Onboarding is a crucial process that sets the stage for any successful long-term relationship between a business and their technology solutions partner.
Tailwind Onboarding Process
At Tailwind IT, our onboarding process is designed to ramp up and implement our managed services in a smooth and efficient manner. It typically lasts about six to eight weeks and during that time, we work closely with our clients to discover, deploy, and document their systems.
Our goal during the onboarding process is to ensure that our clients are set up for success with all the tools, resources, and information they need to thrive. By the end of the process, our clients can expect that we will have accomplished the following:
- Completed the deployment of our managed services toolset, including antivirus, patching schedules, backups, and other tools.
- Completed documentation for all key technology assets our clients use, including deployment of their backup system.
- Identified any immediate critical risks or priorities for stabilization.
The onboarding process begins with an onboard kickoff meeting. This is a crucial meeting where we get to know our clients, introduce our team, and review the onboarding process. During this meeting, key stakeholders from the client's company should be in attendance, including members of leadership, decision-makers, and even day-to-day contacts.
We understand that communication is key during the onboarding process, which is why we make it a priority to keep our clients informed every step of the way. Throughout the process, our onboarding project manager will provide weekly status updates, and clients can feel free to contact us at any time to schedule discussions or answer any questions they may have.
The onboarding process is broken down into three main stages: discovery, deployment, and stabilization.
Discovery Stage
During the discovery phase, our goal is to obtain critical network information, scan as much inventory as possible, and identify any critical risks that could result in imminent data loss. Our onboarding project manager will hold a discovery recap meeting to review anything we found during that time.
Deployment Stage
The deployment phase is where we begin installing tools, agents, patch management schedules, backups, and any other systems that we need to put in. This phase will wrap up with a service launch meeting. At this point, we will go over everything that happened during the onboarding, everything we've deployed and discovered and documented to ensure that we're all on the same page.
Stabilization Stage
At this point, our team will officially hand off support from the onboarding team to the full-service delivery. This is where clients enter the stabilization phase. Here's when we begin to audit the environment against our standards, wrap up any final details on documentation we may need, and begin to make recommendations for how to improve the environment and bring technology to the next level.
Getting Started
To ensure a smooth onboarding experience, we recommend that clients prepare the following:
- Administrative credentials: These are any usernames or passwords used to administer and configure the technology environment. These could include anything from servers, switches, firewalls, wireless equipment, software. Without these key pieces of information, our team may have trouble actually onboarding and supporting the environment.
- Software licenses: If clients have any special software they use or have purchased, it's important to have the licensing on hand and documented. That way, if our team needs to reinstall or migrate anything, we won't have trouble with activating or ensuring that the software works.
- Hardware or software maintenance agreements: If clients have warranties or support agreements for any of their hardware or software, having documentation for these can be extremely helpful in the event that our team needs to support or fix any of this infrastructure.
- Third-party technology vendors: These can include the companies that service or provide clients' office equipment or the companies that service and support their telephone system, internet, etc. It's important to have the contact information for these vendors, whether the IT support team will be working with them directly or not, as it can be extremely helpful when troubleshooting or supporting items in the client's environment. Knowing how to contact these vendors and what kind of support agreements or warranties are in place can save time and money in the long run.
- Service provider bills: These can include bills from internet service providers, phone service providers, and other vendors who provide critical services to the client's business. Having copies of these bills can be extremely useful for the IT support team in properly identifying and ensuring that the client is receiving the service they need.
- Domain name registration information: This information is used not just to provide the client's website, but it can also be used for any hosted cloud applications or even hosted on-premise applications. It's vitally important for the client's email as well. Having this information readily available can be critical to providing IT support on a variety of different services.
At the kickoff meeting, the onboarding team will review and coordinate with the client to ensure a seamless transition. This will include the timing of the notification as well as any possible impacts the client may be aware of. The onboarding team will also provide guidance on what to expect during the onboarding process and answer any questions that the client may have.
Throughout the onboarding process, clients can expect regular communication from their onboarding project manager. This includes weekly status updates as well as milestone meetings before and after each key phase of the onboarding process. Clients are also encouraged to reach out to their onboarding project manager at any time to schedule any sort of discussion or answer any questions they may have.
Summary
In summary, the onboarding process is a critical part of ensuring that clients receive the support they need to successfully manage their technology environment.
By preparing administrative credentials, software licenses, hardware or software maintenance agreements, third-party technology vendor contact information, service provider bills, and domain name registration information, clients can help ensure a smooth onboarding experience.
The onboarding process itself is broken down into three key phases: discovery, deployment, and stabilization, and clients can expect regular communication and guidance from their onboarding project manager throughout the process.
About Tailwind
Tailwind is a global provider of managed IT services and cybersecurity solutions, offering industry-leading support, cybersecurity, cloud, Salesforce, infrastructure and compliance services. As one of the top MSPs, Tailwind's 24/7/365 US-staffed support team designs technology solutions to accelerate business and reduce IT risks.
Tailwind IT
