IT is instructed as it is told by the higher ups. Nuff said.
Helpdesk is in place to track the work, but ends up being more of a barrier than anything else. A wedge between the IT staff and the clients.
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True, the IT Department could hide behind the ticketing system.
However, it is up to the IT staff to make sure that doesn't happen. Accept all forms of help desk requests (ticket, email, phone call, on the floor), keep the requester in the loop, be pleasant and respectful, and you will make the user satisfied with the service.
However, it is up to the IT staff to make sure that doesn't happen. Accept all forms of help desk requests (ticket, email, phone call, on the floor), keep the requester in the loop, be pleasant and respectful, and you will make the user satisfied with the service.
If someone has difficulty using our helpdesk system, it's my job to figure out why and either (quickly) train them, fix the system, or key in the request for them. They just want their problem solved, not to deal with the helpdesk problem. An IT person who gets on his high horse about it will alienate the users and make IT look bad.
An IT department is also a customer services department. If you want your personnel to value your contribution to the company take down barriers to good service.
Making the repairs quickly is a great concept. But there has to be an adequate number of staff. I work in an IT department that has 3000+ computers and 200+ printers that all need maintenance or repairs. We have 4 staff members to do the work. Most of my work orders are "Overdue." Hiring more staff members will not happen.
Either your SLAs need adjusting or your boss is falling down on the job. At some point, somebody needs to run the numbers and point out that the cost of defective computers and printers is MORE than the cost to hire an additional tech.
My boss keeps putting in for more help. But the school district (did I mention that I work for a school district) says there is no money to hire more help. "Overdue" seems to be a way of life here at the scool.
Ouch. Do you at least get a chance to catch up during the summer break?
If the help desk is dealing with the general public I'd consider them a customer service department. But if they're dealing with other employees I'd rather they spend more time fixing things and keeping things working than trying to provide a good customer experience.
They may be there to fix your printer. But even tough that may be a priority for you, it may not be for the company. They be working on something more important.
A perfect help desk is one I never need to talk too.
They may be there to fix your printer. But even tough that may be a priority for you, it may not be for the company. They be working on something more important.
A perfect help desk is one I never need to talk too.
One of our goals is to open (and close) as many "by the way" tickets as we can. We open the ticket ourselves, so customers do not have to deal with the help desk, and the customer gets the problem fixed immediately.
The only times we don't open by-the-way tickets is when the initial assessment shows that repair will require parts we don't have in stock or when workload prevents spending additional time at that customer site.
The only times we don't open by-the-way tickets is when the initial assessment shows that repair will require parts we don't have in stock or when workload prevents spending additional time at that customer site.
Help desk don't hide behind the ticketing system. They are infront of it. The business is the one hiding behind the ticketing system. A painful convoluted one doesn't help IT at all.
Hiding behind the ticketing system = waiting until the user puts in a ticket before Help Desk will look into the issue.
I would rather have my staff solve minor problems when they hear it as they walk by than tell the user to put in a ticket. Help Desk can put in a ticket when they fix the problem.
I have had Help Desk staff who tried to hide behind the system. They learn very quickly that hiding is unacceptable in my department.
I would rather have my staff solve minor problems when they hear it as they walk by than tell the user to put in a ticket. Help Desk can put in a ticket when they fix the problem.
I have had Help Desk staff who tried to hide behind the system. They learn very quickly that hiding is unacceptable in my department.
The OP was talking about deliberately hard to use ticketing systems.
Wish you ran our IS dept, there again, if you did, your boss might smack your wrist very hard, for just going around fixing things willy nilly as though that was your job or something...
Wish you ran our IS dept, there again, if you did, your boss might smack your wrist very hard, for just going around fixing things willy nilly as though that was your job or something...
I have a very demanding boss. Fortunately, he is very supportive as well.
I understood the article. Rather than commiserate, I like to offer solutions.
Any good help desk system should accept emails and voicemail attachments as well as direct entry.
Any good Help Desk Department should have a help desk hotline with all the technicians set up in a hunt group.
Any good Help Desk Technician will accept help desk requests by email, IM, or a conversation in the hall. If they can fix it and are not busy, they fix it on the spot and log it in the ticketing system. If they are busy or they are not capable of fixing it, they log it in and it gets assigned to someone else.
All the technicians have Blackberries so logging in a ticket while on the go is easy.
I understood the article. Rather than commiserate, I like to offer solutions.
