Strategic Network Planning
By Joshua Oakes, IT Glue
Visibility is everything in strategic planning. If you don’t know where you are today, how will you chart a course for your objectives? By automating network discovery, documentation and diagramming, Network Glue gives you unprecedented visibility into all of your clients’ networks. The benefits to your service desk and on-site technicians should be obvious, but there are also downstream benefits from improving your strategic network planning.
When you first run Network Glue, you’ll probably find some things at most client sites that need to be replaced – every workplace has out of date tech just sitting there, creating a security risk. You’ll point this out to the client, and start the process of upgrading.
Why not do this regularly? If you’re conducting quarterly business reviews or SLA reviews, networks should be included in the conversation. Here’s why.
Think about the times you recommend to your clients that they proactively replace their tech. Do they do it right away? Or do they stall because it’s not in the budget? And only 6-9 months later, if not more, do they finally say yes.
The visibility afforded by Network Glue allows you to pinpoint upcoming issues well ahead of time. This way, you’re talking to them today about their 2020 plans, making sure that those upgrades they need next summer make it into their budget from the start.
Plus, when you have full visibility, and a network diagram, you have a visual cue to help them understand the issues. Network Glue is proven to make account managers’ lives easier, because it allows them to show clients exactly what needs to be done and when. An account manager can enter into the QBR armed with the information they need to make proactive recommendations, and give the client time to go through their budgeting and approval process.
It’s better for the client, because they get the runway they need to make critical IT decisions and the ability to maintain security. It’s better for you because you can improve both service and revenue.
Strategic network planning. Just one more benefit of deploying Network Glue.