Even Santa’s Workshop Can Benefit from Managed Services

While some places get to take the holiday season off to some extent, other establishments are at their busiest—and as such, don’t have time for any inefficiencies. Let’s meet an employee from such an establishment, located far up north, to learn about how any workplace might benefit operationally from managed IT services.

Taking a sip of cocoa, Trinket leaned back from his computer and let out a long sigh. Here it was, barely after 9:00 in the morning, and his agenda was already impossibly full. Around him, Santa’s Workshop was in full swing, the other elves frantically working to ensure that all the deliveries were prepped for the Boss before the big day came. 

Opening his Glee-mail, Trinket made a face as three new messages appeared, all labeled “urgent.” From experience, Trinket was sure that they weren’t.

Clicking through them, the Manager of Toy Creation and Assembly was soon proven correct. One of the messages had been sent to the entire North Pole team, despite only being relevant to the Coal Department. Another was an email that he had already responded to days ago but had since deviated from its original purpose and was now debating if the menu for the end-of-season wrap party should include non-dairy milk options and gluten-free cookies.

The only message that had anything to do with Trinket was the request from Sleigh Maintenance and Repair to borrow himself and one of his team members to inspect the sleigh’s wish injector. As it turned out, Trinket’s team was well ahead of schedule this year, so the request could be filled with little issue. He called one of his team members over to him.

“Poppy!”

Poppy jumped up from her seat and bounded over to Trinket’s desk. “Yes, sir?”

“How are you with magical engineering?”

“Pretty good, sir. I interned there for a while before being assigned to Creation and Assembly.”

“Excellent. Come with me, they need a few extra sets of eyes in the garage.”

“Okay!”

Trinket and Poppy set off for the North Pole’s garage, where the Boss kept his famous sleigh and Mrs. Claus kept her less-well-known motorcycle. As they walked over, Trinket couldn’t help but sigh once again.

Poppy glanced at him, concerned. “Everything okay, boss?”

Trinket replied, “Yeah, it’s okay. There’s just a lot piling up on my day that it really doesn’t seem like I should be involved in. I mean, I shouldn’t be venting to you about this, but some of the technology we use just seems to get in the way.”

Poppy nodded. “I know what you mean. I couldn’t figure out why my workstation was running so slowly this morning. Cedar had to come over and help me fix it… and I’m not even sure that it helped all that much.”

They continued walking in silence. Almost hesitantly, Poppy spoke up again.

“You know, I have a cousin who works in a shoe factory, and he says that IT isn’t really a problem for them.”

Trinket snorted. “Yeah, maybe after they’ve invested half of their annual magic into it.”

“That’s just the thing,” Poppy persisted. “They don’t have to. They work with this company called XFER, they’re something called a managed service provider.”

“A managed service provider? What’s that?”

“Well, you know how we usually handle technology issues? We all kind of try to figure it out ourselves, until we need to call someone else in to fix it. Kind of like we’re doing now, for the sleigh?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, a managed service provider handles things a little differently. Instead of us trying to fix problems after they’ve popped up, the MSP keeps an eye on our systems for us, spotting potential issues and fixing them before they interrupt us. According to my cousin, the shoemaking elves managed to up their productivity considerably.

“The MSP has even helped them make their systems more efficient by recommending upgrades and helping them keep up with their updates. My cousin says that the factory is also more secure, to boot.”

Trinket considered it, impressed. “Well, how much does this cost? It sounds expensive.”

“That’s the other thing—it’s a service, so the MSP charges the factory each month. However, that monthly cost covers a lot, so considering what you get, it isn’t so bad.” Poppy shrugged.

“I think I’ll have to bring this up to the bosses. What did you say this company was called?”

“XFER. They’re based in Michigan but since most of their services are delivered remotely, that shouldn’t be a problem. Even if they must make an on-site visit to fix something, their remote operations can save time by giving them a head start.

“They can help prevent viruses and malware, get a better handle on our communications, and help us streamline our processes, too.”

“Not bad, Poppy. I’ll have to bring this up to the Boss before the New Year starts,” Trinket said as they reached the garage. He held the door open for her. “Shall we?”

“Let’s!”

The two elves entered the garage and got to work, as elves do.

Hopefully, this has helped illustrate that everyone needs a little assistance, every now and then. If your business has also seen some IT challenges that it needs addressed and mitigated, give XFER a call at 734-927-6666 / 800-GET-XFER to start the new year on the right path.

In the meantime, we hope that your holidays are merry and bright.