The BrightGauge Blog

As we continue to forge ahead in 2020 and understand how COVID-19 has impacted our businesses, it is time to plan for recovery. Whether you have experienced significant changes or you’ve been operating like normal, we all need to think about what comes next. Join Paul Dippell, CEO of Service Leadership, Inc., for the Rapid Recovery Webinar Series, hosted by ConnectWise. In the three-part series, Paul will offer advice on maximizing profits, improving customer retention, and generating new business. Read on for more details and to register for the events. Determining Your Financial Situation and Protecting Profitability June 5, 2020; 1:00-2:00pm EST In the first of the Rapid Recovery Webinar Series with Paul Dippell, we’ll discuss how to clearly understand your financial health and maximize profits during and post-COVID. Register now: https://www.connectwise.com/resources/inside-the-industry/webinar-predicting-profitability Retaining and Risk-Managing Your Existing Customers June 15, 2020; 2:00-3:00pm EST In this episode, Paul Dippell will share advice on how to prevent customer churn and sustained revenue loss by doubling down on customer retention and risk management. Register now: https://www.connectwise.com/resources/inside-the-industry/webinar-retaining-customers Selling into the Storm – New Business Generation in a Downturn June 30, 2020; 1:00-2:00pm EST In the third and final installment of the Rapid Recovery Webinar Series, the conversation will turn to how solution providers can tackle the increased challenge of driving sales during this period of uncertainty. Register now: https://www.connectwise.com/resources/inside-the-industry/webinar-selling-in-economic-downturn

This month, we’re featuring how BrightGauge partner Dan Rutter of TechPath in Brisbane uses BrightGauge reports to be highly transparent with customers and empower them to make the best possible business decisions. Dan is the Service Manager at TechPath, a full-service IT company that focuses on providing business internet, cloud and hosting, phone systems, and technology solutions to people in the Brisbane area. As the Service Manager, Dan wants to enable his customers with full information about their environments so that they have a better understanding of their business. To aid in this type of conversation, Dan regularly sends out an automated End of Month report using BrightGauge. Transparent reporting gives clients an extra look at the value a company like TechPath brings. As Dan puts it, “When you are visiting clients on-site, it’s very clear what your value is as they see exactly what you’re working on, but once your working relationship gets better and there are less face-to-face interactions, you spend a lot more time in the background. We wanted to send a report each month to key contacts to give an indication of what activity is actually happening, because they may not be aware of how much is going on behind the scenes.” The resulting report is straightforward and is automatically sent out, so is not censored in any way and allows for honest, transparent conversations to take place. *View this sample End of Month Report here The overview of day-to-day operations includes data around: Tickets, including type, volume, and open/close dates Asset management, including warranties status Network devices, with information about what’s currently under contract Computer health with patch status and drive disk space used The goal is to empower end users with all they need to make informative decisions. Dan says, “We’re giving our clients enough information for them to leave us, actually. But the idea is that we are providing so much value that they will want to continue working with us.” With the type of data they’re being shown each month, clients can make timely decisions about endpoints that are becoming particularly problematic, machines that may need to be replaced, administrative licenses that should be reassigned, and more. When TechPath is falling behind on something, it’s valuable for the client to see what action was taken to mitigate the issue at hand. That type of transparency strengthens trust placed in TechPath as a partner. “The key things for us are full transparency and showing value,” says Dan. “When we’re not on-site, it’s harder to maintain clients. They start wondering why they pay us. We know we’re doing a good job and we know we’re delivering value, but sending monthly reports helps us show that to our end users and decisions makers.” Interested in setting up an End of Month Report for your clients? Check out our Report Key to recreate it yourself or feel free to reach out to success@brightgauge.com and we’ll be happy to help. Thank you to Dan and TechPath for sharing your insights! Link to Sample End of Month Report Link to Report Recreation Key

