In today’s fast-paced digital landscape, IT operations and service delivery are critical to the success of any organisation. To ensure these functions run smoothly and efficiently, it’s essential to track and measure performance using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These KPI metrics provide valuable insights into the effectiveness and efficiency of IT processes, helping organisations make informed decisions. They act like enablers to deliver on Operational Level Agreement (OLAs), Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and drive continual improvements.
What are KPIs in IT Operations & Service Delivery?
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are quantifiable (Timely, Quality, Productive & Financial) metrics that help IT operations managers and professionals assess the performance of their departments.
By translating complex technical operations into measurable data points, KPIs enable organisations to evaluate how well their IT teams are achieving their goals and supporting overall business objectives
Essential KPIs for IT Operations
1. First Contact Resolution (FCR)
- Definition: Indicates the percentage of support tickets resolved during the initial contact by the IT service desk team.
- How to Measure: (Total ticket resolved in first contact/Total tickets created)
- Importance: A high FCR rate signifies a well-trained and efficient support team
2. Mean Time to Resolve/Repair (MTTR)
- Definition: The average time taken to resolve a ticket (or) repair a failed component or a system.
- How to Measure: (Average time for all Resolved tickets / Total number of tickets created)
- Importance: Lower MTTR values indicate quicker recovery from incidents, reducing overall downtime
3. Transfer/Escalation Rate
- Definition: The total number of tickets that are transferred/escalated between IT SD L1 to L2 to L3 to L4.
- How to Measure: SD L1 to L2 Transfer Rate = (Total number of tickets transferred / escalated by SD L1 to L2/Total number of tickets created by SD L1)
- Importance: Lower transfer/escalation rate indicate SD L1 capability to resolve the ticket, quicker recovery from incidents & reducing overall downtime
4. Quality Assurance (QA) Score
- Definition: A random sample of tickets with overall QA audit score being met
- How to Measure: (Total number of tickets with QA score Met / Total number of tickets with QA score Met + Miss)
- Importance: Higher QA score indicate better quality of service & great end user experience
5. Process Knowledge Test (PKT) Score
- Definition: A process to assess IT Service Desk teams (Product, Process, Tools & Infra) knowledge, drive training need identification (TNI) and bridge/build adequate knowledge.
- How to Measure: (Total number of individuals with PKT score Met / Total number of individuals with PKT score Met + Miss)
- Importance: Higher PKT score indicate, adequate knowledge among IT service desk teams driving better quality of service
6. Utilisation
- Definition: A process to assess how well IT Service Desk team being utilized and occupied to be a productive resource.
- How to Measure: Utilization = (Total number of production hours / Total number hours logged on to a system)
- Importance: SD resource utilization indicate available capacity to mobile resource, effective IT operations with schedule adherence.
7. Occupancy
- Definition: A process to assess how well IT Service Desk team being occupied in handling active workloads to be a productive resource.
- How to Measure: Occupancy = (Total number of hours where SD resource is actively working / Total number of production hours)
- Importance: SD resource occupancy indicate available capacity to mobile resource, efficient IT operations with schedule adherence. Also, better return over investment (ROI) on SD cost
8. Dispatch Rate (DR) for Managed Device/Field Ops support
- Definition: A process to assess how well IT Service Desk team is resolving a break fix ticket.
- How to Measure: (Total number of part/tech dispatch created / Total number of tickets created)
- Importance: DR indicate timely resolution on break fix scenario, drives end user system up time
9. Repeat Dispatch Effectiveness (RDE) for Managed Device/Field Ops support
- Definition: A process to assess how well IT Service Desk team resolving break fix tickets, with accurate part/tech dispatch.
- How to Measure: (Total number of repeat part/tech dispatch created/ Total number of tickets created)
- Importance: RDE indicate accurate and timely resolution on break fix scenario, drives end user system up time
10. Parts Per Dispatch (PPD) for Managed Device/Field Ops support
- Definition: A process to assess how well IT Service Desk team resolving break fix tickets, with accurate number of parts per dispatch.
- How to Measure: (Total number of parts per dispatch created)
- Importance: PPD indicate accurate and timely resolution on break fix scenario, drives end user system up time. Higher PPD indicates higher dispatch costs & to counter this we need to address any learnings from the returned parts.
Key KPIs, OLAs, SLAs for IT Service Delivery
1. Ticket Assignment Time – Operational Level Agreement (OLAs)
- Definition: Measures the total time taken to assign a ticket to a Resolver group.