Any good help desk system should accept emails and voicemail attachments as well as direct entry.
Any good Help Desk Department should have a help desk hotline with all the technicians set up in a hunt group.
Any good Help Desk Technician will accept help desk requests by email, IM, or a conversation in the hall. If they can fix it and are not busy, they fix it on the spot and log it in the ticketing system. If they are busy or they are not capable of fixing it, they log it in and it gets assigned to someone else.
All the technicians have Blackberries so logging in a ticket while on the go is easy.
Consider yourself lucky.
Take note of the instances where there's a tech per 1000 machines....or more. No help desk....no hunt groups. Nothing. And it's not going to change because the leadership doesn't want it to. Costs money. One guy, many sites...on the road.
That guy simply cannot stop for everyone that wants something and wants to circumvent the channels.
Yes...that does happen in the real world.
Take note of the instances where there's a tech per 1000 machines....or more. No help desk....no hunt groups. Nothing. And it's not going to change because the leadership doesn't want it to. Costs money. One guy, many sites...on the road.
That guy simply cannot stop for everyone that wants something and wants to circumvent the channels.
Yes...that does happen in the real world.
First of all, if your place has things broken willy nilly, you are putting the carriage in front of the horse! You need an entire IT strategy that works, because the one you (they?) are using doesn't. While there needs to be a sense of priorities, if there is that much in need of doing that a tech cannot take care of something else while he/she is already there, it is a symptom of a broken system.
"...if you did, your boss might smack your wrist very hard..."
Yeah, I totally get this. The person that tries the hardest is usually the one in the most trouble, while the slackers never get noticed or reprimanded. That isn't just IT, that is life in general. (And God Forbid someone actually gets something accomplished...)
Back to the subject:
I am frequently flagged down or waved over while walking through the offices. I would NEVER give someone a rubber stamped reply like "...fill out a ticket..." Sometimes they are asking me for something that is beyond my limited authority to do, and then I will politely explain that and tell them to send an email to my boss about the problem, and it will trickle back to me with instructions how it is to be handled. Otherwise, if it is a software or hardware issue, I most certainly will fix it right away, or arrange to get back to that person. (I might ask them to send me an email as a reminder. I am forgetful like that, and my co-workers appreciate the honesty as much as I appreciate the reminder.)
I am not the primary IT person here, but I am the primary Help Desk person, and I try very hard to make my customers, (my co-workers) satisfied. Our dept. gets calls and emails. We do not use a ticket system. I suppose that if we were larger, it might become a necessary evil, but right now, email for non-urgent jobs, and phone calls for urgent matters. If I am away from my desk, I get the voice mail message and get back to them as soon as I am able.
"...if you did, your boss might smack your wrist very hard..."
Yeah, I totally get this. The person that tries the hardest is usually the one in the most trouble, while the slackers never get noticed or reprimanded. That isn't just IT, that is life in general. (And God Forbid someone actually gets something accomplished...)
Back to the subject:
I am frequently flagged down or waved over while walking through the offices. I would NEVER give someone a rubber stamped reply like "...fill out a ticket..." Sometimes they are asking me for something that is beyond my limited authority to do, and then I will politely explain that and tell them to send an email to my boss about the problem, and it will trickle back to me with instructions how it is to be handled. Otherwise, if it is a software or hardware issue, I most certainly will fix it right away, or arrange to get back to that person. (I might ask them to send me an email as a reminder. I am forgetful like that, and my co-workers appreciate the honesty as much as I appreciate the reminder.)
I am not the primary IT person here, but I am the primary Help Desk person, and I try very hard to make my customers, (my co-workers) satisfied. Our dept. gets calls and emails. We do not use a ticket system. I suppose that if we were larger, it might become a necessary evil, but right now, email for non-urgent jobs, and phone calls for urgent matters. If I am away from my desk, I get the voice mail message and get back to them as soon as I am able.
Have a toke, get your pipes cleaned out, relax...
It was tongue in cheek type english humour.
It was tongue in cheek type english humour.
Tony,
I did get the humor. (---Uncivilized Yank spelling...) I understood exactly what you meant. I liked your post so that is where I added my comments on the subject. Upon re-reading, I should have phrased things a bit differently in the first paragraph. It does sound like I didn't get your humor, but I did.
