IT Satisfaction & Measurement

I believe in always helping others whenever the opportunity arises, especially when that person is passionate about the career they have chosen and fullfilling their life mission.

It is one of the ways in which I constantly improve my personal development skills and give back to the world around me and keep the good karma flowing in my life. In addition, given our current economic state it is important to help each other make sales and keep our businesses surviving and thriving!

Please take a moment to read about my friend Steve Forcella and the services his company provides.

INTERNAL SATISFACTION SURVEYS – ICTA key component in building a more competitive IT environment

Introduction

For decades, internal IT services have been focusing on delivering solutions geared towards making their organization become more efficient and more competitive. Office automation tools, sophisticated network infrastructures, packaged business applications (ERP, CRM, Supply chain solutions, Financial systems,…) together with more outsourced services have led to more and more complexity in identifying where and how those services could (and should) be improved or developed. It becomes crucial, for CIOs or IT managers to get an objective picture of where their priorities should be, in order to put them in perspective with the global strategic direction their organization is taking. This component becomes even more crucial when there is a need to face a troubled economic environment, leading to more arbitration towards where investments should be focusing, and when outside pressure becomes apparent to all employees within the organization.

User’s Internal Satisfaction Survey – another source of visibility

Most of the time, there is a general tendency for users to blame their IT systems for being responsible for all their daily issues. But behind those complaints, there should be a real concern and focus on identifying the final user’s real motivations and needs. Which elements are satisfactory? Which ones are not adapted to a new business environment anymore? What should the priorities in new developments be? What are the impacts and new requirements issued from the development of laptops and work from home? Are the outsourced services fulfilling their service level obligations towards final users? Are hardware and software new features bringing real improvements to users in their daily efficiency?

This is where it becomes important for IT departments to get an objective and a neutral feedback from their user base. This can be obtained through a methodological satisfaction survey, based on the market best practices. Asking the right questions to the right people in the right manner with the right partner brings a detailed identification of where priorities are, and helps building the appropriate improvement action plan. The information that is collected from such a satisfaction survey adds more insight to the global IT roadmap of the company, and helps validating some of the technical and functional choices that might have already been established or studied.Gains for the IT organization/Company

The value added of such surveys can impact the IT department at different levels:
Refining priorities on budget choices:

IT costs are often considered as a “necessary evil” by the board of directors and the financial department. Actually, IT allocated budgets need to be backed up by precise returns on investments and a clear value added for the whole organization. A user’s satisfaction survey with precise priorities and an associated action plan becomes a fundamental elements in helping the construction of a budget that is geared towards real user needs and, therefore, towards real returns on investments by promoting individual efficiency throughout the whole organization.

Facilitating negotiations with subcontractors and outside providers:

Internal IT departments are often outsourcing part of their activity to outside providers which are, in return, bound by commitments in terms of results or levels of services. User’s satisfaction surveys can easily provide some additional elements in the way those services are perceived at the end user level. They can then be used in the whole monitoring and negotiating process with those subcontractors, in order to reach company’s objectives and optimize the associated costs of outsourced activities.

Validating new technical or functional implementations:
When a new component is added to the global information system, the changes implied by its implementation can sometimes mask the real value brought to the user community. Satisfaction surveys with precise ways in which to measure the global acceptance of these new components by final users helps identify its real success and added value. It also helps identify where improvements can still be made to reach full operational gains and general acceptance.

Identifying priorities in new developments and infrastructure changes:

Several parallel projects are often being studied in finding new ways to improve general efficiency within an organization. When it comes to arbitration and prioritization (often for budget reasons), satisfaction surveys bring an additional insight through appropriate structured and dedicated questions. Choices can then be made with a more global user acceptance and a stronger management support.

Improving IT services efficiency in their user’s support:

Success of an IT department is directly linked to the satisfaction of its internal customers: final users. Among the key components of such success, daily support is on the top of the list. Being able to get a precise and detailed feedback of the way those support services are perceived (hotline, management of problems and complaints, information, training, pro-activity, efficiency from a user’s perspective, etc.) is fundamental to make sure the right levels of efforts and investments are put where they need to. Through a neutral and objective survey, the IT department can focus more easily on the topics that are important to their final users and where there is the biggest potential for improvement.

