Compared to our previous provider, the transition to XL.net saves us $7,000 – $8,000 a month in IT expenses and the fact that we no longer have an in-house IT tech. This is the best IT vendor I have had experience with – and I’ve had a lot of experience with IT vendors in the past.
I can truly say, without any hesitation AT ALL, having XL.Net as our one-stop shop supplier for IT-related issues and advice has been an unbelievably positive experience… Each technician has always provided immediate service, been very thorough, provided great verbal and written explanations, and so very pleasant to work with. When we open an XL.Net ticket, we have all the confidence of quick/correct resolution (It’s Done and Done Right!).
The service and response time is what separates XL.net from the rest – The best word to describe them is…Reliable!
You seem to drop everything else for us when we need you.
I’ve contacted XL for IT support with various issues and assorted software and apps, throughout the workday and off hours. They have consistently been incredibly responsive, helpful, friendly, and professional, and they help me understand the problems in layman’s terms. Thanks XL!
“Whenever I’ve tapped them for advice, they’ve always responded very soundly. The engagement has continued to grow in strength and quality over time.XL.net has become a highly recommended team in the client’s eyes. Bringing a well-rounded, full team of experts and a responsive approach, they’re a true source of support in the ongoing partnership. ”
We are now able to have the resources of a big company, but don’t have to pay full price for them…If there is an issue, we don’t have to do anything but call them. They are easy to deal with and their staff does whatever they have to do to get issues resolved.
“They’ve gained the trust of a lot of our employees because of their responsiveness and hard work. Very happy with the services and extreme responsiveness at which they’re performed. XL.net addresses helpdesk tickets quickly and provides status updates of their tasks. They’ve proactively reduced the number of tickets by investing the time to resolve the root of repetitive issues.”
“I am very happy with the services and overall engagement. XL.net took the time to gain an in-depth knowledge of the our business and is now helping them achieve their IT goals. They’re communicative and provide excellent customer service. Flexibility is a hallmark of their work.”
XL.net provides me and my business every tool we need to succeed and a peace of mind that can’t be bought. What we pay now is less than what we were paying before – with a side of extra competency. We are getting better services for less.
The biggest benefit of XL.net is the sense of confidence they provide. We are now able to have the resources of a big company, but don’t have to pay full price for them. XL.net is an all-encompassing solution. If there is an issue, we don’t have to do anything but call them. They are easy to deal with and their staff does whatever they have to do to get issues resolved.
Since our founding in 2009, we intended to keep your staff productive by eliminating 10%-25% of productivity loss from technology disruptions. In fact, “Keeping You Productive” was our initial tagline!
We were one of the first firms to offer an exclusive, unlimited, 24/7/365, outsourced IT department. This means that anytime someone contacts our Service Desk, our margins, and yours, erode as we spend time and money to resolve a disruption that is impacting you. This pricing model allows us to align our interests in preventing disruptions.
Unfortunately, it took us three years to figure out how to effectively and predictably reduce disruptions for our clients.
The only predictable way to deliver an IT environment that is not causing productivity loss, is with a System Analyst that focuses exclusively on prevention through regular audits. Let’s take a closer look at System Analysts. There are three main components:
Technology disruptions cause a 10%-25% loss in productivity for your staff. You need to reduce this loss quickly to ensure reliable, consistent operations.
A 2019 study by the Ponemon Institute found that 66% of SMBs worldwide were attacked by hackers in the year prior.And 69% of SMBs in the U.S. reported losing sensitive corporate or customer information. That’s not a risk many businesses can afford to take.
Without accurate documentation, the Service Desk will struggle to support your staff, and your Technology Officer will find it difficult to steer technology. Proper documentation keeps everyone on the same page and clearly outlines important information, rationale, processes and other aspects necessary to solve business problems.
Since our founding in 2009, we intended to keep your staff productive by eliminating 10%-25% of productivity loss from technology disruptions. In fact, “Keeping You Productive” was our initial tagline! We were one of the first firms to offer an exclusive, unlimited, 24/7/365, outsourced IT department. This means that anytime someone contacts our Service Desk, our margins, and yours, erode as we spend time and money to resolve a disruption that is impacting you. This pricing model allows us to align our interests in preventing disruptions. Unfortunately, it took us three years to figure out how to effectively and predictably reduce disruptions for our clients.