Michael
I did get the humor. (---Uncivilized Yank spelling...) I understood exactly what you meant. I liked your post so that is where I added my comments on the subject. Upon re-reading, I should have phrased things a bit differently in the first paragraph. It does sound like I didn't get your humor, but I did.
Michael
"Accept all forms of help desk requests (ticket, email, phone call, on the floor), keep the requester in the loop, be pleasant and respectful, and you will make the user satisfied with the service"
Yes, be respectful, be pleasant, keep the requester up to date. But a formal ticketing process is key to support success. Most importantly if your helpdesk is undermanned (as it is in most companies I've worked for).
Small companies that have maybe 20 or 40 employees, maybe the approach of "anything goes" works, but not when you're dealing with a larger more global company.
For example, what if the support tech is away for a week and they're getting requests for support? If it was in a ticket system, someone else could pick it up. Or what if the technician was working on something just prior to taking their leave? With a ticket system any other tech can view the entire history and get the job done.
The other problem of course is when you try to justify a new tech. It's far easier to show the work being done by reference of tickets than comb through everyone's email, wracking everyone's brains for drive-by support, etc. Tickets show exactly what is being done by the helpdesk, how rapidly support is rendered, who is a common requester, etc.
Last, but not least; a good ticketing system that's properly used by the helpdesk staff also provides a knowledge base for users and for the helpdesk tech who takes the call. Problem loading program ABC with error XYZ? Ah, ok we had that problem last week, solve it by doing DEF.
Yes, be respectful, be pleasant, keep the requester up to date. But a formal ticketing process is key to support success. Most importantly if your helpdesk is undermanned (as it is in most companies I've worked for).
Small companies that have maybe 20 or 40 employees, maybe the approach of "anything goes" works, but not when you're dealing with a larger more global company.
For example, what if the support tech is away for a week and they're getting requests for support? If it was in a ticket system, someone else could pick it up. Or what if the technician was working on something just prior to taking their leave? With a ticket system any other tech can view the entire history and get the job done.
The other problem of course is when you try to justify a new tech. It's far easier to show the work being done by reference of tickets than comb through everyone's email, wracking everyone's brains for drive-by support, etc. Tickets show exactly what is being done by the helpdesk, how rapidly support is rendered, who is a common requester, etc.
Last, but not least; a good ticketing system that's properly used by the helpdesk staff also provides a knowledge base for users and for the helpdesk tech who takes the call. Problem loading program ABC with error XYZ? Ah, ok we had that problem last week, solve it by doing DEF.
No it doesn't. We're slightly bigger then the 20 to 40 you mention sire_tim, but not much. A long time ago I managed to get (most) people off the ambush tactics generally used when I first took on the role. On the stairwell I would be sweetness and light, but if it's not logged properly I will simply ignore it (unless it's genuinely something major of course - give and take!)
I would suggest a team of two or three might work with an informal approach to Help Desk support, but teams of any size need efficient management, not a fire fighting approach to problem solving. IT management is all about forward thinking not "it's busted so fix it!"
If I can see trends through analysis of the ticket logs then I can be proactive about resolutions. My job as an IT Manager is to manage IT, not fix problems on a break-fix / headless chicken approach to problem solving because users are too lazy, or simply uneducated to the benefits of logging issues properly.
I would suggest a team of two or three might work with an informal approach to Help Desk support, but teams of any size need efficient management, not a fire fighting approach to problem solving. IT management is all about forward thinking not "it's busted so fix it!"
If I can see trends through analysis of the ticket logs then I can be proactive about resolutions. My job as an IT Manager is to manage IT, not fix problems on a break-fix / headless chicken approach to problem solving because users are too lazy, or simply uneducated to the benefits of logging issues properly.
...needs a good ticket system.
I'm an advocate of OTRS with the ITSM plugins for change management.
If your management thinks you should be doing the "headless chicken" thing....to borrow Tommy's phrase...and responding to every user grab because they don't want a process, I promise you you'll soon be ready to leave that job.
You controlling tech...not the other way around...is what it's about. Having a keyword searchable ticket system, assuming the techs actually document the problems thoroughly, is invaluable to avoid reinventing the wheel for recurring problems, and getting additions to things like your FAQ's.
Of course users don't like it because they want your attention right now. They want to go the head of the line. It's up to management to decide how the priority structure should work. This is usually where the problem is. Management tends to want everything for nothing...just like the rest of us. But scapegoating IT by using the users' lack of technology knowledge is too easy and available to not take advantage of.
