Three ways end user self-service tools can save you time

Countless times in the MSP world I’ve had to ask myself, “why can’t the end users handle this?” Typically, the answer boils down to the fact that they are paying the MSP to take that stress and labor off their hands. However, there are occasions when end users, providing they’re properly trained, can legitimately take some of the workload off the MSP’s hands. In these situations, we need to be aware of three things:

1. What we are asking them to do?
2. What training is required to handle the particular task?
3. What toolset is available to accomplish the task?  

If we can check these boxes and the training to give the end user the knowledge and skills is easily digestible, I fully support giving end users a little bit more leeway to address their own issues.  

Here’s three specific scenarios where this is a viable solution:

1. Restoring their own files and folders…to a point

In Cove Data Recovery and N-Sight’s Managed Online Backup solutions, we can give users access to a tool called the Virtual Drive. This is a mounted read-only virtual drive that allows for restoration at the file or folder level through a simple drag and drop or copy/paste. In the real world, I love this feature because it quickly allows an end user to recover from not saving a file properly or deleting a mission-critical folder without submitting a ticket. 

Let’s look at this from the perspective of the three questions above:

• What are we asking of our end users? Pretty much the ability to copy and paste files/folders.  This is not a difficult task and end users that could not handle this responsibility are easily recognized.
• What training would this entail? How to navigate to the proper drive and how to move files/folders.
• What toolset is available? The Virtual Drive, available through Cover Data Protection at no additional cost to you the MSP.

Quick and simple training and implementation make this self-service tool a great additional piece to the backup and recovery services that you are already offering your end users, with a small additional fee to manage the extra tool. This will take some work off your hands while the end user feels empowered and looked out for as you are not only decreasing downtime for simple mistakes you are offering them another easy method to prevent data loss.

Related Product

Passportal

Favorisci la messa in sicurezza delle credenziali con la gestione di documentazione e password per MSP.

Find out more

2. Remote access to mission-critical devices

Many of our end users require access to devices that they may not be able to sit in front of, and this need has gotten more pressing since the work-from-home options businesses are offering has become increasingly common. Through N‑able Take Control Plus you can offer this service, limiting access to individual machines, sites, or clients. While this service seems to be a convenience item for the end users, it does limit the amount of “where is this information?”/“I cannot get to this data”/“I am not on site to enter passwords” type requests. During lockdown I saw a bunch of these requests in the real world, and got a little fed up with them all.  

Again, looking at our three questions, we see that this is definitely a service to consider—although it should not be given to all end users.

• What are we asking of our end users? To responsibly work on machines that are more than likely not their day-to-day device, and trust them to access only what they need not what they can.
• What training would this entail? To understand how to best use a remote access tool, and what they can and cannot access or what actions they can take on what devices.
• What toolset is available? Most remote access tools.

While the training here is more difficult, and you will have to trust your end users more, this is a great self-service option to offer that can help increase productivity. That being said, you can see from the training, again, this is not for all users. There has to be a need and proper knowledge in place to offer this service.

Related Product

Take Control

Accedi da remoto rapidamente e in modo sicuro alle macchine per risolvere rapidamente eventuali problemi.

Find out more

3. Self-service password management

Every time I have a one-on-one conversation with a partner about auditing the top five tickets they receive and then automating those services, password management is on the list. There is nothing hard about what we are doing here, but it is time-consuming and repetitive. By offering a service like Site, in Passportal, you can reduce the number of tickets coming in and lessen the amount of time spent by end users on non-productive tasks that could be handled by an app almost immediately. If you can lower the amount of reset password requests that’s a big win! Looking at our three questions, offering a self-service password reset seems like a no-brainer to save technicians’ and end users’ time:

• What are we asking of our end users? To be able to access and interact with a simple password management tool.
• What training would this entail? How to best utilize the features in the tool and reset a password as needed.
• What toolset is available? Almost all Password Management solutions.

In this scenario you, the MSP, are offering an additional billable service that requires only a moderate amount of management to your customers’ end users, making them feel more secure and productive.  How is this not a win-win? The only thing to consider here is how granular you are going to make your training and whether and not to package it with a 2FA management solution.

 Interested in more blogs on automation? Click here

Joseph Ferla is one of our Head Nerds. You can follow him on Twitter @headnerjoe or on  LinkedIn.