We are thrilled to announce that Brooke Candelore, Product Manager at BrightGauge, has been included as an honoree in this year’s CRN 2020 Women of the Channel list! While we are certainly not surprised by this honor, we are so happy to have Brooke’s achievements recognized by the industry. Brooke joined BrightGauge in 2017 and has been an integral part of the development of our product. She’s been responsible for bringing on dozens of new integrations, allowing our partners to connect to the datasources that matter most to them. In her role as Product Manager, she oversees all aspects of our product development, ensuring that features are released in a timely, relevant manner. What really makes Brooke stand out is that she handles her role with such composure and grace. Regardless of the challenges that are presented to her, Brooke constantly has a smile on her face and goes above and beyond to help her team achieve success. Maddie Campos, an Integration Developer on Brooke’s team, says it’s her pleasure to work with someone who has high standards and expectations of those around her. Brooke has helped Maddie solidify programming fundamentals and guide her to become a better developer. “Thanks to Brooke, I have learned to become a better problem solver and critical thinker,” says Maddie. “Not only is she technically proficient, she also moves through life in a very professional, articulate, and kind manner. Her ideas always make logical sense and she has a clear plan in which to move forward. She reminds us what a strong, competent leader can be and never ceases to impress.” Rick Aquilia, another Integration Developer working under Brooke, echoes Maddie’s sentiments. Rick actually transitioned from the Support Team onto the Product Team and one of his greatest challenges was learning Python as part of his development position. Brooke was instrumental in helping Rick progress. “Despite having her own tasks to attend to, Brooke always ensured that she was readily available for any questions that came up throughout my programming journey,” says Rick. “She frequently challenged me to be better and always offered feedback for areas where improvements could be made. I am extremely grateful for her patience, guidance, and support through it all.” Congratulations, Brooke, on this well-earned achievement! Brooke was named an honoree alongside three other ConnectWise colleagues. See the full press release here.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to evolve and change our world. We’ve all been forced to do things differently and figure out how to navigate a workforce that is largely remote. If you’re talking to your peers or reading industry news, you may hear that managed service providers (MSPs) are primed to do well throughout this situation. And, it’s true. MSPs already play such a critical role in their client’s businesses and that role is shaping up to be more important than ever before. While we’re all uncertain about the future, now is the time to show your clients that they can rely on you to see them through. Here are two things you can do right now to support your clients: Increase data tracking You may already have experience managing remote teams and perhaps some of your clients do as well. That’s great! But undoubtedly, you will have many clients that are learning about working remotely for the very first time. By now, they’ve probably gotten the hang of it, but it can be pretty jarring, and productivity may be taking a hit. Plus, your clients may be accustomed to some face-to-face time with you, which they’re no longer getting. One powerful way to combat lack of facetime and less communication in general is to increase the amount of data you’re monitoring. Business intelligence can be used to keep a pulse on what’s going on. For an MSP, this may mean tracking your service desk techs to see what tickets are coming in, what your average response time is, and who is working on what projects. For your clients, data tracking can help them understand what you are doing on the back end to protect their networks. Regardless of the working environment we’re accustomed to, the fact that employees across the globe are now remote can leave us all feeling a little bit out of touch, so your clients may be wondering what it is they’re paying you to do. Sharing data dashboards or custom reports can help them see real-time threats you’re mitigating, endpoints you’re managing, servers you’re keeping up, and all the other ways you’re being proactive about keeping your clients up and running. Being transparent in this kind of way means your clients never have to chase you down for answers and will just end up strengthening your partnership. Ramp up cybersecurity efforts Along with increased data sharing, now is an ideal time to strengthen your cybersecurity offerings. With so many networks being accessed remotely, we’re more vulnerable than ever. The last thing your clients need right now is for their operations to become compromised, when there are other pressing matters to focus on. Have a frank conversation with your clients. Show them in what ways they are currently protected under their service level agreement and how you could reinforce those protections even further. Make sure your employees and your client’s employees are up to date in any security training, and ensure that there are processes in place for securing all work environments. Communicate about these processes and employee requirements on a frequent basis. Conclusion These are just a couple of ways to take the stress and burden out of your client’s hands so they can do what is needed to keep their businesses afloat. Once we return to our new normal, your clients won’t forget how you supported their efforts. Looking for more ways to put yourself in a position to thrive once the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us? Download The MSP COVID-19 Playbook for more information and guidance.

