous improvement leads to both, better reputation and overall expertise, meaning not only will you land new projects quicker but will be more capable of perfecting them. In other words, taking the leap to innovation offers to many benefits to miss out.
So why fight against it? Own it instead.