Preventing uncontrolled extension of “non-centrally approved” solutions at the individual user’s workstation level:

With the multiplication of outside sources for specialized tools or applications, users have a natural tendency to explore the market in order to find the elements that could help them become more efficient, without asking for central IT department support. The potential result can become a real nightmare, as maintaining heterogeneous solutions is almost impossible, and security becomes more difficult to guarantee. A way to prevent this from happening at a large scale is to anticipate on user’s needs and requirements. A satisfaction survey, once more, will help identifying those needs and implementing the appropriate actions to have them fulfilled before users decide to “do it themselves”.

Filling the gap between IT/technical and functional departments:

Most of the time, we find there is a big discrepancy between user concerns and the IT department perception. Complementing a user satisfaction survey with a mirror survey (ie: asking the same question to the IT department employees, from a final user perspective) identifies where those perception levels differ, and is of a great help to make sure the mutual understanding is at the right level, therefore preventing wrong choices on next improvement action plans.

Getting more support and involvement from users:

Last, but not least, having users involved in the evolution of the global information system brings more support and leads to less unjustified complaints, and adds more serenity in building the next stages of a truly efficient IT service. Making them feel they can express their opinion and requirements is always considered as something that will be positive on the long term. Trend surveys (ie: measuring the evolution of the satisfaction level through time), together with the right level of information on new accomplishments, reinforces this positive attitude while always providing helpful information and feedback on the way IT services performs.

How?

Integron has a unique offer in this field, which has been refined through 15 years of IT internal surveys. The expertise and the data gathered through time allow us to be able to offer a full package of services that can help you build a true visibility on the efficiency and on what the future of your IT department should be.

Among the components we can offer:

Online satisfaction surveys:
Integron offers answer on your crucial question through user satisfaction surveys. But we go beyond an answer. Besides insight, we offer you prioritized actions, based on the customer expectations and satisfaction. We conduct the survey online. We will create a customized questionnaire for you based on the best practices we already have. The big advantage is that we can make use of benchmark data and we can make this survey efficient.

Benchmarks:
Integron has access to many benchmarks. We conduct hundreds of satisfaction surveys every year, which means that we possess the data of hundreds of thousands of respondents. When you conduct a survey in collaboration with Integron, you can be sure that we are able to compare your organization with other organizations. Naturally, this is done anonymously.

Mirror surveys:
Integron can help you adding some perspective to your satisfaction survey by addressing the same questions to your internal IT employees. The internal perspective of IT services can sometime be quite different from the real users’ situation and lead to some wrong paths in terms of priorities. This add on to the survey can prove being very important in understanding the whole set of the satisfaction survey itself.

Trend surveys:
Satisfaction surveys can also monitor progresses through time. Have all the elements from the former improvement plan been implemented and been recognized by your user community? Which elements still need some attention and efforts? What should be your next set of priorities? By carrying regular trend surveys, you will be able to monitor your own progresses and avoid all bad surprises arising among users of your IT services.

Online dashboard:
Customer Heartbeat is Integron’s unique and sophisticated research technique. It is a state of the art solution for online research, analysis and reporting. It provides ways for you to build all analysis you will find necessary to get a perfect visibility and understanding on what users think about your IT organization and how they think they could get a better level of services. Customer Heartbeat is suitable for nationally and internationally operating organizations.

Panel interviews:
Sometimes, a quantitative approach is not enough to get the full return from your users in terms of satisfaction and requirements, and needs to be complemented by some face to face exchanges with key users, who will then be able to qualitatively express their level of satisfaction and their detailed requirements. Integron can help you conducting those sessions and interviews, and structure the results to make them meaningful and leading towards a documented action plan.

Detailed reporting:
The results of our satisfaction survey are laid down in a clear and well-structured report. But you must move beyond the insights you obtain. That is why Integron continues where others stop. We offer concrete solutions, help you set up your improvement management, and formulate improvement actions. These quickly lead to tangible results offered and are provided by our Performance Consultants. This approach is characteristic of Integron: we are not happy until your objectives have been realized. We remain committed, even after the survey is completed. If you wish, we can provide presentations or workshops for business units, branch offices or departments. The perfect way to clarify improvements for everyone.Improvement workshops:The satisfaction survey is now complete. The results have been announced, discussed and presented. But where do we go from here? The “Improve Through Reflection” (ITR) workshop held by Integron Consultancy goes a step further and helps you to activate the information obtained. At the half-day workshop Integron’s Performance Consultants not only guide you through discussions about the results, but also help you to define and detail the specific improvement points and the strengths of your organization compared with your competitors.

