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    <title><![CDATA[Discussion on Changes abound: What's happening in my small IT shop? ]]></title>
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        <title><![CDATA[Suggestions]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-347304-3489825]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Address interrupt driven operational needs with a dedicated weekly rotating shift.  Basically each of your staff rotate through this position. The  person on-duty for that week is responsible for handling ticket type work and escalation from the helpdesk.  Others are left alone to work on project based work unless their specific skillset is needed.Bring up junior people by having well-documented systems, processes, and self-training to bring their skills up-to-speed.  Shifting the operational workload to juniors is a good idea that will give them in the trenches experience with the senior only an email/phone call away.]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[blakelyjf@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 31 Aug 2011 20:44:46 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Time wasting gaps]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-347304-3483952]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[It's great to use tools to monitor projects but tracking changes and problems after implementation isn't as closely watched.  This is where time is wasted when a problem occurs and everyone begins to ask &quot;what was changed&quot;.  The IT staff is burdened without a Change Log methodology to identify changes quickly.  This is where the SAAS tool at &quot;itchangelog.com&quot; comes in handy.  It also handles problems similar to Spiceworks.  The bottom line is; your IT staff can identify and manage new problems more efficiently and less costly.]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[jimd@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 2011 08:11:33 -0700</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[status]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-347304-3483851]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Don't communicate in layman's terms but don't try to impress with over-use of 3-letter acronyms. The first will make your work look simple (so why do we need someone so expensive if it's that simple?), the second makes you look stupid.We are working with Spiceworks which creates a case as soon as someone sends an e-mail to the helpdesk. The general rule is that at the end of the day there are no un-assigned tickets (which is not the same as all problems solved!). Users can follow on-line what's happening and they also receive an e-mail with every update. And you can pull reports for management.]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[pivert]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 2011 03:30:24 -0700</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Making sure status is transparent]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-347304-3483823]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Could you shed more light on how exactly you do that?  I always find it hard to keep the customer (aka end-user) up to date on project- or even incident status without going technical.  How do you communicate with them in layman's terms how far along you are in resolving his or her problem/request, and how can you stamp a progress percentage (for example) on it at all?]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[SvenVdS]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 16 Aug 2011 01:05:56 -0700</pubDate>
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