Are you struggling to define the right KPIs for your tech department? You're not alone. We've asked top professionals in the field and collected a list of the top 25 KPIs that can be applied today to measure performance, optimize investments, and drive better business outcomes.
Tailor to your needs
It's important to note that not all of these KPIs will be relevant to every organization. Depending on your company's maturity stage, you may not need to track all of these KPIs, or you may need to add others that are specific to your business goals and objectives. For example, a startup may prioritize KPIs around time to market, innovation, and agility, while a more established company may focus on KPIs around customer satisfaction, cost optimization, and risk management. Similarly, a company in a heavily regulated industry may need to prioritize KPIs around compliance and risk mitigation.
Your business is unique
Ultimately, the KPIs that you track should align with your organization's overall goals and objectives, and should be regularly evaluated and adjusted as your business evolves and changes.
A few tales about KPI setting importance
To illustrate the importance of selecting the right KPIs for your organization, consider the following stories:
A fast-growing software company was experiencing challenges with system uptime and response time. They initially focused on tracking KPIs around MTTR, incident volume, and system uptime, but found that these KPIs didn't provide a complete picture of the issues they were facing. After further analysis, they discovered that the root cause of their issues was actually related to server utilization and capacity planning. By shifting their focus to KPIs around server utilization and capacity utilization, they were able to optimize their infrastructure and improve overall system performance.
An IT company was experiencing challenges with employee retention. They initially focused on tracking KPIs around training effectiveness, employee satisfaction, and project completion rates, but found that these KPIs didn't provide a complete picture of the issues they were facing. After further analysis, they discovered that the root cause of their retention issues was related to a lack of career growth opportunities. They were losing their top performers to competitors who offered more opportunities for advancement. By shifting their focus to KPIs around IT staff development, internal promotion rates, and employee retention rates, they were able to identify areas where they could improve career growth opportunities for their employees. As a result, they were able to retain their top talent and improve overall employee satisfaction, which ultimately led to better business performance.
A cybersecurity company was experiencing challenges with customer retention. They initially focused on tracking KPIs around customer satisfaction, renewal rates, and service level agreement (SLA) compliance, but found that these KPIs didn't provide a complete picture of the issues they were facing. After further analysis, they discovered that the root cause of their retention issues was related to a lack of proactive security recommendations for their clients. They were losing customers to competitors who provided more proactive security guidance. By shifting their focus to KPIs around security guidance adoption rates, security recommendation conversion rates, and customer feedback on security recommendations, they were able to identify areas where they could improve their security guidance and provide more value to their customers. As a result, they were able to improve customer retention rates and overall business performance.
In conclusion, tracking KPIs and metrics is essential for every IT department to ensure that technology is delivering value and meeting business objectives. While the KPIs listed below are common and generally applicable, it's important to evaluate which ones are relevant to your organization and focus on tracking those that align with your business goals and objectives. Just leverage this overview to be inspired and come up with your own. Here the most common KPI's:
- Mean Time to Repair (MTTR): Measures the average time to repair a system or service after it goes down.
- System Uptime: Measures the percentage of time that a system or service is available and functioning properly.
- IT Spend: Measures the amount of money spent on technology-related expenses.
- Time to Market: Measures the time it takes to develop and launch a new product or service.
- Customer Satisfaction: Measures how satisfied customers are with the technology services they receive.
- Security Breaches: Measures the number and severity of security breaches that occur.
- Service Level Agreement (SLA) Compliance: Measures compliance with agreements between IT and business units that define service levels and expectations.
- Employee Productivity: Measures how effectively technology is supporting employee productivity and collaboration.
- IT Staff Turnover: Measures the rate at which IT staff are leaving the organization.
- Asset Utilization: Measures how effectively technology assets, such as hardware and software, are being utilized.
- Response Time: Measures the time it takes to respond to a user request or issue.
- Incident Volume: Measures the number of incidents or requests handled by IT support.
- Change Success Rate: Measures the percentage of changes that are implemented successfully.
- Capacity Utilization: Measures how effectively IT infrastructure is being utilized.
- Server Utilization: Measures how effectively server resources are being utilized.
- Network Performance: Measures the performance and reliability of the IT network.
- Backup and Recovery Success: Measures the success rate of data backup and recovery processes.
- Cloud Service Adoption: Measures the adoption and utilization of cloud services.
- Virtual Machine Density: Measures the number of virtual machines running on a single physical machine.
- Mobile Device Adoption: Measures the adoption and utilization of mobile devices in the workplace.
- Software License Compliance: Measures compliance with software licensing agreements.
- Help Desk Performance: Measures the performance and effectiveness of IT support services.
- Service Desk Cost per Ticket: Measures the cost of IT support services per ticket or incident.
- Training Effectiveness: Measures the effectiveness of IT training programs.
- IT Staff Development: Measures the development and growth of IT staff skills and capabilities.
We're always open to feedback and suggestions, so if you have any additional KPIs or metrics that you think should be added to the list, please let us know - we'd be happy to consider them!