I'm an advocate of OTRS with the ITSM plugins for change management.
If your management thinks you should be doing the "headless chicken" thing....to borrow Tommy's phrase...and responding to every user grab because they don't want a process, I promise you you'll soon be ready to leave that job.
You controlling tech...not the other way around...is what it's about. Having a keyword searchable ticket system, assuming the techs actually document the problems thoroughly, is invaluable to avoid reinventing the wheel for recurring problems, and getting additions to things like your FAQ's.
Of course users don't like it because they want your attention right now. They want to go the head of the line. It's up to management to decide how the priority structure should work. This is usually where the problem is. Management tends to want everything for nothing...just like the rest of us. But scapegoating IT by using the users' lack of technology knowledge is too easy and available to not take advantage of.
If so, you completely misunderstood what I wrote.
I didn't say do away with the ticketing system. I said make it easy to communicate with the Help Desk Department.
We have ticketing system and we use it to it's full extent. If someone emails or texts a technician directly, the tech knows to immediately forward it to the help desk email box which automatically generates a help desk ticket or paste it in a new ticket. That's what I mean by making it easier for the user.
"what if the support tech is away for a week and they're getting requests for support?" My staff uses email's out of office assistant plus they set up an out of office voicemail. Users are smart and resourceful. They will move on to another way to get our attention if they want to get their problem addressed.
"Or what if the technician was working on something just prior to taking their leave?" My technicians fill out the ticket explaining what they did and where they left off.
"The other problem of course is when you try to justify a new tech. It's far easier to show the work being done by reference of tickets than comb through everyone's email, wracking everyone's brains for drive-by support, etc. Tickets show exactly what is being done by the helpdesk, how rapidly support is rendered, who is a common requester, etc." Again, non-issue. We use a ticketing system.
I didn't say do away with the ticketing system. I said make it easy to communicate with the Help Desk Department.
We have ticketing system and we use it to it's full extent. If someone emails or texts a technician directly, the tech knows to immediately forward it to the help desk email box which automatically generates a help desk ticket or paste it in a new ticket. That's what I mean by making it easier for the user.
"what if the support tech is away for a week and they're getting requests for support?" My staff uses email's out of office assistant plus they set up an out of office voicemail. Users are smart and resourceful. They will move on to another way to get our attention if they want to get their problem addressed.
"Or what if the technician was working on something just prior to taking their leave?" My technicians fill out the ticket explaining what they did and where they left off.
"The other problem of course is when you try to justify a new tech. It's far easier to show the work being done by reference of tickets than comb through everyone's email, wracking everyone's brains for drive-by support, etc. Tickets show exactly what is being done by the helpdesk, how rapidly support is rendered, who is a common requester, etc." Again, non-issue. We use a ticketing system.
And then it;s our fault for using it. I've lost count of the Great new Product that management has been sold without consulting with IT only to find that it's unsuitable for the task but it's IT's Fault that it doesn't work not the Managements or the Vendor who misrepresented it so that they could get a sale.
I saw this back in the days that I worked Mainframes the Sales people said it's a Computer so it will do the job required and that is all that they knew. We have this and have reduced it's price so it's ideal for what you want. Doesn't matter that it uses a different Language to do the job and everything has to be rewritten so it's usable and will cost millions of $.
Management comes down saying we bought you this which cost so many million $ and you want to spend how much on rewriting the software? Or It's a computer so why doesn't it work like the old one that we have just replaced?
You get Management who are only interested in making a Quick Buck who spring for the cheapest option possible and then blame IT when it doesn't work. After all when was the last time a CEO admitted that they messed up and made a mistake rather than saying that the Underlings rejected their "Improvements" and did everything possible to prevent them being successful.
In the case you presented above I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if Management of the Cloud Provider didn't see IE's as a "Weird" browser with "Strange Nonstandard Operations" so instead of shelling out the necessary funds to rewrite their Interface they just do not support IE and tell all potential customers to use a different browser which is more secure or whatever. It's not to improve your Security or whatever it's to save them the necessary funds of supporting a Browser which sets it's own standards and ignores existing Standards at every opportunity.
Col
I saw this back in the days that I worked Mainframes the Sales people said it's a Computer so it will do the job required and that is all that they knew. We have this and have reduced it's price so it's ideal for what you want. Doesn't matter that it uses a different Language to do the job and everything has to be rewritten so it's usable and will cost millions of $.