- How to Measure: Total number of tickets that are assigned within agreed OLA’s/ Total number of tickets assigned to a Resolver group
- Importance: Reflects the efficiency of support processes by both IT SD and Resolver group teams to deliver overall SLA, this is crucial for minimizing user downtime
2. Ticket Response / Resolution Time
- Definition: Measures the total time taken to Respond/Resolve a ticket.
- How to Measure: (Total number of tickets Responded/Resolved within agreed SLA’s / Total number of tickets created)
- Importance: Reflects the efficiency of support processes and this is crucial for minimizing user downtime
3. Systems Availability/Uptime
- Definition: The percentage of time that IT systems are operational and available.
- How to Measure: (Total time of all IT systems when operational & available/ Total calendar days for that specific period)
- Importance: High system uptime is critical for ensuring business continuity and user satisfaction
4. Customer Satisfaction (CSAT)
- Definition: Measures end-user customer satisfaction on all resolved tickets by IT support services, often collected through a survey.
- How to Measure: (Total number of CSAT surveys / Total number of surveys received)
- Importance: High CSAT scores indicate positive user experiences and high service quality
5. Change Request (CR) Success Rate
- The proportion of changes executed successfully, without triggering any incidents or necessitating a rollback
- How to Measure: (Total number of CRs successfully implemented / Total number of CR created)
- Importance: A high change success rate reflects effective change management processes, drive system up times and avoid major outages.
6. Ticket Volume
- Definition: The total number of tickets reported over a specific period.
- How to Measure: (Total number of tickets generated across all the channels like Web, Email, Phone, Chat, VA & LA)
- Importance: Monitoring ticket volume helps identify trends, prevent major incidents and other potential areas for improvement
7. Same Day / Next Business Day – Managed Device/Field Ops Support
- Definition: It is a Same/Next business day part/technician service to repair a break fix issue
- How to Measure: (Total number of Same/Next Business Day dispatch tickets/ Total number of dispatch tickets)
- Importance: High Same/Next Business Day dispatch count indicate swift resolution, high dispatch costs, positive user experiences and high service quality
At Ergo MS we consciously drive all the above listed KPIs, OLAs, SLAs using solid operating & delivery frameworks and generate actionable insights. This enables us to drive those actionable insights with required governance, resulting in Service Excellence to all our clients & vendor partners.
Therefore, it’s important to partner with a right managed services provider who strategically manages all key performance indicators (KPIs), operational level agreements (OLAs), and service level agreements (SLAs) through robust operational and delivery frameworks. This approach generates actionable insights, ensuring we maintain the necessary oversight and governance, to achieve service excellence for all our clients and partners.
All the above-listed KPI’s, OLA’s, SLA’s metric benchmarks, vary based on business requirements of the organisation operating across industries like Retail, Manufacturing, Financial, Life Science, Aviation and other industries, where we are providing Managed Services. As general guidance for MS Service Desk technical support, please see the suggested benchmarks listed below.
Progressive metrics the higher the better
- FCR: >=65% (Progressive metric so the higher the better)
- QA Score: >=80%
- PKT Score: >=80%
- Utilization: >=80%
- Occupancy: >=80%
- Availability: >=99% (Varies based on IT/Infra, PaaS, SaaS platform business requirements)
- CSAT: >=80%
- CR Approval Rate: >=90%
Regressive metric so the lower the better
- MTTR: <= 8 hours SD (L1 >> L2 >> L3 >> L4) Transfer Rate: <=3 to 5%
- Dispatch Rate: <=5 to 10% (Varies by Product, Subcomponents, FCR & Product quality)
- Repeat Dispatch Rate: <=3% (Varies by product, based on FCR & Product quality)
- Parts Per Dispatch: <=3 (Varies by Product, Subcomponents, Product Kits)
- Ticket Response (Min/Hours) < Ticket Assignment (Min/Hours) < Ticket Resolution
- (Hours/Days): Varies by business requirements, lower the better
- Ticket (RM, IM, PM) Volumes: Lower the better
- Same Day, Next Business Day Dispatches: Varies by business requirements, lower the better.
Conclusion
Implementing and tracking these KPIs, OLAs, SLAs is significantly enhancing the performance and reliability of Ergo MS IT operations and service delivery. Therefore, we recommend focusing on these key metrics, to meet and exceed the business goals, while driving the real value and generating meaningful business impact.
Continuous monitoring and analysis of these metrics is helping Ergo MS to identify areas for improvement, drive efficiency, automate manual processes, optimise costs, generate revenue, and ultimately deliver better value to all our clients, vendor partners and Ergo as an organization.
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