How to read your monthly IT report

Every month, many organizations receive an IT report from their provider, glance at the first page, see a lot of green, and file it. I understand why. These reports can run to many pages of charts and device lists, and very little of it comes with an explanation of what it means for your business.

At Ceifa, every managed client gets a monthly report, and I am responsible for what goes into it. So I want to walk through how to read one: which sections deserve your attention, what good and bad look like, and the questions that will tell you whether your provider is on top of things. The same approach works whoever produces your report.

Start with what changed

A single month in isolation tells you very little. The useful information is in the trend. Before reading any section in detail, compare it with the last two or three reports. Is the ticket count climbing? Did a device that was out of date last month get fixed, or is it still on the list? A good report shows this comparison for you. If yours does not, ask for it.

Ticket trends

The ticket section shows how much support your team needed and what kind. Look past the total number and at these:

• Categories. If a large share of tickets are about one thing, such as printing, a particular application or slow laptops, that is a problem worth fixing at the root rather than one ticket at a time.
• Repeat users and devices. The same person or laptop showing up month after month usually points to aging hardware, a training gap or a setup that was never quite right.
• Open and aging tickets. How many tickets are still open, and how old are they? A handful of long-running tickets waiting on a vendor is normal. A growing pile is not.
• Response performance. The report should show how the helpdesk did against its commitments. For us, that includes whether critical issues got a response within 30 minutes during business hours.

A rising ticket count is not automatically bad. It can mean people have started asking for help instead of struggling quietly, which is a good thing. What matters is whether the reasons make sense.

Patch compliance

This section tells you how many of your devices have the current security updates installed. It is one of the most important numbers in the report, because unpatched systems are one of the most common ways attackers get in.

Do not stop at the overall figure. Look at the list of devices that are behind, and ask why. The usual reasons are:

• The device has not been switched on or connected for weeks, such as a spare laptop in a cupboard or someone on leave.
• The device is waiting for a reboot that the user keeps postponing.
• An update failed and needs someone to look at it.
• The operating system is too old to receive updates at all.

The first three are normal and should be resolved over the following weeks. The last one is a business decision you need to make, and the report should flag it clearly. Also check that servers, firewalls and network equipment are covered, not just laptops and desktops.

Backup status

Most reports show backup job results: how many succeeded, how many failed. That is useful, but it is not the question that matters. The question that matters is whether your data can actually be restored, and how long it would take.

This is the area I care about most personally, because I own whether restore tests happen on schedule at Ceifa and whether they are reported. When you read the backup section, look for:

• Coverage. Is everything that matters being backed up? Servers, cloud email and files, line-of-business databases. New systems added during the year are often missed.
• Failures and what was done about them. An occasional failed job is normal. The same job failing several nights in a row with no note is not.
• Restore tests. When was a restore last tested, what was restored, and did it work? If the report never mentions restore testing, ask.
• Off-site or separate copies. At least one copy should be somewhere that ransomware on your network cannot reach.

Security alerts

A security section full of blocked threats can look alarming or reassuring depending on how it is presented. Neither reaction is quite right. Blocked threats show the tools are working. What you want to see is the handful of events that needed a person to look at them, and what was done.

Useful things to look for:

• Incidents that were investigated, with a short note on the outcome
• Accounts without multi-factor authentication, and why
• Changes to administrator accounts
• Unusual sign-ins, such as from countries where you have no staff
• Devices missing security tooling

If a report lists hundreds of alerts and no conclusions, you are being shown activity rather than insight.

Renewals and end of life

This is the section that saves you from surprises. It should list what is coming up in the next few months:

• Hardware warranties expiring, especially on servers, firewalls and switches
• Operating systems and software approaching end of support
• Software subscriptions and licence renewals
• Domain names and security certificates
• Devices old enough that replacing them is cheaper than supporting them

Read this section with your budget in mind. Nothing here should be news to you on the day it expires. If your provider tells you about an end-of-support deadline a week before it hits, the planning failed long before that.

Questions to ask your provider

You do not need to understand every chart to hold a provider to account. These questions work in any monthly review:

1. What were the top three causes of tickets this month, and what are you doing to reduce them?
2. Which devices are behind on updates, and when will they be current?
3. When did you last test a restore, and what did you restore?
4. Was there any security event that needed investigation? What happened?
5. What is expiring or reaching end of support in the next six months, and what will it cost?
6. Is there anything in this report you think I should be worried about?

The last question is the most revealing. A provider who knows your environment will have an answer. One who reads the report for the first time in the meeting will not.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most important number in a monthly IT report?

There is no single number, but patch compliance and backup restore testing come close. They tell you whether the basics that protect you from attacks and data loss are actually being done.

Is a rising number of tickets a bad sign?

Not necessarily. It can mean staff are asking for help sooner. Look at the categories and repeat issues. If the same problem keeps coming back, it needs a root-cause fix.

How often should I review the report with my provider?

Read it every month, even briefly, and sit down with your provider to go through it properly at least every quarter. Use that meeting for renewals and planning, not just the past month.

What if my provider does not send a monthly report?

Ask for one. Without regular reporting you have no way of knowing whether patching, backups and security monitoring are being done, and no early warning about upcoming costs.

Reporting at Ceifa

Every client on our managed services gets a monthly report, and we write it so that an owner or office manager can read it, not just an IT person. Backup and restore testing are covered in detail through our backup and disaster recovery service. If you want to see what a clear report looks like compared with the one you get today, get in touch.