Wh is concerned?
Integron’s offer in terms of IT internal satisfaction surveys is dedicated to IT managers, operational managers or IT project managers who are willing to use the input and the visibility of their final users to implement concrete and efficient improvement action plans. Those surveys can address the services provided by the whole IT organization or just focus on some key items (ex: new CRM system, office automation tools, efficiency of the support line, etc.). They can also be used has a complementary tool to gather user requirements and help formulating RFPs that will be used to investigate ways to improve and develop information systems through outside providers.

Software companies acting as SaaS providers can also use Integron’s tools and services for the same purposes towards their customer user’s community, and identify the acceptance and areas of improvement related to their offer.Finally, any IT or software organization having to deal with a diversified community of users (internal and/or external) can benefit from a detailed visibility on the way their solutions are accepted, and refine their improvement potential.

Integron

Integron Research was established in 1993 and is a leader in measuring customer, employee and internal department satisfaction. Integron is an agency that focuses on performance – but it has an informal organization, special team spirit, and an advocate of close collaboration. Our mentality is honest, personal, customer-focused, and direct. Integron makes vital organization performance measurable and controllable with the aid of research. We focus on internal and external perceptions, expectations and experiences. As such, our research is not limited to customers and suppliers. We emphatically involve employees, departments and branches in our surveys. And we link the internal and external valuation of existing performance directly to the organization.
Stephen Forcella
Manager Business Initiatives
401 N. Tryon St., 10th Floor
Charlotte, NC 28202
PH: 704-998-5629
FX: 704-998-5301
Mobile: 704-995-1540
s.forcella@integronresearch.com
www.integronresearch.com
skype Name: sintegron

Business Success is Often Just One More Step Away

Here are some success stories to keep in mind during those times in life when things seem a little impossible:

Dr. Seuss’s first children’s book was rejected by 23 publishers

Michael Jordan was cut by his high school basketball team

Henry Ford went broke 5 times before he succeeded

The University of Bern rejected Albert Einstein’s Ph.D. dissertation

Often times the road ahead is paved with gold, we just can’t see it under all of the bumps. Stay on the road, stay focused and keep pushing ahead, success may be just around the corner.

Importance of Reporting for Decision Making

Treating your business like a "business" from the start is the difference between success and failure. Running weekly monthly and quarterly reports, keeps your eyes on the numbers and you abreast of changes as they happen. Using week over week, month over month and year over year report comparisons help you evaluate whether this just a one time occurrence or the beginning or end of a trend.

So many business owners, especially solo-preneurs misunderstand the value of reports. "If I'm the only person in the business, why do I need reports?", one client quipped. My response included the following 3 points: 1) reporting gets you in the habit of running your business like a business instead of an extension of your personal life and finances, 2) reports set a precedent of how operations, meetings and reviews will be conducted in the future as your business grows beyond just yourself, 3) reports give you a collection of data from a finite period in time that is sorted and analyzed based on specific criteria critical to your business.

So what reports are absolutely essential? In some ways, that question is unique to the type of business, the reporting of a retail business will differ from that of a service company. However, in my opinion, all businesses can benefit from the following 3 reports on a weekly basis: 1) A Balance Sheet, 2) A Profit & Loss, & 3) a custom report.

An example of data in a custom report would be the following: using an excel sheet you would zero in on specific numbers in your P & L to create a summary week over week, month over month or year over year report.

For example, the owner of a scuba store that also offers classes may want to view the following information for this week, this month, so far this year Vs 1 year ago for the week, month & year:
Sales
# of classes sold
# of dive trips sold
# of equipment sold(i.e- tanks, masks, suits, etc)
Expenses
Advertising
Labor
Utilities
Supplies & equipment

Seeing this data in a report makes it so much easier to make informed decisions based on actual events instead of gut feelings and I think so there for it is.

Feel free to contact me if you need one on one consulting on structuring reports and using them effectively for your business.

Have a great week!

A recent reading

I recently became acquainted with a retiree who in his day, was a very successful business owner. Over the course of the weekend, he and I discussed some of my consulting clients and their challenges and opportunities. It was truly a pleasure to speak to this man and I look forward to learning more from him in the future.

As I was leaving his home, he gave me a book to read written by a man named Leon Danco, the title of the book is "Inside the Family Business".

