As an enterprise IT leader, you know how vital IT support is for business growth, especially in maintaining an organization’s competitive edge. However, in a business environment, proving IT ROI for budget approval isn’t always as straightforward as it seems. If you find it challenging to communicate the business value of IT support, you’re not alone. 

Whether it’s for IT recruitment, technology investments, or new initiatives, you’re expected to “tell the value story” for cost justification. But to effectively convey IT’s real value, tech leaders must speak the language that non-IT leadership understands: one of business value and customer impact. 

Why is it important to “tell the IT value story”?

With IT playing an increasingly pivotal role in all aspects of business, proving the value of IT is critical in securing management buy-in. 

Remember that value is in the eye of the beholder — in this case, the business stakeholder — not the IT department. In a competitive economy where budgets are increasingly scrutinized and controlled, IT leaders must build business credibility and position themselves as valued strategic partners. 

This means rebranding IT’s image from a cost center that does “IT stuff” to a value center that creates real, quantifiable business value. Tech leaders must start translating technological success factors into business outcomes key stakeholders understand and care about. 

How to communicate the business value of IT support

Here’s a tip: show, don’t tell.

Instead of typical IT support metrics such as “first-time resolution” and “time to ticket resolution” which, while important, are purely operational, think about translating them into measurable business results. For example, “X% quicker resolution times lead to Y% reduced IT operating expenses while increasing customer satisfaction and retention by Z%, ultimately boosting revenue growth potential”. 

By translating technological performance into clear business returns, you’re showing stakeholders how the IT dots connect with business growth. This is vital to justifying and maintaining IT investments, establishing your credibility as an IT leader, and driving more insightful decision-making where tech is concerned. 

What kind of KPIs do non-IT stakeholders care about?

What we perceive as valuable is usually a reflection of our priorities. For senior management, their highest priority business objectives typically include: 

• Revenue growth
• Cost reduction
• Risk management

Here are a few examples of IT KPIs aligned with these core business objectives:

1. Increased Customer Satisfaction and Retention

Gartner finds that 80% of customers who received value during a service experience are more likely to repurchase despite the opportunity to switch. A key component to keeping customers happy and optimizing lifetime customer value is effective IT support.

Relevant KPIs you could track include customer satisfaction score (CSAT) and Net Promoter Score (NPS), which measures customer loyalty. 

Here’s an example of how you can show the link between IT support and customer satisfaction:

When providing remote support sessions to customers, you have a valuable opportunity to build customer loyalty and boost your organization’s credibility. Using LogMeIn Rescue, you can represent your brand in the best way possible by giving customers easy and customizable access to support.  

Rescue’s remote IT support can be embedded into your website or mobile app with customizable branding for a tailored customer experience. You can also use customizable surveys for easy customer satisfaction tracking. According to the Total Economic Impact Study (a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting in 2023), businesses reported a 21-28% average increase in NPS after implementing Rescue, due to the seamless customer experience. 

2. Reduced Operating Expenses

You can demonstrate the increased efficiency (and consequently, reduced overheads) of your IT team with relevant metrics such as cost per incident or agent retention.

For example, using Rescue, computer hardware maker Lenovo achieved a shorter handle time and time to delivery of service, effectively reducing their cost per incident and creating approximately $1 million in annual savings.

Rescue's robust feature set allows your IT team to replace multiple tools with a single support solution, saving you precious time and money. Our powerful features for remote support include solutions such as Live Lens — remote camera-sharing for offsite troubleshooting, and Intel vPro integration — an out-of-band management solution for devices that are offline or inaccessible through the operating system.

3. Increased Employee Satisfaction and Productivity

According to an HBR study, improving employee experience could increase business revenues by up to 50%. IT support plays an instrumental role in enhancing employee experience and minimizing downtime caused by technical issues.

You can show the correlation between IT support and employee satisfaction with KPIs such as Workstation Downtime, ENPS (Employer Net Promoter Score), or User Adoption Rates.

Rescue’s handy Calling Card feature allows users to request ad-hoc support from their desktop shortcut with a single click, while Unattended Access (UAC) enables technicians to remotely access a computer without the user’s presence, for easier and more flexible problem resolution.

These are just a couple of ways Rescue’s remote support services help businesses boost employee satisfaction and productivity, and ultimately generate increased revenue.

It’s clear that IT support provides tremendous value to boost an organization’s growth and competitive advantage, but unless you’re able to connect the dots and put IT in a business perspective, securing management approval for your initiatives could be an uphill battle.

For further insights and helpful examples of business-aligned KPIs to tell a compelling IT value story, read the Complete Guide to Communicating the Business Value of IT Support. 

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