Using SMART Goals within IT Support and Managed Service Providers

At LMS Group, we’re an IT Support and Managed Service Provider (MSP), who provides technology and IT services to medium through to midsize businesses. We use SMART goals and SMART targets across everything within our company, at all levels. These allow us to deliver the support services and cloud solutions to our clients at a best-in-class level compared and benchmarked to the rest of our industry. They form part our weekly 1-2-1 management processes with our IT Support technicians, where necessary and make up many of our employees 90-day plans and on-going development.

How does LMS Group set SMART targets for their technical support staff?

We often set three SMART targets; a simple personal target that can be achieved quickly (30 days), a departmental target that takes a bit longer and often involves another member within the department (60 days), and a company target that will take the entire 90 days (quarter). This way progress is made throughout our organisation- and it’s also how we drive digital transformation too.

Below is an example of SMART targets that many in the Managed Service Provider industry will have:

S – Escalate service tickets quicker, and within a set defined timeframe to stop them aging
M – Less than 30 service tickets in your queue at any given time
A – If a spot check is done daily by the company, then this is easily achievable – a workflow can be created to automate a notification if it hits 31
R – For a L1 Technician, tickets need quick, permanent resolutions to achieve SLA’s and increase CSAT. Data can be drilled down through PowerBI to benchmark these.
T – This needed to be achieved by a 30 day target, but is reviewed weekly.

What kind of SMART goals are applicable for the overall business?

The above is an example of SMART targets and performance for the IT Technicians within managed service providers. The below example is for the development and overall solving of business problems. This includes an update in an IT system, integrations, security, new services or automation.

S – The permissions needed to integrate a 3rd party Privileged Identify Management (PIM) system into our Professional Services Automation (PSA) system needs to be determined and tested
M – When using the API technology calls for integration, if the identified permissions are correct, the call will work. If not, the call will fail. A permission matrix needs to be created and presented.
A – If working with the particular vendors and interfaces internally can be organised and scheduled, yes, it can easily be achieved.
R – For us to scale and grow as a business, provide better security and services for our clients and centrally manage permissions and requests
T – We have a two month trial – the quicker the permissions are established, the quicker we can standardise, test, integrate, brand, deploy the technology or services and utilise.

Why are SMART goals effective?

Using SMART targets and goal setting within organisations not only allows management to easily keep up to date with the goals, but also the Technicians have a clear understanding of their personal, business targets and skills, and what they need to do to achieve them.

If you'd like to know more about SMART goals and how they keep our employees motivated to ensure they deliver the best for our clients, please get in touch. Alternatively, if you are looking to speak to one of our experts out IT Support, call 0330 088 2565 or visit our contact page.

Written by Chris Pegrum

About Chris Pegrum
Chris Pegrum is the Operations Director of Chichester-based IT Support Provider, LMS Group. LMS Group help businesses on the South Coast to Thrive Through Technology, putting technology at the heart of their organisation.

Chris has worked in IT and technology since 2008, having worked for both in-house IT teams and outsourced providers. Paired with excellent customer service, Chris works with the technical team to ensure they are delivering the right results quickly, effectively and constantly delivering great service. A strategic thinker, he spends time looking at how both LMS Group and clients can operate more efficiently.