Vendor Management: The Balrog

Any business owner can attest to is dealing with multiple vendors is a business in of itself. From cellular carriers, internet providers, construction companies, telephone and more, each one has their own language and each one has their own methodology. This situation happened, and this is why right after our client signed up for our Managed IT Services plan which included vendor management:

The Client’s Story
The client is a logistics company based in Massachusetts is part of an isolated transportation park. A few companies, but nothing massive. They are quite busy at times and this time is especially busy due to the three day memorial day weekend. So basically everybody is moving as fast as possible to get done early and go home, and that is where the trouble begins.
A truck entering the loading facility was going too fast and clipped the service pole of the facility, breaking the line for internet and telephone for the other occupants.

• The client decided to call the ISP themselves and report that a line was “down.” Mistake 1.
• Told them it was no big deal and to go out today please. Mistake 2.

Friday being the start of the holiday, no rush was put in and no need to rush since the facility began shutting down and so forth.

The Following Week
Tuesday comes and goes, expecting the technician, nope. Wednesday comes and they finally call us. A lot of missteps occurred causing not only our client to be down, but other tenants. Come to find out the client conveyed that the line was down, as in a saggy line, therefor no rush. Apparently it was treated like a small issue and not an outage.

Then We Stepped In
We contacted their ISP and we were able to get a truck rolled within an hour, their lines repaired and all the tenants fully operational. Sometimes miscommunication can easily create havoc without understanding the lingo vendors need. Vendor management might seem like a small thing, but having an IT provider who has the experience and connection in the field allows you to get the most out of your resources, from internet landlines to software suites. Avoid that broken link in your chain. Want to learn more? Drop us a line.