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Category Archives: Managed Services

Business Roadmap

How to Develop a Strategic Business Roadmap

A plan must be put into place for any viable business to move forward. While the most successful company CEOs and visionaries got far by following their instinct, rest assured they had a roadmap made beforehand. They went over their goals, initiatives, and resources to develop a strategic roadmap that served as a guiding light for everyone involved.

So, if you are wondering why you need an IT strategic roadmap to move forward in the market, as well as some tips on crafting a successful roadmap, read on below!

What is an IT Strategic Roadmap, and What Does It Contain?

An IT business roadmap is a high-level visual overview of a complex IT undertaking. It details all the goals and plans for a predetermined time. IT roadmaps are used by businesses to plan and manage internal IT projects.

So, one could say that an IT strategic roadmap is a subcategory of a broader business roadmap that assists in underlining priorities.

While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to IT strategic roadmaps, here is a rundown of what most businesses should put into their business roadmaps:

Strategic Business Roadmap
  • A strategy statement outlining the company’s strategic aims (not IT-specific).
  • A chronology of the activities and projects that will take place over the next several years, with estimated start and finish dates, lengths, and scopes.
  • A prioritized list of corrective actions. This is created collaboratively by the business and IT and should be renewed regularly.
  • Explanations of planned projects. These should be comprehensive assertions for projects within the next 12 months and shorter statements for projects beyond that time frame.
  • The projected time and expenses of each project. Again, get more detailed when writing about projects happening soon, and describe distant projects more vaguely.

To support the roadmap, IT departments should maintain updated versions of:

  • Systems architectural diagrams for the entire business, including interfaces, manual data moves, and platforms.
  • A system inventory that is updated regularly and includes end-of-life dates, a basic usage statement, the number of users, and the system owner.
  • An ongoing list of new issues that the IT support crew is encountering. That should be tracked by good help desk software.

The Importance of a Strategic Roadmap

Significant technical initiatives, such as implementing new corporate systems like CRM or ERP, can be daunting. They are frequently costly, take a long time to finish, have a high failure rate, and can be inconvenient to the company’s day-to-day activities.

While less expensive, apps that specialize in specific business processes, like scheduling software, can have their own set of issues, such as limited capability and the need to integrate numerous systems.

Despite these obstacles, businesses that have engaged in digital tech report better productivity, reduced expenses, and higher product quality. Such businesses also have higher growth possibilities and are better equipped to respond to market changes more quickly.

The Perks of a Good IT Roadmap

An IT roadmap can assist a business in determining the best strategy for implementing an IT change in the business.

Here are some key benefits of a useful IT business roadmap.

Understanding the Possibilities and Limitations Better

By precisely identifying your company’s technological initiatives and goals, you will be able to more quickly identify technical goals that correspond with the overall structure of your enterprise or startup. Then you can prioritize those objectives. When you don’t look at the big picture, it’s far more difficult to establish achievable objectives. By placing everything on paper, you can easily see where your business will gain the most, what short-term goals are preferable, and what goals may take longer to achieve.

IT Strategic Business Roadmap

Reasonable Budgeting

Being unreasonable about your budgeting possibilities can lead to absolute failure and bankruptcy. Shaping a good IT strategy means that your IT infrastructure is carefully laid out in one place, and you can easily see what’s reasonable to achieve and what not.

From the very start of crafting a strategic roadmap, you can spot some pain spots that have been causing you to lose money. For instance, you will see systems that aren’t operating and should be put to an end.

Then, you can use those resources to fund another project or department.

Keep Your Systems Running Smoothly.

Finally, having a simple document that keeps the IT department or your future outsourced managing service provider up to date on all the systems they manage is really beneficial. Because there are so many diverse, crossing systems in so many businesses, sustaining the entire system necessitates understanding all parts of it. An IT business roadmap gives the ideal overview, keeping both new and experienced team members on track.

Finishing Word

Every proper fantasy hero uses a map to get to their treasure, castle or loved one. Your goal of sustaining and growing your business is no different – you need a map that can help you navigate the changing and murky waters of today’s disruptive, albeit sometimes interestingly challenging, world.

Good luck!

cloud and IT managed services

How to Increase Productivity with Cloud and IT Managed Services?

Nearly every company out there seeks to grow and scale its business. One surefire way to start going that way is by increasing productivity in one’s company. Cloud and IT managed services can help with that.

The main benefit of these managed services is that they let you do more for less money since you are more or less outsourcing IT services.

This article will explore how cloud and IT managed services can help boost productivity and lead to overall company growth.

Definition of Cloud and IT Managed Services

To improve operations, cut costs, and realize other benefits, companies outsource the responsibility for maintaining and anticipating the need for a variety of processes and functions in the sphere of IT infrastructure.

The IT service provider offers your company a predefined set of services that suit your needs and are picked by you.

Simply put, a managed service company is a company that manages the everyday operations of your specialized applications. Managed services can help you:

  • Give your company’s end-users more capabilities.
  • Allow internal IT to concentrate on more strategic IT initiatives.
  • Allow your team to concentrate on your company’s core competencies.
IT managed services and cloud

Better IT Services for Less Money

Your company can see increased productivity with managed cloud services, as that gives it better IT service for less money. Such services are offered for a flat rate that the companies pay as a previously agreed-upon sum.

The provider of the services can spread the costs across the client base, so the company as a client ends up paying less than it would on its own. The teams working at cloud service providers are experts in their area, so you would probably also get taken care of in a better way than you would with an in-house team.

Core Competence Given by Experts

Anyone handling tech systems who isn’t an IT professional can vouch for the fact that the responsibilities are a constant challenge.

Digital transformations and upgrades, as well as tracking security risks, necessitate complete attention. General productivity dips with no dedicated resources. Companies and their teams can focus on their main areas of expertise while still reaping the benefits from cutting-edge tech thanks to outsourced cloud and IT managed services.

Filling in Gaps in Your Team’s Expertise

Finding an affordable provider who excels in complementary areas of IT can help businesses optimize managed cloud productivity gains. To put it differently, if your team lacks skills in areas such as cloud application development, data backup, and cloud strategy, employing a provider to handle these duties could save you time and money. It’s also crucial to make sure that the total cost of these services is less than the cost of additional in-house expertise and infrastructure.

Outsourcing IT service hosting and management can help businesses become more efficient, which is a top priority for many.

There is Less Risk Involved

Private, public, and hybrid clouds are used by managed service providers. As an outcome, these experts back up and store sensitive data in a secure location away from their clients’ workplaces. That has several advantages for companies:

  • Company owners can obtain data from anywhere on the planet. Cloud storage allows you to access and share data from your laptop, smartphone, or tablet.
  • Data breaches and third-party hacks can be avoided by business owners. Cybercrime is less likely when IT services are outsourced.
  • Disaster recovery procedures can be improved by company owners. Data loss is less likely in the event of a hurricane or flood because managed service providers do not store data on-premise.
  • Managed services can also help you avoid downtime. Power outages, computer breakdowns, and software issues can all hurt a company. Furthermore, data and sensitive financial data may be at risk.
cloud and managed services

Compliance is Ensured

Emerging technologies like the Cloud, SaaS, and ITaaS are subject to ever-changing national and worldwide compliance regulations in industries like healthcare, finance, property investment, and education.

Managed service providers who are well-equipped and have experience in offering detailed services for providing privacy, security, and data can alleviate concerns about missing crucial, or, in extreme situations, losing a company due to failing to meet mandatory compliance standards. That way you can rest and be at ease knowing that the formalities have been taken care of.

Final Word

Whether you’re a SME (small or medium-sized business) without in-house Informational Technology team or a full-fledged corporation looking to add complex tech outside your area of expertise – think about getting the help of cloud and IT managed services. You might be surprised to discover heaps of tiers of solutions and service hours tailored to your goals that are flexible and affordable.With 24/7 monitoring of your IT infrastructure, you will be able to focus more on scaling your business and helping your team improve its performance.

Customer Service Automation

Customer Service Automation [Definition + Benefits]

This post is all about customer service automation.

In fact, 31.7% of major companies already advanced technology to augment their customer support.

So if you want to know what tech to focus your business on and the benefits it can bring you, you’ll enjoy this article.

Let’s dive in!

What is customer service automation?

Customer service automation is a kind of customer support that relies on technology to reduce human involvement in the process of solving daily customer queries. Smart support automation solutions are intuitive to closely resemble human nature and its level of proactivity.

Types of CS automation

Businesses use different methods to introduce independent help desk solutions. 

Here are the most common types of customer support automation:

  • Simulated chats
  • AI chatbots
  • Email automation
  • Automated workflows
  • Pre-made responses
  • Contextual FAQs
  • Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
  • Social media case routing

All of these solutions can be used in combination. While the advantages are manyfold.

Benefits of automating customer services

Let’s go over some of the main benefits of customer support automation:

Customer Service Automation

Minimized Human Error

A key benefit of an automated contact center is the fact that it helps reduce the number of human errors. 

