First 100 Days

When I changed roles earlier this year to become the Program Manager of our CMS Managed Services team, I secretly created a “First 100 Days” list of goals. Formerly, the team of four in CMS Managed Services was maintaining about 120 websites. They were regularly struggling to keep pace with the influx of responsibilities. As fjorge had grown, their tasks had also grown to include launching new websites, performing CMS and plugin updates, completing client ticket requests, responding to site outages, and keeping clients informed about their monthly retainer balances.

By now it has been closer to 200 days, and I recently looked back on that list and was pleased to realize nearly every goal had been achieved! As we close out 2019, I wanted to share the list of department improvements that are guiding us into the New Year.

First 100 Days Goals Achieved

1. Changed the department name from “Maintenance” to “CMS Managed Services.” The new name more accurately reflects the diverse service offerings within each plan level
2. Recruited additional teammates, including Sarah Berg from our Active Development team (Welcome Sarah, Dan, Cam, and Ben!)
3. Mentored Taylor Ganser as CMS Managed Services Project Manager. A dedicated project manager helps improve ticket traffic, ticket response, and estimating efficiencies
4. Had our SysAdmin earn certification as AWS Solutions Architect – Associate (Congratulations Ben Johnson on the recent achievement!)
5. Improved ticket response time
   1. Setup each teammate with a desk phone to enhance customer service
   2. Identified why some client ticket responses were not posting in the ticketing software
6. Implemented improvements to Jira Service Desk
   1. Settings updated to allow email replies to post in the relevant ticket threads
   2. Automation reminder messages updated to be more intuitive
   3. Frequency of automations updated so open tickets would no longer get accidentally moved to the backlog
   4. Ticket status workflows updated so ticket statuses are easier to understand
   5. Gave clients the ability to move their own tickets to “Cancelled”, “Standby”, or “Backlog” statuses, and to “Close” tickets when in “Pending Approval to Close”
7. Upgraded plan offerings so clients get more out of their monthly services
8. Worked with the Account Management team to improve marketing and contractual materials for Managed Services
   1. Updated the plan comparison infographic to help clients select the right plan level
   2. Wrote a series of Managed Services related blog posts
9. Improved uptime and SSL monitoring tool settings
10. Became an official Plesk Partner, which includes enhanced server efficiencies
11. Improved New Account onboarding processes, and offered re-onboarding for existing clients
12. Streamlined Version Control processes on the CMS Managed Services team to improve efficiencies and collaboration with Active Development project teams
13. Improved internal QA processes by leveraging GhostLab software
14. Improved ticket estimating by implementing PERT estimating methodologies
15. Introduced baseline Site Audits as the first step for all Managed Services plans. We also ran complementary site audits for all existing CMS Managed Services websites
16. Improved our Emergency Response Protocols
17. Introduced the Monthly Mender eNewsletter for all CMS Managed Services clients
18. Introduced full transparency on plan usage through a CMR (client maintenance request) Tracking Tool so clients can more easily plan and budget each month (example)
    1. Improved time tracking accuracy through ticket naming and standardization of time entry notes

The list isn’t long. Even so, we're seeing a major impact on efficiency, estimation accuracy, client satisfaction, and employee morale! This is only the beginning. I am so excited to see what we accomplish in the next 100 (and 200) days!

Managed Services with fjorge

fjorge has a dedicated CMS Managed Services team with several plan options available. Our priority is the security and sustained functionality of your site. Plans are month-to-month and can be upgraded or canceled at any time. If you’re looking for a development partner to service your website, you’ve come to the right place!