Management comes down saying we bought you this which cost so many million $ and you want to spend how much on rewriting the software? Or It's a computer so why doesn't it work like the old one that we have just replaced?
You get Management who are only interested in making a Quick Buck who spring for the cheapest option possible and then blame IT when it doesn't work. After all when was the last time a CEO admitted that they messed up and made a mistake rather than saying that the Underlings rejected their "Improvements" and did everything possible to prevent them being successful.
In the case you presented above I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised if Management of the Cloud Provider didn't see IE's as a "Weird" browser with "Strange Nonstandard Operations" so instead of shelling out the necessary funds to rewrite their Interface they just do not support IE and tell all potential customers to use a different browser which is more secure or whatever. It's not to improve your Security or whatever it's to save them the necessary funds of supporting a Browser which sets it's own standards and ignores existing Standards at every opportunity.
Col
Not supporting Internet Exploder is a dumb decision from almost every aspect but I doubt it's because of the "Geek" coefficient of the company. More likely is that the developers have told their manager that implementing the system for all major browsers isn't a linear curve in terms of cost and development time. Then the departmental manager or MD (probably an accountant) has decided that it's too expensive to do all of them so instructs the coders to implement one or two and make it the client's problem.
As to the help desk phenomenon, nobody seems to have ever gotten this right. I know how I'd do it but, once again am forestalled by the financial director because of the costs.
Penny-wise, pound-foolish is the order of the day in contemporary IT.
As to the help desk phenomenon, nobody seems to have ever gotten this right. I know how I'd do it but, once again am forestalled by the financial director because of the costs.
Penny-wise, pound-foolish is the order of the day in contemporary IT.
I've run into those from time to time and that's really the only problem I've had with Internet browsing. And the decision to go with Active X in my opinion is a disaster anyway: so many other/better technologies, browser incompatibility even from one version of IE to another...
The one thing you did was vote with your feet and move on. Good for you. Question is did you tell the company that you were disappointed with them?
Other one I've occasionally run into is Adobe Acrobat version issues or Flash issues, but again you run into the same issues.
The one thing you did was vote with your feet and move on. Good for you. Question is did you tell the company that you were disappointed with them?
Other one I've occasionally run into is Adobe Acrobat version issues or Flash issues, but again you run into the same issues.
You sound like a manager frustrated because someone else refused to see things your way Patrick...
Help Desk is not there to make people happy, it's there to avoid wasting your company's money on trivial problems. It's not supposed to be *too* easy, or people will use it even when they're not supposed so.
But of course, striking the right balance between usability and customer satisfaction can be challenging...
Help Desk is not there to make people happy, it's there to avoid wasting your company's money on trivial problems. It's not supposed to be *too* easy, or people will use it even when they're not supposed so.
But of course, striking the right balance between usability and customer satisfaction can be challenging...
...to the person experiencing it.
The IT help desk is there to ensure that all hardware, software, and infrastructure are working properly so company employees can do their job. The minute the employee can't do their job because of an IT problem, IT is costing the company money.
If your help desk considers any outage 'trivial', I'm glad I don't have to deal with it.
The IT help desk is there to ensure that all hardware, software, and infrastructure are working properly so company employees can do their job. The minute the employee can't do their job because of an IT problem, IT is costing the company money.
If your help desk considers any outage 'trivial', I'm glad I don't have to deal with it.
Triviality exists. Just ask yourself "how much money my company is likely to loose because of this problem" and you'll realize there *are* trivial problems.
And that's why most helpdesk departements are undermanned. Because it's the easiest solution to make sure you're not going to waste bucks on silly things.
And that's why most helpdesk departements are undermanned. Because it's the easiest solution to make sure you're not going to waste bucks on silly things.
I didn't say there were no trivial outages, I said no outage or problem is trivial to the person experiencing it.
As for the company 'wasting bucks' on silly things, waste is quite often determined by who's on the phone. I've had to waste time placating a division manager who couldn't log on when I should have been in the server room trying to find out why the log-in server was off-line.
As for the company 'wasting bucks' on silly things, waste is quite often determined by who's on the phone. I've had to waste time placating a division manager who couldn't log on when I should have been in the server room trying to find out why the log-in server was off-line.
"It's not supposed to be *too* easy, or people will use it even when they're not supposed so."
