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Efficiency Engineer at ITPartners+

Michael Baas

I give IT teams their time back.

I look after how work actually gets done at a managed service provider: the tools our engineers live in, the workflows underneath them, and the automation that keeps repetitive work from eating the day. Not speed for its own sake. Every hour it saves is an hour someone spends on work that actually needs a person.

I got here sideways. Four years selling and sizing industrial drive systems, a self-taught pivot into IT, and four roles in under four years since. The common thread is asking why something works the way it does. Usually there's a good reason. Sometimes there isn't, and that's where the time is hiding.

Grand Rapids, MI

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Michael Baas, Efficiency Engineer at ITPartners+

What I do

Finding the inefficiency and engineering it out

“Efficiency Engineer” isn’t a title that explains itself, so here’s the concrete version.

Service-delivery tooling

I'm the subject-matter expert on the systems our engineers work in all day. I track how they perform and how much they're really used, then rebuild the workflows that slow people down.

Post-M&A integration

When we acquire a company, I evaluate what they run, find the overlaps and the gaps, and build the roadmap that merges two stacks without taking anyone's operations down.

Automation & AI adoption

Automating process and documentation work, including AI-assisted workflows. Then the harder part: getting busy engineers to actually adopt them.

Experience

Sales floor to service delivery

Four roles at one MSP in under four years, and before that a technical sales career that taught me to size a system properly the first time.

  1. ITPartners+

    Nov 2022 – Present

    • Efficiency Engineer

      – Present

      I own engineer efficiency across the company: how well our service-delivery toolset performs, how much of it actually gets used, and what to change when the answer is “not enough”.

      • Subject-matter expert on the tools behind our service-delivery model; co-author workflow optimizations with the Service Delivery team
      • Post-M&A integration: evaluate acquired technology stacks, map overlaps and gaps, and build integration roadmaps that keep disruption low
      • Run data and system migrations, tool consolidation, and workflow rebuilds for newly merged organizations
      • Build process and documentation automation (including AI-assisted workflows) and drive adoption across teams
      • Partner with department heads on scorecards tracking integration progress and tool utilization

    • Project Success Engineer I

      –

      Grand Rapids, MI

      • Ran IT projects end to end: partner onboarding, network equipment installs, and rollouts of systems-management and security tooling
      • Held automation and documentation as a designated focus area, building repeatable processes that made onboarding faster and more consistent
      • Escalation point for service delivery engineers; coordinated vendors on the complicated ones

    • Field Operations Engineer I

      –

      Grand Rapids, MI · On-site

      • Onsite and remote support across partner sites: hardware deployments, installations, and troubleshooting
      • Covered overflow phone and ticket queues during peak demand
      Engineered long-term fixes rather than quick patches.

    • Service Delivery Engineer I

      –

      Grand Rapids, MI

      First IT role, after a self-directed pivot out of technical sales.

      • Basic-to-mid-level support by phone, ticket, and remote session across a varied partner base
      • Documented issues and resolutions in ITGlue; tracked service-delivery metrics
      • Hardware setup and repair, plus vendor coordination

  2. Freelance

    Oct 2019 – Nov 2022

    • Web Developer

      –

      Michigan

      Ran alongside the sales job for most of three years. This is where the pivot actually happened: nights and weekends, one site at a time.

      • Built and launched fast, mobile-friendly sites for local small businesses
      • Consulted on SEO and social strategy

  3. SEW-EURODRIVE - USA

    Sep 2017 – Jan 2022

    • District Sales Representative

      –

      Greater Grand Rapids, MI

      Where the systems habit comes from. Specifying drive systems means getting the sizing right the first time, because the failure shows up months later on someone's production line.

      • Managed a seven-figure territory across southern Michigan, selling to OEMs, distributors, and resellers
      • Hands-on application engineering: mechanical sizing for speed and torque, and VFD specification

Toolset

What I work with

Microsoft 365 & Identity

  • Microsoft 365 administration
  • Entra ID
  • Active Directory
  • Exchange Online
  • Tenant migrations

Automation & Scripting

  • PowerShell
  • Process automation
  • AI-assisted workflows
  • Documentation automation

Networking & Infrastructure

  • Network equipment deployment
  • Firewalls & switching
  • Hardware rollouts
  • Remote monitoring

MSP Operations

  • ConnectWise
  • Autotask
  • ITGlue
  • RMM tooling
  • Service-delivery metrics

Security

  • CompTIA Security+
  • Endpoint security rollouts
  • Systems-management tooling

Certifications

  • CompTIA Security+, CompTIA

Education

  • Information Technology, Grand Rapids Community College

Writing

Autodidact.blog

Curiosity over credentials

Part of my job is getting AI genuinely adopted by working engineers. Autodidact is that same work in the open: plain-English guides and real projects for MSPs and IT teams who would rather use this stuff than talk about it.

Read Autodidact

Contact

Get in touch

I love puzzles. More specifically, I love solving them, which is most of what this job turns out to be. If you have an interesting one, or you just want to talk shop about MSP tooling and automation, email is the best way to reach me.