Every IT services provider will onboard new clients a bit differently. But here’s an idea of what to expect when starting with a new IT services provider, based on the onboarding process with Internos Group, Miami.

When you have reached out to a potential managed service provider (MSP) for your company, the first step is making the call (or completing an online form) to say you’re interested in a conversation.  That first  call is usually all that’s needed to determine if your needs and the MSP service offerings are aligned. If they are, the next step is an on-site visit.

The Initial On-Site Visit

This visit allows our technical specialists to see and document your IT infrastructure so we can best provide recommendations. We will explain the process including who might need to be a part of all IT discussions. We would assign a client manager (CM) in that  initial prospect meeting. The information that is provided will dictate if someone with technical expertise (a technical account manager) also needs to attend in order to bring both a business and technical perspective to the conversation. 

At Internos, our chief technical officer (CTO) Richard Blanco fulfills some of this role and helps to bring a well-rounded approach to prospect meetings. The CTO also captures important information that can be relayed back to our internal team once onboarding is initiated. 

The CTO and CM complement each other in these meetings and help put you and your staff at ease. Having these two different perspectives helps us put together a comprehensive proposal for your business.   

After that initial on-site appointment is completed, you can expect to hear back from us in two to four days with some initial information. Sometimes it takes a bit longer if what you are looking for requires a comprehensive scope of work.

First Assessment and Budget

After meeting with you we will know if there is synergy between Internos and your staff. We will schedule a follow-up assessment to gather more detailed information about your environment. We schedule a follow-up meeting with management or other key personnel to gather items that would be needed to put together a proposal or scope of work. The proposal includes a budget and usually a time estimation. We go over the proposal and scope of work in detail with you, breaking it down and answering your questions.

Onboarding

Next comes the signing of a contract and the beginning of the onboard process. If you are already using another IT support company or if you have other specific scheduling issues the onboarding could be dictated by that.

The Internos team will kick off the process by alerting our staff and pre-populating our projects board with the details of your upcoming onboarding.

For less complex environments, 30 to 45 days is typical for onboarding. We will give you a specific timeline depending on the number of users and infrastructure you will need. 

A 60- to 90-day onboarding process is usually projected for larger clients who might have more users and more infrastructure needs. Part of our process is to really comb through your environment once we get official access. There are always things that come up that we need to clarify. We know this process takes time and finesse. It’s why we prefer  a 90-day window.

Tickets

Once we have deployed our management agents and gain administrative access to the environment, we can start receiving tickets. We are basically supporting your environment at that point. We provide an easy-to-follow guide on how to contact our support team and the process that should be used to request support.

Unlike some other MSPs, at Internos there is no monthly maximum number of tickets. If however we see a lot of recurring issues, we will bring those to the attention of your client manager. There might be something that needs to be discussed with you such as a user training issue or a deeper technical or business problem that we might be able to assist in addressing. 

Common Roadblocks

Lack of documentation or credentials to systems or services can extend the onboarding time or require us to do a deeper dive. Many times we encounter environments that might be lacking security or patching updates. Those need to be addressed in order to stabilize an environment. 

At Internos we have never run into a situation that we have not been exposed to before or that  we can’t address with an appropriate plan of action.

We have seen a lot and know that we will not have perfect environments when taking on new clients. After all, we are typically taking over a client who has had a been with another IT provider and is looking for a change for a reason.

On-site Training or Remote?

As new systems roll out in your organization, we help your staff acclimate according to your individual needs. If we see that your staff has little or no training on a product, we may bring in a third party training team that specializes in that particular area. We don’t claim to be experts or trainers on all products: We partner with other resources or vendors where it makes sense. That said, “lunch and learn” sessions on how to access our support teams and contact us, among other items, will be done in group settings to ease the transition process to Internos services. 

Our Quick Guide

Internos distributes a quick guide on how to contact our support team. The guide lays out the steps of contacting us including the opening of a ticket via email or calling our helpdesk directly.

When calls or emails come in, our dispatcher assists in triaging and assigning tickets to the proper technician depending on the need and work required. If something requires a deeper assessment or support action, our escalation team gets involved and the ticket is routed to that department.

Reviews and Future Steps

The size, complexity and needs of your environment will dictate how often it is reviewed. Certain clients need at least a quarterly review with their management team or C-level people. Others need only a six-month or even yearly review due to the nature of the business and activity. 

This does NOT mean we are not in communication between those reviews.  We pride ourselves in keeping open lines of communications with clients no matter the size and kind of business. If less formal conversations reveal the need for a larger review, we would accelerate that process.

Our Slogan: Lessons Learned

We pride ourselves in keeping and always adjusting our processes as we learn and manage new clients and get exposure to different scenarios and environments. The phrase “lessons learned” is important to us and we constantly strive to make ourselves better. No one is perfect and we are no exception. We promise that we don’t disregard adjustments that should be made to our processes. 

We are here to help you manage and maintain your IT. Contact us or book a meeting, virtually or in person.