Although humans can be great at showing empathy to each other, they do not have the capacity to offer the same accuracy and speed when it comes to repetitive tasks like data entry or crawling through thousands of pieces of information looking for just one. 

Customers value fast and efficient help, without being bounced around from one agent to another, and having an automated call center is a sure way to reduce friction and end up with fewer errors that ruin the speed of problem-solving. 

Today’s automation tools powered by AI and machine learning technologies are also able to learn from previous interactions and modify their behavior based on the knowledge they accumulated. 

This helps them provide more accurate assistance that can only get better over time.

24/7 Support Availability

There is only a limited number of hours that human agents can work in a day, and if you want to make them available 24/7, your cost of labor will skyrocket. 

As opposed to that, automated support tools can provide non-stop customer service with no interruption, and without breaking the bank. 

For example, the use of chat automation allows you to offer online assistance without any human involvement. 

In the case of certain types of workflows, the chatbot can notify the staff about a potential interruption or the need for additional help. 

Moreover, having a service solution that is always available goes beyond regular customer support and tackles the care of prospects, too. 

Smart chatbots can gather invaluable information from potential customers without forcing them to fill out time-consuming forms. 

Customer Service Automation email

Improved Team Collaboration

Automated customer support tools can make team collaboration much smoother and more efficient by eliminating confusion and making it clear who owns a particular support ticket. 

Businesses that use automated help desk solutions benefit from having better-organized workflows built around solving customer issues, without any extra steps that would only waste the company’s time and money. 

For example, if a ticket is about to fall through the cracks, the automated system can flag it for an urgent review and remind the staff that its status hasn’t been changed for a while. 

Some tools even include an internal wiki feature that allows the staff members to share insights and other information with each other. This type of software can even offer personalized help to agents by sending them dynamic suggestions of which articles from the knowledge base would be most helpful for them to read at the moment.

Get started with customer service automation

If you’re interested in revolutionizing your customer service with automated solutions, our help desk support services are tailored to the needs of your business.

Contact us today to reach out to one of our specialists at Demakis Technologies.

Help Desk Metrics

7 Help Desk Metrics for Service Desks and Internal Help Desks

In this post, we discuss 7 key help desk metrics you need to track if you’re using a service desk or internal help desk.

These seven KPIs will help you understand:

  • What works and what doesn’t
  • How to measure help desk performance
  • Where are the gaps in your process
  • How to further improve your customer support
  • Lots more

So if you want to know how to measure, analyze and evaluate your help desk support, then this post will help you. 

Let’s start. 

#1 Ticket Volume

Ticket volume refers to the number of incoming support tickets. 

You can track it by using a ticket creation report in your help desk or customer support software. 

It shows the ticket volume ITSM or support team is managing during any given time period.

This will give you a sense of how many tickets your team can handle in a day, week, or month. 

It makes it easier to pinpoint when the workload is increasing beyond a manageable point. 

That’s why this metric will be incredibly important to plan staffing. 

Service Help Desk Metrics

#2 Opened vs. Solved Support Tickets 

In a good help desk and service desk, tickets opened and tickets solved rates should be parallel. 

Tracking tickets by status is useful to evaluate technician performance and responsiveness. 

By looking at these metrics every week, you can make sure you’re keeping up with demand. 

If the rate of solved tickets is always behind, you may need to add more staff. 

If there’s a sudden increase in opened tickets, it can alert you to a service delivery issue. Or any other disruption, for that matter. 

#3 First Contact Resolution 

First contact resolution refers to the amount of tickets resolved without being reassigned. 

It shows how many requests are handled in one rather than over multiple interactions. 

High rate of first contact fits hand-in-hand with customer satisfaction. 

It means customers get an answer quickly and painlessly, improving their customer experience. 

At the same time, resolving tickets on the first try can improve your efficiency. 

This is simply because, with high first contact rates, fewer agents have to touch the ticket. 

#5 Average Response Time 

Average response time is also referred to as first response time

It’s the time between a support request being made and the first documented action taken.

Tracking this metric is essential for ensuring agents are responding in a timely manner. 

The longer the first response time is, the more you risk harming customer satisfaction.

Most people simply want their requests acknowledged and need to know what to expect. 

If you’re transparent about longer than normal wait times, people will usually be understanding. 

#4 Resolution Time

Resolution time is one of the most important help desk performance metrics. 

It tells you how long an employee or customer must wait for their issue to be resolved. 

Resolution time starts from the time submitted, to when it was closed by the agent. Ideally, you want this period to be as short as possible. 

That ‘s why resolution time is an important aspect of the overall customer experience. 

