Patch Management
How to streamline patch management and save time
From a chore to an automated routine: How to streamline patch management and save time Patch management can be time-consuming and often gets postponed to
Team XEOX 15/05/2023
A lot of times, customers become dissatisfied with their MSP because the reality of the partnership didn’t meet the expectations they’ve built during the sales process. When you’re pitching to a prospect, you’re essentially telling them what it’s like to partner with your MSP. You’re setting the standard for what they should expect. Because of this, everything said to close that sale must be genuine—this isn’t the time to exaggerate your expertise, capabilities, or service delivery.
Your service-level agreements (SLAs) are written promises to your customers, but they can also be challenging to track and keep up with across your entire customer base. Because of this, breached SLAs—or broken promises—can push your MSP onto the chopping block. Maintaining well-documented terms that identify expectations, clarify responsibilities, and facilitate communication regarding covered devices, service hours, response times, and more will keep everyone involved accountable.
If you feel like you aren’t getting your money’s worth from your legacy MSP, you’re probably not. In 2022, a modern MSP should be able to provide you with a streamlined IT experience that’s more secure and empowers your end-users to be more productive. Instead, most legacy MSPs are raising their prices and their services are scaling down, not up. If the results are not matching up with your investment, it may be time to start exploring elsewhere.
Modern Managed Services leverage more efficient technology, tactics, and workflows, which result in a better performing, more secure and frictionless computing experience for the end-user at a much lower cost. You’ll save by needing fewer utilities like VPNs, you’ll save because the overhead to manage devices is lower when they get updates over-the-air, and you’ll save because your cybersecurity insurance will cost you less.
Your customers count on you; it’s as simple as that. They’ve put their trust in you to protect their business and make it more efficient. When they need you, they expect you to answer the call. And if you don’t, they’ll likely look for someone else who will. Your exceptional customer service begins and ends with your help desk. Your customers expect fast response and a quicker resolution to their issue. You need complete support clarity to keep your techs engaged, dispatch the right people to the right projects, and ensure no ticket goes unnoticed.
A key indicator that you’re working with the wrong MSP is you’ve lost confidence in your company’s security posture. Most legacy MSPs are using antiquated security practices designed for a traditional workplace. These practices put your business at a higher risk of a ransomware and/or malware attack. A tell-tale that your security posture is lagging is your remote connectivity architecture. MSPs who are still reliant on VPNs are exposing their customers to more malware and ransomware attacks.
Modern MSPs embrace Zero Trust in order to provide their clients with the best possible defense against malware, ransomware and other cyber-attacks. A Zero Trust architecture is far more secure. Zero Trust follows the principle of “guilty until proven innocent.” With Zero Trust, every access request is checked and verified. Riskier requests require MFA or get blocked completely – protecting your business and your employees. If your MSP hasn’t embraced Zero Trust, you’re getting less than the best.
As an MSP, your customers often view you as their do-it-all resource for their technology needs. Yet many times, they have the wrong expectations about their cybersecurity coverage and what’s actually protected.
Yet many times, they have the wrong expectations, especially around cybersecurity coverage and what’s actually protected. Many clients assume cybersecurity coverage is baked into their contract. Without having the right conversations, it’s hard to manage these expectations. MSPs need to practice transparency and also keep their tech stack up to date, which helps to keep tabs on everything and prove your value to your customers.
When there are too many tools to track and maintain, there’s less time to really dive into the metrics to provide transparent reporting to your customers and ensure you’re meeting all of their needs.
Here’s something to consider: is losing a customer that bad? The reality is, not all customers are profitable, and some level of churn is healthy and expected in any business. As a managed service provider, it’s important to recognize which customers are profitable and how customers with more problems and no margin benefits impact your service.
Think about it this way, what does losing one bad customer do to your ability to bring on better ones, or how will it impact how you can support existing customers. You might be able to spend more time providing better customer service, or you can bring in more revenue by filling that space with a new opportunity. Your best customers are the ones who make it easy to anticipate what they need, have a good effective rate, pay on time, and don’t hurt your team’s morale. You want more of these types of customers, and to get there, sometimes you have to be okay with letting go of those relationships that didn’t quite fit.
Legacy Managed Service Providers can take days, if not weeks, to onboard new employees with the devices they need to be productive. This wait is both costly and avoidable. If your MSP is taking an unreasonable amount of time to get devices set up and in the hands of your new hires, it is likely because their practices are outdated, and they are not using modern technology.
Poor onboarding creates friction with new employees on day one – do your employees sit around for several days or are they up and running in the first 30 minutes?
In the wake of the great resignation, many employees leave positions due to unnecessary discord that hinders productivity. Closing the gaps where friction occurs saves your company money, plain and simple. A lower employee turnover rate and a proven process for immediate employee productivity will, undoubtedly, benefit your group financially in the long run,
Modern MSPs use Zero Touch Provisioning. Zero Touch Provisioning means a laptop can be shipped directly to a new hire. The new hire opens the box, powers on the device, signs in, and the device configures itself over-the-air in about 30 minutes.
XEOX is a cloud based modern remote monitoring and management software solution for IT teams and professionals to gain better visibility and control over all critical assets in their company’s or customer’s IT environment. This advanced RMM tool allows to manage various IT assets automatically and remotely from a central location using any device.
The software is equipped with tools that streamline repetitive IT support and management tasks. It enables automated deployment and installation of software packages to endpoints, computers and users without causing disruption. XEOX simplifies patch management processes with instant endpoint scanning, patch distribution and patch compliance reporting capabilities.
IT teams and professionals gain a complete and clear view of their entire network. They can monitor the activity of users and devices connecting to VLAN networks and receive notifications about switch port status and availability. Efficient endpoint management also allows them to detect and fix problems on their Windows endpoints immediately. XEOX also has a mobile app that allows them to track and troubleshoot issues, perform tasks, and access important alerts anywhere.
From a chore to an automated routine: How to streamline patch management and save time Patch management can be time-consuming and often gets postponed to
What is Patch Compliance? Patch compliance is an important aspect of any organization’s cybersecurity strategy. It refers to the percentage of devices or systems within
How to uninstall a problematic patch Software updates and patches are an essential part of maintaining the security and functionality of any computer system. They
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