This attitude sums up everything that's wrong with IT departments. Outsourcing of your role can't happen fast enough.
This attitude sums up everything that's wrong with IT departments. Outsourcing of your role can't happen fast enough.
Sometimes new people don't understand what the help desk ticketing is used for.
For example, once we received a help desk ticket that said, "The soap dispenser in the men's room on the 2nd floor is often out of soap. It needs to be refilled more often. Can you do something about it?" After we had a bit of a chuckle in the department, we replied through the ticketing system that our help desk ticketing system is used for computer, peripherals and telephone related issues. We gave him the name of the manager of janitorial services and cc'ed the message to him so that he was made aware. When we heard back from the manager of janitorial services, we closed the ticket.
There's no harm in being polite.
That's what being helpful is all about.
For example, once we received a help desk ticket that said, "The soap dispenser in the men's room on the 2nd floor is often out of soap. It needs to be refilled more often. Can you do something about it?" After we had a bit of a chuckle in the department, we replied through the ticketing system that our help desk ticketing system is used for computer, peripherals and telephone related issues. We gave him the name of the manager of janitorial services and cc'ed the message to him so that he was made aware. When we heard back from the manager of janitorial services, we closed the ticket.
There's no harm in being polite.
That's what being helpful is all about.
Because outsourcing the helpdesk would cost more. And that's because I'm not focusing on making people happy, but on not wasting my company money.
Sometimes, you have to tell your users "I'm sorry, you can't do that". Sure, they'll bitch around like the OP because things did not went their way.
Life's hard.
Sometimes, you have to tell your users "I'm sorry, you can't do that". Sure, they'll bitch around like the OP because things did not went their way.
Life's hard.
And that's because I'm not focusing on making people happy, but on not wasting my company money.
Why can't you do both? They aren't mutually exclusive...
Why can't you do both? They aren't mutually exclusive...
I try
Finding the right balance between user satisfaction and manager satisfaction however is indeed tricky.
Actually I use a triage system borrowed from the Red Cross. Each request is (informally) assigned a color: white, green, yellow, red.
Red tickets are istantly taken care of. White tickets (about half of the requests) are only done in the spare time. If there's any...
Finding the right balance between user satisfaction and manager satisfaction however is indeed tricky.
Actually I use a triage system borrowed from the Red Cross. Each request is (informally) assigned a color: white, green, yellow, red.
Red tickets are istantly taken care of. White tickets (about half of the requests) are only done in the spare time. If there's any...
I work for a company in which we often say to the end user to please put in a work order. However, the end users that typically hear that are the ones that contact us on our cell or office phones or through email and expect to jump ahead of the line. The ones that actually call the help desk on a regular basis tend to get helped a lot faster when we get stopped in the hall and asked a question, or get asked to fix something. Our help-desk is manned by an exceptional lady that is very helpful and quickly answers the phone. We also have the ability to send an email for a work order. Either way the work order gets put in right away. If it is critical, one of us or several of us get a call or text about the issue. We, as techs, also have the ability to put the work orders in ourselves when the need arises. I do my best to treat all the users with respect and a diligence to fix their issues as quickly as possibly. I will move around a great deal during the day when things are slow, checking on my end users and seeing if they have any problems that weren't pressing so they just haven't taken the time to call them in. This has established a great repor between myself and the users. I don't mind at all being stopped and asked to fix something when that particular user does their best to follow the protocols and doesn't feel like they are more important than another user and should skip to the front of the line. We are the only ones that know what work orders are in the system and who has the most pressing problem.
Regarding the company with the lack of IE support. If they don't support IE I wouldn't use them either! There are a lot more IE users than any other group just because PC's come with it installed! For a company to specifically not support IE in favor of other browsers, it's ludacris and I can only sit here and shake my head!
Regarding the company with the lack of IE support. If they don't support IE I wouldn't use them either! There are a lot more IE users than any other group just because PC's come with it installed! For a company to specifically not support IE in favor of other browsers, it's ludacris and I can only sit here and shake my head!
But its the management team that shrinks their budget and decides where they spend their money. The problem is not IT, its management who do not understand technology, and who think magical kingdoms and music just happen without any investment.
Another part of the problem is that people these days seem to have grown too accustomed to the "I want it now!" culture, as you express in your writings. Well Mr. Gray, for whatever reasons the vendor had, they did not target your chosen browser. Get over it and move on. Buy somewhere else, or build it yourself. You rant is quite silly, implying they "serve" you. How ridiculous. Its a provider/customer "relationship". Try to understand that.
You're part of the problem Mr. Gray. When you refer to a subset of the professional organization as "geeks gone wild", not only are you demeaning those people, but you are justifying in your mind that its ok to do so because you thought it was popular slang for "those people". You alienate yourself.
You ignorance of technology funding in large organizations shows, as anyone who has ever spent any time whatsoever in corporate IT will tell you that, nearly without exception, funding decisions are not made by IT, and it is a constant point of friction within organizations. The whole lean/six sigma/agile mantras so beloved by penny pinching execs, is most often abused to extract continual pounds of flesh from IT, with the goal of inevitably rendering it ineffective enough to warrant an outsourcing initiative.
Unless and until the executive culture in U.S. companies changes sufficiently, we will continue to fall behind our international competitors who for some reason have learned the lessons of INVESTMENT far better than our current crop of so called "best and brightest".
The truly frightening aspect of this situation is that it is seemingly only getting worse these days. I hope you, and those like you, learn some lessons regarding self reflection, and soon.
Another part of the problem is that people these days seem to have grown too accustomed to the "I want it now!" culture, as you express in your writings. Well Mr. Gray, for whatever reasons the vendor had, they did not target your chosen browser. Get over it and move on. Buy somewhere else, or build it yourself. You rant is quite silly, implying they "serve" you. How ridiculous. Its a provider/customer "relationship". Try to understand that.
You're part of the problem Mr. Gray. When you refer to a subset of the professional organization as "geeks gone wild", not only are you demeaning those people, but you are justifying in your mind that its ok to do so because you thought it was popular slang for "those people". You alienate yourself.
You ignorance of technology funding in large organizations shows, as anyone who has ever spent any time whatsoever in corporate IT will tell you that, nearly without exception, funding decisions are not made by IT, and it is a constant point of friction within organizations. The whole lean/six sigma/agile mantras so beloved by penny pinching execs, is most often abused to extract continual pounds of flesh from IT, with the goal of inevitably rendering it ineffective enough to warrant an outsourcing initiative.
Unless and until the executive culture in U.S. companies changes sufficiently, we will continue to fall behind our international competitors who for some reason have learned the lessons of INVESTMENT far better than our current crop of so called "best and brightest".
The truly frightening aspect of this situation is that it is seemingly only getting worse these days. I hope you, and those like you, learn some lessons regarding self reflection, and soon.
is the Imagineers. Disney is a rare bird in that they over-engineer everything they do so that they are prepared for just about everything. Most businesses (including mine) don't include IT in the strategic planning process, hand us projects with poorly defined deliverables, and then wonder why it takes us 14 tries to finally arrive at what they want.
If there is a failure with IT, you'd better look hard at who is ACTUALLY calling the shots. 99 times out of 100 where you have some problem with IT its not IT's fault.
If there is a failure with IT, you'd better look hard at who is ACTUALLY calling the shots. 99 times out of 100 where you have some problem with IT its not IT's fault.
...but some things are the responsibility of the people who do the job, like professionalism and keeping up their knowledge.
My wife's company, a large company with 5000+ employees, has an IT team labeled "The Helpless Desk" due to their inability to actually solve problems. My wife's computer had a loose video card that slowly worked it's way loose, causing sporadic hangs and blue screens and ironically cursor distortion. Do you want to know what they replaced first? The monitor cables. Yup, the monitor cables had to be causing BSODs and Hangs. Sweet Merlin where do they find these people? Finally after them closing multiple tickets with no resolution she had me come in on a weekend and in 5 minutes I had reseated the card and it worked fine afterwards.
Yes, this can be blamed on management as well due to budgetary constraints, but these people are highly paid and it's disappointing to see such lack of performance out of people who are well compensated for their positions.
My wife's company, a large company with 5000+ employees, has an IT team labeled "The Helpless Desk" due to their inability to actually solve problems. My wife's computer had a loose video card that slowly worked it's way loose, causing sporadic hangs and blue screens and ironically cursor distortion. Do you want to know what they replaced first? The monitor cables. Yup, the monitor cables had to be causing BSODs and Hangs. Sweet Merlin where do they find these people? Finally after them closing multiple tickets with no resolution she had me come in on a weekend and in 5 minutes I had reseated the card and it worked fine afterwards.