We get asked quite a bit, "Which metrics are the right ones for me to measure for my team and business?". A lot of factors play into this. Consider the size of your team, customer communication, revenue, products and services provided, and markets served to name a few. Take stock of where you stand amongst these, plus a multitude of other factors. This is where you are in your journey. You may realize that your success isn't dependent on the age of your business but rather how mature, or developed each of these core areas are. That's a great start! From here, it's all about knowing what to act on, and setting in place the right intelligence gathering. To demystify this process, join industry expert Eric Hoffmaster for our User Showcase webinar: Making Sense of your Journey Towards Operational Maturity, taking place on May 11th, at 9:30 am PST/ 12:30 pm EST. We'll cover: Key Business Stages What every business should evaluate Evolving your metrics Working towards what's actionable Painting everything green RSVP to our live webinar or to receive a recording: http://info.brightgauge.com/en/wb-msp-maturity

Let’s face it, in this unprecedented situation, as we’re all learning how to navigate a global pandemic, there’s one thing that’s keeping us relatively sane: our connections to the outside world. Our access to the internet so we can get our remote work done, streaming TV so we can watch our favorite shows, and video calls so we can get face-to-face time with teachers or loved ones are what we’ve come to rely on to get us through our days. And none of it would be possible without the diligence and hard work of IT professionals around the globe. We’ve always been proud to be a part of a community that moves technology, and the world, forward. But today, we’re more proud than ever before. We want to shout “thank you!” to all the IT professionals in this community for staying on the frontlines and keeping us on track. You’re an essential part of how we’re getting through this and we appreciate you so very much. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU.

As a business leader, goal tracking is likely a cornerstone of your employee management strategy. Goal management is an important way to align your team members and ensure that you’ve got an entire organization driven by shared key performance indicators (KPIs). In the era of COVID-19 and remote work, the importance of goal setting and tracking is becoming increasingly evident. Let’s face it - managing an entire remote team has its challenges. There are no face-to-face interactions or watercooler moments to rely on that perhaps once served as a casual “what are you up to?” check-in. While it’s necessary to keep employees engaged and productive, no one wants to be micromanaged (or be a micromanager for that matter). But we still want to grow our businesses and keep our employees motivated, so goal tracking remains a priority. The key to implementing goals that will drive business growth is to use an employee goal setting software like BrightGauge to automate that process for you. Before diving into what goal management software can do for your business, let’s explore the necessity of goals a bit more. Types of goals Generally, there are two categories of goals you can assign to your employees: outcome goals and process goals. These two are often intertwined, but the way you measure each is different. An outcome goal is the end result that you’d like to achieve, while a process goal refers to the steps you need to take to achieve your outcome. We like to use a very simple example to help visualize this. Let’s say you want to lose some weight. Your outcome goal would be “lose 5 pounds this year”. Your process goal would be “walk 10,000 steps per day”. With both goals, you can easily measure your progress, and achievement of your outcome goal is dependent upon your process goal performance. Each week (or other determined cadence), you can track and mark progress of each goal. For your outcome goal, you can mark whether you lost or gained weight and how much. And for your process goal, you can track the actual steps you completed each day. So, how does this translate to a managed service provider (MSP)? An example is the desire to improve your organization’s monthly recurring revenue (MRR). You might set an outcome goal to increase your MRR by a certain percentage (increase 5% year-over-year) or to reach a specific number (MRR of $10,000). In order to achieve that outcome, your process goal may be to close X number of new accounts per month, or have your sales representatives increase their outbounding efforts by X% per month. We’ve found that a healthy mix of both outcome and process goals works well. Why you need business goals Assuming that everyone is on the same page and is aware of the desired direction of the organization is just risky business. Accountability measures need to exist to help decision makers evaluate whether everyone is pulling their own weight and charting the right course. If you can’t truly measure performance