IT Documentation Sharing Tips for 2020

IT Documentation Software: How MSPs Can Create Operational Efficiencies

I’ve been in the managed service provider (MSP) space for the last 15 years, and the struggle has always been the same: how do we as an MSP create efficiencies across all different facets of our business starting from service delivery and ongoing into other areas?

My techs were spending too much time on day-to-day activities that slowed them down. The applications we were using at the time were complicated and siloed. Documentation was in six or seven different places.

We knew we needed a way to document, track, and analyze various facets of our business as well as share information securely from tech to tech, and tech to customer. At the time, our IT documentation software options were few and what was available was expensive and lacked features. 

We also knew there would be other businesses out there struggling with the same lack of options and dealing with the consequences of not having the right tools and processes in place. 

Running into situations like a senior technician leaving, taking years of data and knowledge with them in their head and leaving the remaining techs to figure out their workload with very few reference materials only added more wasted time to their workloads.

Hiring new techs was also a challenge. Their “training” consisted of random spreadsheets and anecdotal information. By the time they needed to manage their workload, they were still not adequately trained, and customers can tell.

Documenting your client networks is one thing, but securely storing, sharing, and updating your documentation? That’s another story. Consider the types of sensitive information that needs to be shared:  passwords, real-time performance reports, network configurations and diagrams, license keys, etc.

Managing access rights, maintaining version control, and keeping an effective audit trail for technicians, engineers, and your customers alike is a challenge for many managed service providers (MSPs) who are using other methods of documentation outside of a dedicated IT documentation tool.

Considering that IT documentation is a critical process that can increase service efficiencies 30% or higher, it’s important to avoid scenarios like these to ensure customer satisfaction stays as high as your technicians’ productivity.

ITBoost offers version control, access management, and security options – among many other handy IT documentation features in a single pane of glass. For MSPs looking to centralize their data and empower their techs to give better customer service, it’s a game changer!  

With ITBoost, you can make any document shareable via a link, so that you can send documentation to customers without requiring them to log in. Doing this drives efficiency for your support teams because instead of spending 30 minutes walking them through a process, you can have your tech spend 5 minutes talking them through the problem and then sending documentation that will guide the customer through resolving their simpler issues.

You can also allow customers to search the ITBoost knowledge base by giving them read-only external licenses that have no per-user cost. They can log in and review the documentation you have set up for them. You can export any KB articles into .docx or .pdf files so that they can be used offline.

Discover more ways ITBoost ties your team together with built-in documentation best practices.