A Day in the Life of a Managed Services Team Member
Imagine your ideal managed services relationship. Any managed services provider worth its salt is going to take work off of your IT team’s plate and make life a little easier on it in the process. But a best of breed managed services provider is not only going to make life easier, it’s going to take things one step further.
At Arraya Solutions, that extra step, or our “secret sauce” if you prefer, is our personal, down-to-Earth approach to delivering the solutions and services our customers rely on. For example, something as easy as sketching out a solution on a white board to help a client understand what’s up.
The goal? Ensure everyone is on the same page and stays that way. That approach is what we feel helps us to stand out from the rest of the managed services field.
How we do it
Trent Hewitt, Team Lead for Managed Services and Operations, has a unique perspective when it comes to Arraya’s approach. Before he came to Arraya, Hewitt was on the other side of those white board sessions.
“I used to work for a company that was one of Arraya’s customers,” Hewitt explained. “I remember being impressed by how tech-savvy and personable the Arraya guys were and how they walked us through everything.”
Hewitt kept those experiences in the back of his mind and when the opportunity presented itself to join Arraya, he seized it. As Team Lead and someone who’s been on both sides, who better to walk us through a typical day – if there is such a thing – in the life of a managed services team member?
“Every morning, the first thing we do is review what happened overnight,” Hewitt said. If there isn’t anything which needs immediate attention, the team will move on to a number of different things on their to do lists, including working through open items, prepping for conference calls or keeping their skills sharp through training.
“The thing is,” Hewitt noted, “we make sure we’re always ready, that we’re prepared to jump in if an alert comes across our desks.”
In the event that an issue does pop up, or there is something that needs their immediate attention, here’s how his team handles it:
“If the issue isn’t coming to our attention directly from the customer, then the first thing we do is ask ourselves ‘What does this look like for the customer?’” he said, the objective being to figure out exactly what kind of impact a glitch could be translating into over at a customer’s site.
After touching base with the affected customer, then the team will bring whatever resources or co-workers in that they think they might need to solve the problem.
“It becomes a case of ‘Who is going to work with me on this?’” he said. In the event of a more advanced problem, this could mean bringing other Arraya departments into the mix to leverage their skills. For smaller issues, it might be another team member to bounce ideas off of, something Hewitt says is essential to the success of the team.
By bringing in another set of eyes, his team is able to get a more rounded view of a problem or solution. This lets the team be sure nothing is getting overlooked. On top of that, it’s good to have another person who’s familiar with a customer’s environment. That way, multiple people are capable of stepping up and handling a problem, without needing a lot of runway to get up to speed on the situation.
“The thing I find most rewarding about my job is all of the people I get to work with here,” Hewitt said. “It feels like a family, everyone is quick to jump in and lend a hand.”
“We had a situation where something went wrong with a customer’s system overnight and I had to send out a text message to one our engineers at 2 a.m., asking for his help to solve it,” Hewitt explained. “His response? ‘Give me two minutes to wake up and I’ll dive in with you.’”
“You won’t find that everywhere. A lot of guys would take one look at their phone and say ‘I’ll get it in the morning’ and let it go to voicemail, but here everyone is ready to pitch in.”
That attitude is what he believes makes all the difference.
“It shows just how much we care,” he said. “Customers can see that and they appreciate the passion we bring to our projects.”
To learn more about Arraya’s managed services and what they can do for your organization, visit www.arrayasolutions.com/ManagedServices or speak to your Arraya Account Executive.
