Judi Baker Testimonial | Seitel Systems
What if your ticket backlog vanished overnight? In the fast-paced world of managed services, IT services provider, Seitel Systems has built a strong reputation for delivering reliable IT support and solutions to businesses throughout the region. At the core of their success is an experienced Service Desk Manager who leads a dedicated team of 12 professionals.
With extensive industry experience, she knows that effective ticket management is the backbone of both client satisfaction and team efficiency. However, as Seitel Systems expanded, the sheer volume of incoming support tickets made it harder to maintain their reputation for delivering prompt, high-quality service.
The Challenge: Breaking Through Operational Roadblocks to Boost Service Desk Efficiency
When the Service Desk Manager stepped into her role, she took over a team struggling to keep up with an expanding client base. More customers brought a surge of tickets into their ConnectWise system.
Initial performance lags rapidly transformed into ongoing issues that compromised service standards. Clients expressed growing frustration with slower responses, while technicians continually experienced workload pressure, despite their committed attempts to stay current.
The service desk confronted several fundamental challenges demanding a change:
- Prolonged Ticket Resolution Cycles – Many customer support requests lingered without resolution for more than 90 days, generating client frustration and raising possible compliance vulnerabilities.
- Inadequate Prioritization Methods – Lacking a defined approach for highlighting high-priority issues, support personnel depended on personal assessment to select which tickets required immediate handling.
- Limited Progress Visibility – The ConnectWise environment presented all pending tickets in a consolidated view, complicating efforts to ascertain where individual requests stood in the resolution sequence.
These issues created additional bottlenecks:
- Inefficient Client Communication: Technicians spent excessive time on back-and-forth scheduling with clients, delaying actual resolution work.
- Workflow Bottlenecks: Without a systematic way to identify capacity issues, work would pile up at certain stages or with specific team members.
- Reactive Rather Than Proactive Management: The team was constantly firefighting rather than methodically addressing issues according to impact and urgency.
Recognizing the Need for Operational Transformation
With the continual growth in support tickets, these workflow challenges risked overwhelming the service team despite their technical proficiency and client service commitment.
The department needed to pinpoint the systemic bottlenecks limiting their effectiveness. The Service Desk Manager realized they required a comprehensive approach overhaul.
Solution: Adopting Visual Process Management for Service Excellence
The improvement initiative commenced serendipitously when Seitel's project leader encountered "The Phoenix Project," a narrative focused on information technology, DevOps methodologies, and business leadership principles.
Motivated by the book's insights on work visualization and flow optimization, he began searching for a Kanban-based platform that would seamlessly connect with their established ConnectWise infrastructure.
Their project manager conducted a Google search looking for a Kanban board that would integrate with ConnectWise, which led them to TopLeft. In March 2020, just as the world was adapting to pandemic conditions, they implemented TopLeft, a visual project management tool designed specifically for MSPs.
Unlike generic project management solutions, TopLeft was built to address the unique challenges of managed service providers. The platform empowers MSPs to efficiently track and manage resources, visualize neglected tickets, monitor approaching deadlines, and oversee projects through intuitive Kanban boards that integrate seamlessly with PSA systems.
After nearly four years of using the platform, the Service Desk Manager identifies several key principles that guided their implementation:
- Making Work Truly Visible: The visibility within TopLeft is amazing, allowing the team to instantly distinguish between tickets that are ready to work, blocked, or scheduled.
- Reducing Work Overload Through Focus: By implementing WIP (Work In Progress) limits and focusing on completing tasks rather than just starting them, they reduced the cognitive burden on technicians.
- Improving Workflow Efficiency: The visual management approach ensured that tickets moved through the system smoothly without getting stuck or forgotten.
- Eliminating Scheduling Inefficiency: They revamped their dispatch process to identify client availability upfront, eliminating the back-and-forth that previously delayed resolutions.
Strategic Implementation Framework
Through strategic implementation and adoption of TopLeft as their visual management platform, Seitel Systems successfully evolved their service desk from an overwhelmed, reactive operation into a proactive, high-efficiency operation consistently delivering on client expectations.
Their transformation centered around four crucial operational enhancements:
Enhanced Visual Ticket Management
A fundamental component in their evolution was establishing a visual workflow system that provided immediate ticket status visibility across the entire team:
- Strategic Ticket Categorization – Tickets now fall into clear categories (ready, blocked, scheduled), enabling effective team focus and prioritization.
