Mapping IT Support services to a maturity model

If we apply maturity modelling to the IT Support function, we are able to produce an effective mapping that overlays the five levels of a traditional maturity model with five different service levels of support.

It looks like this:

So, what are the differences between support maturity levels?

Level 1 - break-fix

This means the support procedure is only initiated when a problem is identified. It’s highly reactive and unsatisfactory as it provides for little or no forward planning and contingency. Today, it’s seen very much as a legacy approach. A large company with a great deal of surplus resources and in-house expertise might be able to cope best with such an approach, however, it is often smaller businesses that end up using the break-fix approach. Today, few businesses would consider running with a purely break-fix approach.

Level 2 - Better endeavour and Level 3 - Best endeavour

Most businesses recognise the shortcomings of break-fix and have a more organised approach to provisioning IT Support. Sourcing external expertise to fill gaps in the internal function and an increasing budget from Level 2 to Level 3 means there is an increasing level of proactivity and better documentation.

Level 4 - Managed Service and Level 5 - Managed Service with optimisation

Obtaining IT Support as a Managed Service from an external provider is becoming increasingly attractive to businesses. Offloading support to a specialist third-party with more extensive resources and a greater depth of technical knowledge, than a 10 - 100 person business could ever hope to realistically match, is seen as the way ahead by many.

With such an approach, support is highly organised, fully documented and provides for ongoing maintenance; it also enables a proactive approach through monitoring and enables internal IT managers and support teams to adopt a more strategic role within the business.

In moving from Level 4 up to Level 5, the differentiator is system optimisation. At Level 5, the MSP is able to add additional value by providing analytics and consultative advice to optimise the use of technology within the business.

Get the level of IT Support that’s right for your business with HTL

HTL is trusted by dozens of small and medium-sized businesses just like yours to provide the right level of support required to meet the needs of the business. Our approach helps to provide the best support possible within any budgetary constraint that may be desired.

Set out and governed by a Service Level Agreement (SLA), our services provide reliable support that performs to a consistent standard every time. To see how we can help you get the level of IT Support that’s right for your business, simply get in touch today.

Click here for our free guide ‘Managed Services and the IT Support maturity model’ which gives more specifics on the elements within each service level.