How Managed Support Services Bolster Modern Workspaces

The shift from reactive to proactive workplace strategies is crucial for maintaining competitiveness in today’s fast-paced business landscape. Microsoft’s Modern Workplace is transforming organizations by enhancing collaboration, communication, and access to information by leveraging advanced tools and technologies from Microsoft’s Power Platform.

According to Microsoft, numerous organizations have reported significant operational benefits after adopting Modern Workplace solutions. For instance, a financial services firm managed to reduce the time needed for service approvals from ticket creation to resolution by 80%, effectively accelerating project timelines. In the manufacturing sector, the introduction of Microsoft’s Viva Engage (formerly Yammer) helped a U.S. production line save $37.5K per incident by halving downtime during technical disruptions. A multinational consumer goods company saved 1,250 hours annually while collaborating with partners by using a central repository of information on SharePoint and Teams with external partners for updating merchandise lists. Additionally, a technology services company slashed travel and expense costs by 40% per project using Microsoft Teams, OneNote, Planner, and SharePoint, enabling effective remote collaboration, and ensuring project transparency across their global teams. These instances clearly show how modern, proactive workplace strategies can significantly enhance an organization’s operational efficiency and bottom line. I’ve observed similar transformations in the world of tech support.

The Evolution of Tech Support

It’s been fascinating to witness how tech support has evolved in the industry as well as within our group at Vertilocity even since the beginning of this year. Today’s tech support team must excel in technology and communication. These skills are essential for both client interactions and internal teamwork. In our Modern Workplace team, tools such as ConnectWise, integrated with Outlook, and Microsoft Teams, keep us organized and responsive, ensuring we can address issues swiftly.

The landscape has also shifted from a primarily reactive model—where we responded to issues as they arose—to a more proactive and collaborative approach. In the past, my role involved constant “firefighting”, addressing urgent issues as they popped up. Today, however, we are deeply engaged in integrating advanced monitoring tools and implementing preventive maintenance to ensure smooth system operations, significantly reducing downtime, and boosting productivity and user satisfaction.

This shift from reactive to proactive support has really been driven by the latest technological advancements and fundamental changes in the way we work. We now emphasize internal integration of our processes and tools, which allows us to detect and address issues before they become disruptive. This proactive stance not only minimizes potential downtime and client disruptions but also enhances overall productivity and end-user satisfaction. It’s also proven its worth in various client engagements. For example, an office equipment company we work with initially left us to manage their tech support internally but soon realized they couldn’t handle it alone and returned. Our proactive support approach allows us to quickly address any issues as they arise. They can now utilize their internal IT team to focus more on strategic improvements that effectively optimize overall operations.

Collaboration has also become crucial. My team collaborates with IT, client services, and developers to address complex issues that require diverse expertise. Take, for instance, a scenario where I’m troubleshooting a custom plugin. I may not know all the code behind that plugin. I can see the error log and maybe pinpoint what the root cause is, but I wouldn’t be able to go in there and change the code to fix the issue myself. So, I take the information I have and talk to the development team, who help me debug the code. This is actually a real-world example as we recently had to do this when a custom plugin for one of our clients stopped working. Our dev team was able to pinpoint the exact line of code and fixed the error immediately. At Vertilocity, collaboration between teams is one of the keys to our success. This knowledge sharing helps us solve problems faster for our clients.

The Role of Managed Support Services

Managed support services are essential for maintaining smooth operations in a Modern Workplace. We provide expertise and additional resources that a lot of SMB companies don’t have with their in-house IT team.

For example, when a client faced issues with their CRM appointments not syncing correctly to their Outlook calendar, it significantly disrupted their day-to-day operations. Upon investigation, Vertilocity’s team discovered a native bug with Microsoft, a problem out of our control and, according to Microsoft, not slated to be fixed in their current release schedule. Microsoft typically releases bug fixes and updates twice a year, but they were not going to address this bug in either of the 2024 releases. Refusing to let our client suffer from prolonged disruptions, our team took a proactive stance. Vertilocity’s team designed and implemented a custom workflow that rectified the underlying bug in the CRM system, enabling us to provide a timely resolution rather than asking our client to wait months or longer for Microsoft to include this bug fix in their next software update release. This all stemmed from a tech support ticket but became much more because we were able to pull in our client account management and development teams to ensure our client’s needs were met quickly.

While budget is important, having the peace of mind knowing you’ve got a team of pros backing you up is priceless. One big benefit of going with managed support is having access to a team of experts. A team willing to develop even temporary workarounds for a native bug they know is hindering efficiency in your organization.