I'd like to share an excerpt with you:

" Who is this guy, this"enterepreneur"? Why and how did he get himself into this mess he is in?

He asks himself the same question night after night as he stares at the ceiling telling himself over and over that he's really a hairy-chested rugged individualist, striking off on his own path, hacking out a trail never before traveled. He's a hero, the bearer of the American Dream.

And from the other side of the bed, his wife looks at him and knows that he is scared half to death"

If that does not sum up the struggles and journey of an entrepreneur, I don't know what does. we are all in it together trying to build and create our dream enterprise to provide us a living and sense of accomplishment. It is a wonderful and scary journey

Focus on Results Not on Tasks

Anyone who has read my Special Report "The 7 secrets to making Your Business thrive In Any Economy" or my E-Book "Power Squared: The Ultimate Entrepreneur Success System" would know that I am a planner, an organizer and efficient executer of business related tasks.

The key to being effective in the execution of your business tasks is to focus on the desired results of your project or endeavor and not to get bogged down in the smaller details. If you work backwards from the finish line, to the starting point, you often may find a faster and more efficent route to reach your goal.

For example, when developing a new process or procedure, we may ask ourselves "how do I make sure this widget is always used properly?" But in actuality, my real concern or objective is "to make sure this widget is used in this manner everytime". My real objective is to make sure everyone knows how to do it and produce the result?

You may be reading this and think I am splitting hairs and it is just semantics, but it reality it takes you down a different thought process and ensures that you are focusing on the results to develop the procedures. and not the procedures to develop the results.

Survival Tips for Tough Times

All of the current economic data predicts that 2009 will present many more challenging months for business owners. If you and your business are fortunate enough to have survived the tough times in 2008, here are some tips to guarantee survival in the new year:

1) Ask for Discounts- ask all of your vendors for discounts on purchases, shipping, surcharges and fees.

2) Trim the Fat off Every Bill- Often times bills for recurring services like pest control, phone service, bottled water, web hosting, and certain advertising are laden with charges for extra bells and whistles you can do without in exchange for saving a buck or two.

3) Compare Bills to Prior Months for Price Increases- If you notice surcharges, increases or other fees that are increasing your costs, call the vendor and ask for a waiver or reduction.

4) Renegotiate Interest Rates on Credit Cards- Become an interest rate hawk, call your credit card provider and ask for a rate reduction. Most companies will decrease rates for clients in good standing.

5) Talk to Your Landlord- For lots of businesses, rent is the largest expense, ask for some temporary relief and use the saved cash to establish an emergency fund.

We all know good times are ahead. The smart & savy Entrepreneur business owner who can survive this environment will do very well when the economy recovers. Taking some of these steps will help to ensure you are here to reap the rewards of all your hard work.

Reply to Classy & Small Business Budgeting

I always start the new year with a new budget. I use the prior year's actual numbers and increase my expense projections by 3% (the average inflation rate) and increase revenue projections by 10% (a modest growth goal).

If I was just starting a business or creating a budget for the first time, I would speak to my landlord, accountant and neighbors to get some baseline figures for my budgetary expenses. For my income, I would rely on my income projections from my business plan.

An expense that must always be included in every business plan and budget for that matter is the category of owner's compensation or owner distributions. Let's make an assumption, that I would like the business to pay me $60,000 for my services over the course of year. I would then put $5,000. per month in my budget ($60,000 / 12 months= $5,000).

Each month I would treat my compensation, like any other bill that needed to be paid and try to get as close as possible to the payment I promised myself. In the months I did not make my minimum payment to myself, I would record that as money the business owes to me. When the business increased its revenues, I would pay myself the back pay owed.

Many business owners do the opposite, they do not plan how much they want to make, instead they plan how much they want the business to gross and take whatever is leftover. That method is not owners compensation, that is profit. I believe, profit should be an additional distribution on top of owners compensation. It is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow so to speak that makes business ownership worthwhile.

As a business owner, you must make your compensation a priority. Afterall, you would not work for someone else for free, why are you working for your business for free?

Reply to Classy- I hope the information above gives you some insight on how to budget payments for yourself. The rest is up to you, commit to treat your compensation like any other expense, rent, electric, etc. If you can't afford to pay yourself, maybe you need to be more aggressive on cutting other costs or reducing payments on credit card or other debts to free up some cash.

If you have additional questions, feel free to post them.