Service Desk can fix IT issues, not prevent them We knew from the beginning that we had to be proactive. So we developed 19 technology items to check regularly for every client. We then asked our Service Desk, the firefighters, to make sure they went through the checklist monthly. We waited, and noticed that the reactive issues per person we supported remain at 1.18 technology disruptions per month. Nothing changed for a long time. Finally, our founder sat down with a Service Desk Engineer at his request. He was asked to watch the Service Desk Engineer attempt to go through the checklist.
First thing in the morning, he saw the Service Desk Engineer open up the checklist and start on the first checklist item. And then a call for help came in. About 20 minutes later, the Service Desk Engineer went back to the list. And as you can guess, another call came in. At the end of the day, only four of the 19 checks were completed, and not too effectively, due to the split on focus.
This meant there were never fewer disruptions to resolve tomorrow than today, and in fact, there were more as we grew. We began to enter the reactive spiral of death.
The lightbulb went off in our founder’s head, and we realized we needed a whole new department focused exclusively on proactively checking for misalignments in technology while allowing the Service Desk to focus exclusively on urgently resolving reactive technology disruptions.
We then divided up the work into that of our urgent firefighters (Service Desk) and important fire preventers (System Analysts). Understanding how the Eisenhower principle applied to IT would have helped us reach this insight sooner. The Eisenhower principle splits tasks up by their importance and urgency, or lack thereof. Looking back, there was never time for the Service Desk to leave the first quadrant of tasks that were both urgent and important.
We began hiring for our new System Analyst department but had two significant challenges. The first, which still exists today, is that our payroll costs are higher than our reactive competitors. We have to effectively communicate the value to our clients of investing 30% more in our service to reduce their technology risks and disruptions by 80%.
Within a year of solving this issue, technology disruptions were cut in half!
The next challenge presented itself about a year afterward when all of our System Analysts started quitting. Here is a snippet from one of the three exit interviews:
XL Founder: “I thought you liked it here?”
Departer: “I love it here!”
XL Founder: “Do we pay you well enough, are the benefits good?”
Departer: “Absolutely, actually a bit better than where I am going.”
XL Founder: “I don’t get it, why are you leaving?”
Departer: “I am bored! I want to work on implementing exciting new technologies. But all I do is update documentation and go through checklists.”
The second lightbulb went off. We were hiring the wrong people for the System Analyst department. We needed to hire sociable technology auditors with a similar profile to financial auditors.
System Analysts are one half of XL.net’s Alignment Department. See how the department works with you month to month in our client guide: Working with the Alignment Department.
We hired Culture Index and created an assessment that now is extremely accurate in predicting the success of a System Analyst and have virtually eliminated turnover.
The additional benefit showed up a year or two later when our technology disruptions were cut in half again! In hindsight, we realized that high engagement from our System Analysts created exceptional results.
Luckily, we kept the historical records and now can show proof of our results and the impact of the two insights:
Today, we utilize the ISO 9001 quality management system to further reduce technology disruptions and myITprocess to manage our technology audits. As our policies, procedures and processes have grown, we adopted a governance management system called SweetProcess to simplify the documentation of your environment and procedures.
The foundation of a safe technology environment is running a quality operation, as described above. We got there somewhat backwards, though.
We started with implementing an ISO 27001:2022 information security policy and associated standard operating procedures. Once we did some assessments regarding our performance and our ISO 27001:2022 information security policy, we realized we had to go back and implement the ISO 9001 quality management system.
The next step in our evolution was to address issues from highest to lowest risk. We use the CIS Controls roadmap provided by the Center for Internet Security:
The System Analysts, along with Central Services, maintain controls 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 10, 16, 17. Additional controls require implementation by the Project Department as decided with your Technology Officer.
With these kinds of tools, we can effectively monitor your system and look for weak points that could open up the potential for security breaches. With the help of the XL.net team, we can address and fix issues as they appear.
To learn more about our IT services, reach out to an XLnetter today.
We realize we are not perfect, but we strive for it constantly!
Our System Analysts have a significant amount of documentation to acquire and procedures, like New User Setup, to jointly create with you. System Analysts are accountable for reducing the amount of time spent by the Service Desk per request. By doing this, we can reduce the amount of time you wait to get your request resolved:
Prior to our monthly review of your technology environment, your System Analyst will send you a check-in form, as well as a completed version of it after the visit. This allows you and your Technology Officer to have clarity of what transpired and what needs attention:
Included in the check-in form is the reference to the myITProcess review, which helps outline alignment audits. This was previously the 19-item checklist audit. Now there are hundreds of controls we check. The alignment audit reports are utilized by your Technology Officer to together with you plan technology changes:
