Metrics That Matter for Your Business

Why are IT metrics important? Measuring what happens within the technology side of your business is important because it provides essential baseline information that allows teams to make informed decisions about the direction and spending priorities of the organization. And it is these IT metrics that will be most useful when combined with other data points and trending indicators, such as revenue, market share, customer satisfaction scores, and competitor movements, that paint a full picture of the health of your business. How should you begin to zero in on these metrics? In a nutshell, by starting with the basics.

Impactful metrics should:

– Focus staff on company priorities

– Communicate information in business terms

– Improve corporate decision-making

– Evolve as the organization matures

Some Examples of IT Metrics

If you’re already reporting on metrics and KPIs (key performance indicators) you’re no stranger to the massive options you have to choose from. But, as we stated previously, let’s keep it basic. And keep in mind, your IT metrics should not be considered in a vacuum, they should, and must, map up to your overall strategy.

Here are a few examples of key metrics to track by category:

1. System Reliability

  • Outage tracking
  • Network capacity
  • Procurement forecasting
  • Threats, breaches and overages

2. IT Support

  • Mean Time to Resolve (MTTR): the average time taken to complete a ticket.
  • Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF): the time between failures.
  • Mean Time to Failure (MTTF): the uptime after a possible issue has been completed.
  • First Call Resolution Rate
  • Cost per Contact
  • Customer Satisfaction
  • Net Promoter Score
  • Agent Satisfaction

3. Financial

  • Cost of budget
  • Budget variance
  • Resource cost
  • Maintenance expenses

While these aren’t all you should track, they do point you in the right direction and will give you a place to start. Or, if you’re already tracking metrics, a guide for how you can pare things down a bit. Keep in mind that metrics are only as good as the action they can lead to. You always want your metrics to be something that can lead you down a path for ongoing improvement.