Impacting Day-to-Day Operations

Integrating different technologies really changes the game for day-to-day operations. It’s all about making processes smoother and more efficient. For example, having your communication tools and ticket management software synced can save a ton of time and hassle.

Data analytics is another big focus for us. By leveraging Power BI, we can analyze ticket data and identify trends early on, enabling us to bring possible bugs to our development team proactively. We sometimes can prevent issues before they affect more clients. By tackling problems at their root, we prevent the same issues from happening repeatedly. It all comes back to being proactive and staying ahead of the game.

Automation also plays a pivotal role in our support process. We use workflows and other automated processes to handle repetitive tasks, like updating statuses, freeing up our team to focus on more complex stuff.

It’s exhilarating to lead technological innovations that not only resolve issues but also improve business processes. Staying abreast of the latest technologies, such as AI and machine learning, enables us to provide advanced solutions that keep our clients at the competitive forefront.

Overcoming Challenges

Tackling the integration of modern technologies can be daunting for businesses. One of the most common challenges is ensuring that all the technologies work seamlessly together. Oftentimes, businesses adopt different technologies for specific purposes, but find that integrating them can be complex and time-consuming. This can lead to inefficiencies and compatibility issues that hinder productivity.

For example, recently a client in the office equipment dealer industry was struggling with ensuring sales territory assignments were pulled into their CRM more frequently. The updates weren’t getting to their CRM as quickly as they needed for their operations team. Vertilocity’s team worked closely with the client to identify the bottleneck in the integration and developed an improved solution that seamlessly works to update sales assignments in a much more efficient way. This not only resolved the immediate problem but also streamlined their sales assignment process, leading to faster operations and improved customer satisfaction.

Our successful resolution of the CRM integration issues not only improved their operational efficiency but also solidified our reputation as a trusted partner.

Staying Ahead of the Curve
To ensure our team remains at the forefront of technology, we prioritize continuous learning and skill development. This involves being well-informed about new technologies and integrating client feedback to enhance our services and uphold support excellence. Part of our commitment involves keeping up with major updates, such as the Microsoft bi-annual Wave releases, ensuring we understand and can leverage the latest features and enhancements in our services. To learn more about the latest Microsoft Wave Release, my colleague Jeff Burroughs shares his key insights into Navigating The Microsoft Dynamics 365 Wave 1 Release.

With the increasing adoption of automations, remote work solutions, and digital transformation initiatives, Vertilocity’s tech support teams are responsible for supporting an ever more diverse set of tools and platforms. To meet this challenge, we ensure that our tech support professionals continuously update their skills and knowledge. This includes staying up to date on Microsoft certifications for Power Platform and other relevant technologies.

Ongoing training is crucial for keeping our team sharp. We regularly hold “Dev Demos” to get the support team and other departments up to speed on all the new features our development team has been adding to our products. By continuously improving our team’s skills and knowledge, we can ensure that they are well-equipped to handle any support request that comes their way. It’s a win-win; our team gets better, and our clients get better service.

Also, constant feedback from our clients is super important to us. We use the SmileBack Survey to get their thoughts after we’ve closed a support ticket. This feedback is invaluable to us as it helps us understand what we’re doing well and where we can improve. By listening to our clients’ feedback, we can make continuous improvements to our service and ensure that we’re always delivering top-notch support.

Vertilocity’s culture of continuous learning helps us stay ahead of the curve when it comes to the latest trends and innovations in the tech industry.

Looking Ahead: The Future of Tech Support

Advancements in technology are set to have a profound impact on the role and capabilities of managed support services in the years to come. These technologies will help us address issues before they escalate, reducing downtime and boosting productivity. One specific example of this is Microsoft Copilot in Dynamics CRM. Copilot utilizes AI with human language capabilities, providing end users with insights into data predictions and improving email communications with customers. By leveraging these technologies, businesses can gain a competitive edge and better prepare for future trends. For more insights on spotting and making the most of these trends, check out my colleague Vann Abernethy’s article Tomorrow’s Workplace: Advancing Team Collaboration.

Ultimately, by harnessing the latest technologies and embracing these advancements, managed support providers such as Vertilocity can elevate their service standards, ensuring ongoing support and peak performance of their clients’ technology systems.

If you are interested in learning more about how managed support services can transform your business, contact us at ModernWorkplace@vertilocity.com to discuss custom solutions designed to enhance your modern workspace.