Mindsight

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

Of all our managed services providers, Mindsight was the most responsive and came to the table with very creative solutions to our problems.

How did Mindsight perform from a project management standpoint?

We work with Mindsight through an account manager. They also provide us with a ticketing system, and we conduct weekly meetings with Mindsight.

What did you find most impressive about Mindsight?

Out of all our other providers, Mindsight worked the hardest in understanding what were the challenges that we were having, before prescribing a solution. Mindsight did the best job in terms of customizing the solution to our needs and didn't try to sell us a bunch of things that we didn't need.

Are there any areas Mindsight could improve?

No. Mindsight is my favorite managed services provider.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

The main issue we were experiencing prior to working with Mindsight was a high volume of frozen calls. We're dependent on our phones, with many customers calling for chimney services and orders. We often picked up the phone and had no audio, so anyone calling us heard dead air. It was an embarrassing situation, and we needed to figure out if it was to do with the backend, our phones or with the provider. It was a maze, but we've solved 95% of our issues with Mindsight's help, increasing our presence for customers.

How did Mindsight perform from a project management standpoint?

Mindsight provides a ticketing system which works very well. If our New York location went down, for example, I could call Mindsight and register a high-priority issue with them. Mindsight usually resolved our problems in 15 minutes to an hour. I was able to call Mindsight at 2 AM and talk to someone on-call.

We've moved to a managed services model with Mindsight. When we first started working together, we were simply buying blocks of hours in order to hack away at the problems that we had, which were snowballing. Mindsight actively looked at all the tickets that we'd put in, trying to see how many of them would have actually been covered under a managed services agreement. It turned out that 90% of those would have been covered, which is why we changed our contract. The majority of issues with our legacy phone system are covered, so we don't experience many out-of-scope situations. Once we've upgraded our phone system, even the existing problems will disappear.

What did you find most impressive about Mindsight?

I mostly work on the service side of our business and know how important it is to maintain a relationship with the customer. If someone calls because they saw an ad for our business, their first impression will be set by the person they talk to on the phone. If the rep isn't very friendly, it will set the tone. My communication with Mindsight has always been pleasurable. I know everyone in their company well at this point, having worked with several of their members. Mindsight does a great job of listening. When someone calls us with a problem, the main focus is listening to what the client needs. Mindsight did a great job of finding out what our problem actually was, instead of pushing the latest and greatest technology. Compared to the previous 2 providers that we used, Mindsight's team was very attentive to our needs and problems. They actively had a stake in getting our situation fixed.

Are there any areas Mindsight could improve?

No. Compared to my experience with the previous providers, Mindsight is a different caliber of company. I've dealt with disaster after disaster. If we're not the best at something, we like to hire someone who is. Mindsight came in as an extension of our team and we've given them full control.

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

It's a little early for meaningful numbers. Just tonight [December 2015], we're decommissioning the old file servers. People have been using the new system for a month to six weeks with positive sentiments across the board, at least for now.

Our policies and procedures were sufficiently undocumented to start with, that there were tons of things to be fixed and patched. Even though the transition was a little on the long side, had we not had Mindsight to help us, I think it would have been a horrific nightmare.

How did Mindsight perform from a project management standpoint?

Mindsight have been terrific to work with. They're very efficient in terms of responding to the issues we gave them. Having watched the transition, I can say that we've gone from trying to manage it internally and having them support us, to almost reversing the roles and having them manage it. The more we had them do, the faster the pace went and, I think, the higher the quality, too.

Communication has been informal, which is one of the reasons why things got off to a slow start. We use Spiceworks for helpdesk ticketing. It's done fine for passing information, identifying bugs, and managing the projects we're working on. We will have a weekly tactical review session, and a strategic, big picture, monthly meeting.

What did you find most impressive about Mindsight?

They're extremely responsive, even when they might not have the resolution at hand. They maintain very open communication and provide administrative support when needed. It's important that we're never left in the dark, and Mindsight would not let that happen, which is the support reliability we need.

Are there any areas Mindsight could improve?

They've done a superb job. I've dealt with many contractors, and Mindsight stands out as being very responsive. Things can always be improved, though. How they could do that, I'm not sure. Perhaps they could do a better job exposing what their leadership was doing for the client on a more regular basis. It's nice to know that the leadership is involved and trying to keep the business innovative.