What Should I Expect From a TBR or QBR?

As a Tulsa IT services provider, ArcLight has a set of tried-and-true business processes that we follow for all of our clients. This ensures continuity and best practices are in place for every situation. Regularly scheduled client meetings, akin to a QBR (quarterly business review), are one of the best ways for ArcLight to keep clients up to date.

As the account manager for ArcLight, it’s my responsibility to provide a consistently superior experience for my clients. One way we do this is by holding TAMs, or technical advisory meetings. These are similar to QBRs (quarterly business reviews) or TBRs (technology business reviews). These meetings might not be familiar to businesses whose partners and vendors don’t hold them, so here is a breakdown of the purpose of a TAM, why it is important and how to prepare for one.

The Technical Advisory Meeting

Choosing to name our meetings TAM rather than QBR was a purposeful decision. We don’t talk at our clients like you would in a review; rather our role is more advisory. Additionally, the meetings aren’t necessarily held every quarter. Sometimes there are situations that need to be addressed more frequently, and we don’t want to restrict our relationship to meeting just four times a year.

The Purpose of a TAM

ArcLight holds our TAMs, like a QBR, to continue building good relationships and remind our customers of the value they’re getting out of partnering with a leading Tulsa IT services provider. The purpose of a TAM is to be proactive and keep the client informed of their security technology situation.

“This meeting isn’t all about scrutinizing your network and taking your money. We do this to form a better partnership to keep you running smoothly and safely.”

The specific topics, metrics and reports reviewed during these meetings vary from client to client, but the basic topics are relatively similar.

• Identify wins/successes. Review what the client has given feedback on, what changes have been made and what ArcLight has done.
• Review metrics. Metrics include average response time, ticket types and volume, noisy users and backup stats. We share these to keep the client informed of our work and to demonstrate how we bring value to their business, even if things appear to be running without IT issues from the client’s perspective.

• Educate the client. We will review open projects and unresolved issues. Our team will also explain the technicalities of technology and hardware that needs to be upgraded or replaced. This includes education on tools, including Bigger Brains, our platform of helpful training videos. 
• Highlight risks and pain points. ArcLight strives to achieve and maintain a certain security network posture for all clients. Getting there is not an overnight process, so we’ll cover where things stand and the areas of risk and pain that we’re addressing next.
• Answer client questions. We’ll provide the list of topics to be covered at the TAM prior to the meeting. Clients can bring questions they may have or things they want to address as well.
• Budget. Acting as a CIO, we will present the client’s IT budget using Excel budget templates.
• Future plans. We will review projects in the pipeline for the client as well as their future plans and goals. This includes an evaluation of our contract in regards to the volume of contact we receive from their team. We go through our records of what kind of problems they are having and adjust their contract as needed, scaling back to save them money whenever possible.

How to Prepare for a TAM

Your TAM is nothing to worry about. New clients are sometimes wary of meeting because they expect us to push them to spend more money or they simply haven’t had one before and are not sure what to expect. The goal of the TAM is to make sure our IT support is meeting your needs and to communicate with you, pure and simple.

In advance of our TAM (or any QBR), it’s a good idea for you to prepare questions and concerns regarding your IT services management. You should also record any upcoming projects we should be aware of, as well as any changes coming down the road.

To make the most of our time, ArcLight does a significant amount of preparation for our client meetings. I will check with my team for pertinent topics to cover and any issues that arose since our last meeting. In addition, we will run updated scans on the network and review tickets including their descriptions, resolutions and time.

Who should come to a TAM? That can vary from client to client, but we recommend that stakeholders, decision makers and points of contact attend. It is good for these key players to hear what ArcLight is doing and give their feedback. Attendees don’t need to have extensive technical knowledge of the topics. They just need to bring their holistic understanding of what your company is experiencing to guide our work.

What Happens After the TAM (or QBR)?

Follow-up steps after a TAM (and most quarterly business reviews) depend on what was discussed during the meeting. I will ask the client for feedback, and if services are going well, I will also ask for positive recognition. In the meantime, we will keep in contact via email or phone call. Then it is our team’s role to follow through on our promises to the client, including ordering and procuring to start or complete projects. The client’s role is to schedule our next TAM. 

If your current IT provider doesn’t hold QBRs, it’s time to ask if you can implement them. Our MSP is ready to take on your business’s tech challenges. Book a meeting with our team to discover an MSP that values communication.