How to get started.
Like everything else with the Leapfrog Methodology, getting started with Leapfrog is a tried-and-true process. The four steps below confirm that Leapfrog can provide you with the managed IT services you need and identify the best path to achieving your business goals.
Step One:
Initial conversations
The goal of our initial conversations is to gain an understanding of each other’s companies and your company’s current IT situation:
- Learn what your organization does, how it generates revenue, and what it considers to be its top goals. For example, is your main focus to optimize your IT environment or protect it?
- Discuss the circumstances that led you to Leapfrog and any current IT problems — do they primarily involve your people, processes, or technology, or a combination?
- Talk over the type of experiences Leapfrog has had helping companies in similar situations and if we might be able to solve your problems and support your goals. If this is possible, we’ll discuss The Leapfrog Methodology for Partner Success, which begins with an assessment.
Step Two:
IT assessment
To assess what’s needed to prepare for a strategic IT partnership, we evaluate your current IT environment and its ability to meet your stated business and security requirements:
- Review your inventory (hardware and software) and your IT roles and responsibilities
- Conduct a Leapfrog gap analysis
- Conduct a Leapfrog risk analysis
- Benchmark what we find and compare it to companies similar to yours
- Build an IT roadmap to resolve your IT issues strategically and systematically
Step Three:
IT roadmap
With your assessment and proposed IT roadmap complete, we present our report and recommendations:
- Review the report that explains what we found in each area of your IT during the assessment
- Discuss the benchmarking data, including the location of your company on the scale that measures IT operational maturity
- Describe any gaps and risks in detail, including how to resolve them
- Examine the steps needed to resolve the most pressing issues and any related root causes
- Review improvements we might need to be made to your environment initially to allow for successful, proactive IT management
- Discuss a reasonable cadence for making the changes based on your priorities and budget
Step Four:
Partnership
When you are ready to move forward, we start the process of optimizing your IT to meet your business goals.
After we sign the managed services agreement and timeline of activities, Leapfrog gets to work. Communications is key — an important part of our methodology is regular reporting on our progress so you always know what’s happening. This begins in the transition process and continues throughout our partnership.
Every year, we repeat the assessment and IT roadmap process. Or we will update your roadmap earlier if your goals or circumstances change. Keeping your IT optimized, working properly, and meeting your needs is an ongoing process — it’s how Leapfrog helps you keep meeting your business goals year after year.