Also, tracking this metric over time is a helpful way to assess staffing needs. 

#6 Backlog

If your internal service desk receives too many tickets, that can lead to an extensive backlog. 

Backlogs can hurt customer satisfaction, overwhelm agents and increase turnover.

Creating a good knowledge-base or using automated workflows can help deal with backlogs.

Tracking backlog metrics helps uncover opportunities to reduce workloads. 

Internal Help Desk Metrics

#7 Support Agent Performance

Tracking the agent utilisation or performance is important to evaluate team efficiency. 

Individual performance rates can help you identify which agents are top performers. 

Also, it can show opportunities for additional training. 

These help desk metrics assist you to pinpoint where agents perform well and where ticket volumes are high. 

Get started with help desk performance tracking

So, we got you through the key help desk KPIs. 

Still, there are many more that should be tracked. And it’s hard to keep a good eye on all of them. 

Are you thinking about hiring help desk professionals?

Outsourcing a help desk could get you more time to focus on your core business.

Contact us at Demakis Technologies and reach out to one of our Support Helpdesk experts. 

AI customer support chatbots

AI-Powered Customer Service DONE RIGHT [+How to Do It]

Today, we’re going to explain AI-powered customer service solutions. 

You’ll see: 

  • Why AI works with customer services
  • How it improves workflows and productivity
  • How to set it up and do use AI correctly

So if you want to boost customer experience, you’ll enjoy this post.

Let’s start!

Why does AI-powered customer service work?

There are lots of benefits to using artificial intelligence in customer service. 

Less Staff

Customer service requires hard effort. Not all of the businesses have enough resources to hire staff to get the efforts done. That’s why AI in customer experience (CX) comes in handy. It’s economical in the long run, easy to use and obviously helpful. 

Personalization

Integrating AI allows you to personalise and deliver your content to the right audience. This will provide your customer service better targeting. 

Productivity

Automating daily jobs gives you and your employees time to focus on more complex tasks.

Better Customer Experience

AI support

Chatbots for artificial intelligence customer service can work round the clock without leave. 

Customers can have their inquiries with AI bots resolved 24/7. Also, they don’t have to wait hours or days for a response. This can greatly improve reliability and customer satisfaction. 

These are just some of the key benefits to using artificial intelligence customer service.

In truth there are many more, such as: 

  • Cost savings 
  • Improved conversion rates
  • Better customer retention 
  • Higher quality scores 
  • Greater precision

But to get ahead of the curb, you’ll need to use AI effectively.

So…

How to effectively use AI in CX?

There’s an opinion that AI customer service is less personalised and effective. It doesn’t have to be the case, if done right. Here are the three hand-on tips on how to effectively use AI in CX. 

#1 Start automating user-specific queries

Most people think AI bots answer only basic questions, like: What’s your refund policy?

More user-specific questions are usually considered better answered by human agents. 

But that’s not necessarily correct. 

Today, AI bot can answer even more specific queries, like: When will my order get here?

AI and bots can actively pull customer data from CRM platforms.

So, when a customer asks for an ETA on their order, the bot taps into the order management system. From there, it pulls the order data and gives the customer a precise answer. 

Also, AI customer-facing bots can be programmed to learn from the past interactions. Still, they can’t do it on their own.

You have to program use-cases and commonly-asked questions specific to your business. 

#2 Train your chatbots to learn from agents

You need to educate your AI customer support chatbots. The more they learn from your agents, the smarter they get. 

Your AI bot needs to study successful agent-customer interactions from your experts. This way, it can respond with greater accuracy. 

Also, it’s good to set up a deflection team to monitor your bot’s initial performance. Leaving your bot going solo can be nerve-wracking, even to the most confident of CX teams. 

#3 Set up chatbots to assist agents

Customer-facing AI bots are extremely important. 

Still, you need to think about setting up agent-facing bots, too. 

They deal with ticket classification and routing, and relevant article suggestions for next steps. 

Agent-facing bots route specialised tickets to the right agents. 

This way, there will be no time delays. Also, Artificial Intelligence in call-centres helps avoid internal customer call transfers. 

ai customer service

Looking for AI and helpdesk support?

Customer service is going through a period of change for the better all thanks to AI. 

That’s why more and more companies choose to implement AI helpdesks. 

Many businesses saw significant improvements after they’ve included AI service desks. 

Do you feel like your organisation could benefit from AI and helpdesk support? 

If so, then you can get in touch with one of our Support Helpdesk experts for further assistance. 

Or, you can just follow our blog to stay ahead of competitors.