and progress, how are you analyzing the various areas of your business? How can you tell if you’re growing year over year? Sure, comparing revenue and profit can be telling, but that only paints a partial picture. If you’re bringing in more revenue during a certain period of time, what can you attribute those gains to? How will you know which business tactics were successful and worth replicating? Taking it one step further, who can you attribute successful results to? Is there someone that’s in need of a merit increase? Or perhaps a technician on your team that can benefit from more training? Goal tracking is a powerful way to get answers to all these questions. Not only does it serve to align every person in the company, but goal management also helps business owners carve out a path towards success that makes sense. Goals are like stepping stones that act as a guide without being overwhelming. By focusing on one goal at a time, you can eventually reach your desired outcomes at a pace that’s more easily trackable. Goal management helps you grow your business in a smart, deliberate way. Your team members will know what tasks to focus on and prioritize, they will be held accountable to their actions, and you will have the right data to back future decisions. How to set business goals When you adopt a goal-setting strategy, it’s important that it’s implemented from the top-down. Everyone in the company should be setting and tracking goals. While each goal should tie back to one big, desired outcome, each member of the team should have a different set of goals to work towards. This way, goals are relevant to each person’s role and every team member contributes to the greater good in their own way. As you set and implement the KPIs that are important to your bottom line, use these to drive your goals. Goals and KPIs should tie into one another and ensure that your business decisions are based on factual data. A good rule of thumb is to set SMART goals - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely. Goals should be challenging, but they shouldn’t be so difficult that they end up overwhelming the goal owner to the point where they feel unmotivated and like they’ll never reach the outcome. In our experience, starting off with quarterly goals is an effective way to get this process up and running. At the end of each quarter, performance and progress can be assessed and strategies can be tweaked to better represent your final goal. On the flip side, if you start off with a longer-term commitment like an annual goal, it may be more difficult to stay the course. Whatever approach you take, analyze and iterate often to make the goal management process match the flow of your organization and working style. A few other tips to keep in mind: It’s always good to turn to your peers and colleagues for goal ideas - this absolutely should be a collaborative process Allow for an adjustment period - adopting a new goal-setting strategy means you’re implementing a new process, so the ramp-up period might take a bit Establish regular check-ins to discuss goal progress and performance, whether through 1:1 meetings with direct reports or other method (BrightGauge has a very simple and automated check-in process) Don’t tie performance reviews to goals - the main takeaway here is that goal performance is not black or white; promotions or salary bumps shouldn’t be based solely on whether a goal was hit or missed How to track business goals with BrightGauge Many know BrightGauge for its dashboard and reporting capabilities, which for years have been helping partners organize their data and make meaningful business decisions. Now, as we’ve shifted to remote work, people are turning to their dashboards even more than ever to help their teams work efficiently. You may not be aware that BrightGauge is also a goal management software with a proprietary goal-setting and tracking system that’s a great way to enforce accountability amongst your teams, so everyone can focus on growing the business. With BrightGauge goals, you can set and track goals for each member of the team in a scorecard-like grid. Team members get a weekly reminder via email to check into their goal, which means they mark whether they’re on- or off-track and fill in any necessary context. The corresponding square for that week will turn either green or red depending on progress, making it a very simple and visual way to see how your team is performing at a glance. Goals can be shared company-wide, not just team-wide, which really motivates everybody to be accountable to their tasks and work productively to achieve the desired shared outcome. Some partners have told us that once they’ve adopted BrightGauge’s goal management software, it’s quickly become their favorite feature and they can’t imagine doing business without it. To chat more about how goal management software can drive business growth, contact us and we’ll happily show you BrightGauge in action. For more on goals, check out our whitepaper, The Right Way to Set Business Goals.

