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Account Management

Overview

Regular Client engagement, technology review, account review, Account Management Services,

  • Dedicated Senior Engineer

  • Technical Alignment Manager (TAM)

  • Monthly “Account Summary Report” (ASR)

  • Technology recommendations

  • Basic Solution research

  • Best practice recommendations

  • Project management

  • Technology planning and budgeting

  • Support analysis

IT Planning

Taking a deliberate approach to managing your Information Technology. Black Line’s IT Planning services means there are no surprises. -Technologies selection: Work with your team to determine what are the most appropriate technologies to solve your business problem. Black Line will help you identify the true business case, document the pros/cons and help you find the right solution. -Technology analysis and recommendations: Regular analysis of all aspects of IT usage, hardware, software, business processes and associated effectiveness. Black Line provides recommendations for performance, quality, capacity and scalability of existing technologies. -Standardization: Identify and recommend technology standardization to reduce costs and improve efficiencies. -General Advice: Sometime you just need to bounce an idea, a strategy or some other business problem off an IT professional. Black Line consultants do this all the time, we can help.

Why Does This Matter?

Black Line’s regular engagement with Client Leaders strengthens the relationship, addresses issues before they become problems, provides opportunity to discuss technology needs and overall ensure Black Line is meeting the Client’s service expectations.

The Technical Alignment Manager (TAM) role combined with your Virtual CIO (VCIO) regularly:

  • Assesses your IT environment

  • Reduces reactive issues

  • Proactively identifies IT risks

  • Understands where your company needs to be with IT not just where it is

  • Creates predictability around IT spending

What Value Does This Add?

  • Expertise
  • Architecture
  • Design
  • Quality
  • Transparency
  • Commitment

Common Problems

  • The Client’s “I don’t know what I don’t know” syndrome, identify solutions needed but not asked for
  • Gaps in service delivery
  • Strategic planning of IT
  • Confidence issues with technologies
  • Lack of communication, transparency, in IT solutions or service

Why Is A Solution Needed?

Organizational Leaders are often without strong IT counsel, alignment and often lack transparency to the IT function. Black Line’s Account Management model provides a dedicated person to the Client to develop a mutual understanding of why, what and how technology is implemented in an organization. The “Personal Touch” needed from a service provider, to increase the alignment of the technology to the specific needs of the Client

What To Expect

Business Leaders can expect

  • Single point of contact, simplicity in working with Black Line, and a person who can take action on behalf of the Client. Regular communication, someone who understands them, organized and an executer of solutions.

End Users can expect

  • Usually the end-user doesn’t interact with the Account Manager at this level. In general, they can expect the Account Manager to analyze the issues they are having and make recommendations to address them

How Does Black Line Do It Better?

Most MSPs have Engineers that focus on the technical aspects of solutions and lose sight of the Client as a human that just needs solutions to business problems. Black Line’s Account Manager has technical know-how and business acumen skills to strike the balance between technology, cost, and the value to an organization.