- Immediate Blocked Work Identification – The system automatically flags tickets hindered by external dependencies, preventing oversight.
- Adaptable, Clear Workflows – Service processes are now straightforward and flexible, letting technicians easily adjust priorities as situations change.
- Comprehensive Management Oversight – Service Desk leadership can now quickly spot bottlenecks, assess workloads, and identify stalled tickets, strengthening operational control.
Refined Resource Deployment
To eliminate inefficient resource allocation, they established a more structured methodology:
- Proactive Availability Confirmation – Dispatchers verify client availability during ticket creation, eliminating time-consuming coordination exchanges.
- Designated Scheduling Specialist – A dedicated technician handles all scheduled tickets each day, ensuring focused attention on planned work.
- Predictable Client Communication – Their structured scheduling framework has improved response consistency and set appropriate client expectations.
Through these process refinements, Seitel Systems significantly boosted efficiency, cut unnecessary delays, and maintained a highly responsive service operation.
Workforce Optimization
Technician workload coordination became substantially more streamlined with these innovations:
- Workload Monitoring – Management now enjoys real-time visibility into individual technician assignments
- Early Problem Detection – Workflow issues appear immediately, enabling prompt intervention before affecting service quality.
- Progress Visualization – Leaders can track precise ticket resolution status for each technician, ensuring continuous task progression.
These enhancements helped Seitel Systems create a more balanced, high-performing technical team consistently delivering superior support services.
Seamless System Integration
Rather than replacing existing tools, TopLeft enhanced their functionality:
- Smooth PSA Integration – The solution complements their PSA system, adding visual management capabilities without disrupting established workflows. All ConnectWise entries get automatically pushed to TopLeft.
- Maintained Data Consistency – Information flows between systems to maintain a single source of truth for ticket data.
- Seamless Yet Advanced Experience – Their technical staff maintains access to essential ConnectWise functionality while benefiting from visual workflow management capabilities.
Results: Outcomes Surpassing Expectations
After implementing TopLeft for nearly five years, Seitel Systems has witnessed remarkable improvements across various dimensions of their service operations:
Ticket Processing Excellence
The most notable enhancement appears in their ticket workflow management:
- Resolved Aging Ticket Accumulation – The previous 90+ day ticket backlog has been virtually eliminated, with neglected issues now promptly identified and resolved.
- Minimal "Overlooked" Tickets – Tickets rarely go missing or fall through gaps compared to their pre-TopLeft experience.
- Expedited Resolution Cycle – Customers now experience quicker initial responses and faster issue resolution, enhancing overall satisfaction.
- Anticipatory Problem Handling – Issues are recognized and addressed before becoming critical, decreasing emergency escalations.
Staff Efficiency and Wellbeing
The team's operational performance has considerably improved:
- Task Prioritization Clarity – The visual system eliminates uncertainty about what requires immediate attention.
- Decreased Mental Burden – Support specialists no longer need to mentally track numerous tickets, reducing stress and improving concentration.
- Superior Work Quality – With better focus and fewer context switches, technical performance quality has improved alongside speed.
Enhanced Client Experience
Customers have substantially benefited from these operational improvements:
- Consistent, Dependable Service – Support delivery has become more reliable and predictable, fostering greater client confidence.
- Streamlined Interactions – Removing scheduling back-and-forth has produced a more straightforward support experience for customers.
- Higher Initial Resolution Rate – More thoroughly prepared support staff now resolve issues during first contact more consistently.
- Deepened Customer Relationships – Comprehensive service delivery enhancements have strengthened client trust and partnerships.
TopLeft's Potential Impact on Your MSP
Seitel Systems' journey demonstrates how visual workflow management can transform service delivery for managed service providers across all segments. TopLeft's comprehensive solution can help your business:
- Enhance ticket handling through intuitive visualization that makes work priorities immediately apparent to all team members
- Boost team efficiency by reducing task-switching and directing focus toward high-priority issues
- Eliminate "lost" tickets through comprehensive visibility ensuring nothing escapes attention
- Increase customer satisfaction with quicker response times and more consistent service delivery
- Strengthen leadership oversight without micromanagement through transparent work status visibility
- Modernize service desk and project operations without disrupting your current PSA integration
Don't let the same obstacles that previously constrained Seitel Systems limit your team's potential. Learn from their transformation and explore how TopLeft can produce comparable revolutionary outcomes for your managed services organization.