As the world shifts to remote work, managers are having to learn new ways to keep their teams motivated and on task. Without the ability to pop over to someone’s desk or have a passing conversation in the hallway, it seems to be a bit more challenging to know what your technicians are working on. This is where dashboards can have a really profound impact. Business intelligence dashboards act as a single source of truth and paint an accurate picture of what’s going on at any given moment. This month, we’re showing you two BrightGauge dashboards that are daily must-haves for working with your remote team. Managing to Zero dashboard *View this sample Managing to Zero dashboard here The point of this dashboard is to manage all metrics to zero within a specific time frame. So, the goal can be to have each metric on the dashboard hit 0 by the end of the day or week. In BrightGauge, you can filter this dashboard for each specific technician and share with them, that way everyone is on the same page and knows what they need to work towards. Here’s a breakdown of the key performance indicators (KPIs) displayed in the Managing to Zero dashboard: High Priority - A count of any currently open high priority tickets. Managing this number to zero ensures that all high priority items are handled in a timely fashion. Unassigned - A count of all currently open tickets that have no technician assigned. Keep an eye on this metric so that all of your customer’s issues and requests are not overlooked. Offline Servers - With your customers relying heavily on their technology during this time, making sure you maintain and manage the amount of servers that are going offline is more essential than ever. New - A count of all tickets that are still in a "New" status. Often this is an indicator that there has not been progress made on these tickets. Highlighting this item for your team should help keep them on track. Breaching Response SLA - This gauge will show any tickets that are within 60 minutes of breaching their response SLA. Managing this metric allows you to stay true to the expectations you have committed to with your customer base. Stale - A count of all tickets that have not been updated in at least 7 days. Make sure you keep this number to zero, so that none of your customer's requests fall through the cracks. Scheduled Today - A focus on tickets that are currently open and scheduled for today. Staying on top of these tickets should also aid in keeping your techs on task. Breaching Resolution SLA - This gauge will show any tickets that are within 60 minutes of breaching their resolution SLA. Managing this metric allows you to stay true to the expectations you have committed to with your customer base. Machines on EOL OS - Ensuring that your customers are on a reliable OS is extremely essential during the new work-from-home environment we are in. Reliable technology will allow them to operate efficiently and in turn increase your value as a partner. Managing to Green dashboard *View this sample Manage to Green dashboard here Another essential, this dashboard gives a view of the current state of affairs. The goal is to have your KPIs consistently within a ‘green threshold’, which indicates that you are on the right track. Metrics that turn to red show areas where you may be falling behind, allowing you to respond quickly and course correct. With BrightGauge, you have the ability to set thresholds based on numbers that you’ve deemed indicative of a problem. When that benchmark is crossed, your gauge will change colors, making it very easy to identify a problem and act on it immediately. In this sample dashboard, we’ve chosen KPIs with arbitrary goals and thresholds set to them just to highlight the idea behind the Manage to Green dashboard. When creating this dashboard for your use, make sure to choose goals and thresholds that match your internal standards. Here are our examples: Average Time to Response (mins) - Keeping your response time low and within an acceptable threshold allows you to provide an exceptional service to your customer base. Make sure this metric fits within internal expectations. CSAT Score - A quick glance at your customer's sentiment towards you. Customer retention is key during these times. Average Time to Resolution (hrs) - Keeping your resolution time low and within an acceptable threshold allows you to provide an exceptional service to your customer base. Make sure this metric fits within internal expectations. % Met Response SLA - A percentage of tickets that have met their response SLA compared to all of the tickets that have been worked that week. Use this gauge to make sure your team is meeting the commitments you have made to your customers. Kill Rate % - This is a quick glance into your team's efficiency. Calculated by taking tickets closed divided by tickets opened, this metric should always stay at 100% or higher. 100% means you have closed as many tickets as have been opened this week. Anything below 100% indicates that there may be some lingering tickets. % Met Resolution SLA - A percentage of tickets that have met their response SLA compared to all of the tickets that have been worked that week. Use this gauge to make sure your team is meeting the commitments you have made to your customers. Billable Utilization % - This calculates the amount of billable time your team has submitted versus their total time submitted. % Tech Time Fulfilled Yesterday - A view of the time submitted yesterday versus their daily capacity set within your PSA. If this number ever falls below 100%, some of your technicians are not putting all of the time allotted in their daily capacity. % Gross Margin - A key metric in determining the overall profitability of your business offerings. The Manage to Zero and Manage to Green dashboards are easy to implement and share and can make a big difference in your team’s productivity and efficiency each week. Having these two rules (‘no red’ and ‘get to 0’) is a quick solution to getting everyone on the same page. To recreate these dashboards for your own teams, check out the links below: Link Manage to Zero dashboard Link to Manage to Zero Recreation Key Link to Manage to Green dashboard Link to Manage to Green Recreation Key Please feel free to reach out to success@brightgauge.com with any questions you have!

Announcing the latest integration to launch at BrightGauge: Sophos. Sophos is a fully-synchronized, cloud-enabled cybersecurity solution that is now available to pair with BrightGauge. With Sophos and BrightGauge, partners can expose metrics pertaining to endpoint health/threat status, identify problematic tenants, and categorize or review alerts. By combining Sophos with BrightGauge, you can strengthen the power of your cybersecurity prevention measures by staying proactive and constantly on top of your data. How to Connect to Sophos It’s quite simple to start working with any of our datasources. To connect to Sophos, click on the green ‘Add a new Datasource’ button, found on your BrightGauge overview page. Find Sophos under the ‘All’ or ‘Security’ categories, click on it, and follow all the prompts. Within a few minutes, you should be good to go. If you need further instructions, check out our Sophos support doc. Not yet a BrightGauge customer? Contact us today and we’ll be happy to schedule a live one-on-one demo. What do I get out of the box? We know how important it is that you get access to your data as soon as possible. After all, your business depends on it. Because of that, we took the time to build out default gauges (KPIs), pre-built dashboards, and report templates, available to you the day you open a BrightGauge account. With Sophos, you get 26 KPIs, 2 dashboards, and 1 report. Gauges (KPIs) The defaults that come with the Sophos integration relate to alerts, endpoints, and tenants. Alerts are notifications generated in Sophos that require administrative action and come in categories such as ‘general’, ‘updating’, and ‘connectivity’. They are classified by severity. Endpoints are defined as a server, computer, or other device protected and managed by Sophos. A tenant is a collection of resources such as devices, events, policies, and people. With these BrightGauge KPIs, track the status of your endpoints, the severity of your threats and alerts, and your total number of tenants. Dashboards Two default Sophos dashboards give you a bird’s-eye view of where you stand at any given time. Access these right off the bat so you don’t miss a beat when it comes to your important data. Reports Custom reports are powerful because they show a real sense of transparency between you and your team or you and your clients, which helps build important long-term relationships. With BrightGauge, build your own reports, or get started with a report template. The Sophos report template shows Endpoint and Alert data for a given period of time. Anytime you’ve got a question about Sophos + BrightGauge, please submit a support request or contact us and we’ll be ready to help!

We’re excited to welcome Christopher Menendez to the team as a Customer Support Specialist! Join us in learning more about the newest member of our growing BrightGauge family… In the beginning Christopher calls Miami his birthplace, but in reality he is a citizen of the world, thanks to his father who served in the military. Christopher feels lucky to have experienced a variety of cultures and lifestyles by living in Florida, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Colorado, Washington, and even Spain. While he initially started college in Washington, he ended up coming back to his roots and graduating from Florida International University with a BA in Psychology. Like many fellow BrightGaugers, Christopher also attended Wyncode, where he completed a Web Development bootcamp. Before joining our BrightGauge fam, Christopher was a belay instructor at Magic City Rock Gym. In rock climbing, belaying is the technique of holding the climbing rope for a climber so that they are safe if they fall off the rock. As he explains it, the short of it is that he taught teamwork and rope management so people don’t drop their friends. As a belay instructor, Christopher also administered practical exams and helped people become better climbers. With his first-rate experience in teamwork, Christopher pursued the opportunity to join our own team. Joining BrightGauge Fun fact: Christopher is not the only Menendez at BrightGauge. Many of you know his cousin, Stephen, who is our Sales Team Lead. Following his cousin’s footsteps, Christopher is really happy to be part of a supportive and welcoming team. He was attracted to the fact that BrightGauge is Miami-grown and has an excellent company culture. In terms of fulfilling career goals, Christopher says he’s most excited about being able to grow his technical skills in such a pro-individual environment. Out of office Outside of work, you can most likely find Christopher doing one of three things: rock climbing, enjoying food, or playing Dungeons & Dragons and other video games. He found a passion for rock climbing when he was a kid and picked it back up a few years ago. What keeps him so enamored with the sport? The absolute attention it requires to lead a route and set up the safety of your team, and the way it keeps your head cleared of clutter. We’re happy to have you here, Christopher!