Yes, this can be blamed on management as well due to budgetary constraints, but these people are highly paid and it's disappointing to see such lack of performance out of people who are well compensated for their positions.
My experience has been, for better or for worse, PC techs in companies quite often are not highly paid, and, in fact, are often part time high-school kids.
I'll take your word for it, but keep that in mind. I'd also be interested in how many techs this company has servicing 5000 users. I've been in a tech per 1000 machines environment, and I can tell you, the users did not feel like they were getting their due.
Oddly enough, I started my own business and offered small businesses as much time as they wanted to buy, and found out just how little people value technical work.
It is very bizarre. People just expect some person somewhere to be Johnny-on-the-spot the moment things don't go perfectly, but they don't think they should have to pay for it.
With all due respect to Patrick, if companies want to get it right, they can. They don't want to. They don't want to pay for QUALITY IT because they think IT is a disposable commodity. Unfortunately for the workers, it mostly is.
I'll take your word for it, but keep that in mind. I'd also be interested in how many techs this company has servicing 5000 users. I've been in a tech per 1000 machines environment, and I can tell you, the users did not feel like they were getting their due.
Oddly enough, I started my own business and offered small businesses as much time as they wanted to buy, and found out just how little people value technical work.
It is very bizarre. People just expect some person somewhere to be Johnny-on-the-spot the moment things don't go perfectly, but they don't think they should have to pay for it.
With all due respect to Patrick, if companies want to get it right, they can. They don't want to. They don't want to pay for QUALITY IT because they think IT is a disposable commodity. Unfortunately for the workers, it mostly is.
Not where I'm at. Help desk hires around here start at around $12-$13/hour. If you're lucky.
just what i was thinking. this text could make some head's roll... i think TR should make this answer an article.
InterKnot Exploiter is not supported because it is not uncommon for it to fail to render a site as you expect. Hence it's not uncommon to require 'hacks' in the code to encourage MS IE to render the site as you desire it appear, and indeed it will appear when opened via Opera, FireFox, Safari, and Chrome.
Rgarding the ticket fiasco, innit the truth? Sadly IT lacks the willingness (?) to have a real person triage calls so an emergency is handled immediately while a non-emergency requires a ticket.
Rgarding the ticket fiasco, innit the truth? Sadly IT lacks the willingness (?) to have a real person triage calls so an emergency is handled immediately while a non-emergency requires a ticket.
but lack the funding. When the bean-counters start cutting back so they can keep their bonuses, help desk is number 2 on the list, right behind employee training.
Whatever company you are talking about that doesn't support IE is just stupid and you shouldn't use them. Personally I suggest that everyone move away from IE, but as a web developer I'd be an idiot if I didn't support it on my websites. It's 50 plus percent of web browser usage. Mainly because the average person doesn't know that there's something better out there. Until more people become aware of the alternatives or IE finally gets their act together (yes they are getting better) then any company who doesn't design for IE is potentially setting themselves up to be wiped off the map by their competitors.
As for your issues with the help desk, I'm truly sorry. Most IT departments are under staffed and have little to no budget. A lot of us are single person IT departments and if we immediately helped everyone when they asked we'd never accomplish anything because we'd be moving to a new project before we finished the last one. Walk a mile in my shoes and see if you're still standing.
As for your issues with the help desk, I'm truly sorry. Most IT departments are under staffed and have little to no budget. A lot of us are single person IT departments and if we immediately helped everyone when they asked we'd never accomplish anything because we'd be moving to a new project before we finished the last one. Walk a mile in my shoes and see if you're still standing.
As a web developer I won't dumb down my site to support IE. Sure you can use it with IE but don't expect the full experience. I'm not going to build a monstrosity because a few people refuse to use a modern standards based browser.
I have been in the software engineering business for over twenty years and I have run into a large number of IT "geeks" I would not want on the helpdesk. I have also run into a large number that handle customer service well also. You seem to be in the first group.
The customer doesn't care how you feel about it. They will just walk away and use your competitors. There are more than a few people using IE. In fact, there are enough out there to seriously hurt your bottomline. Your opinion doesn't factor into it. Whether you can sustain business by alienating customers matters infinitely more.
The customer doesn't care how you feel about it. They will just walk away and use your competitors. There are more than a few people using IE. In fact, there are enough out there to seriously hurt your bottomline. Your opinion doesn't factor into it. Whether you can sustain business by alienating customers matters infinitely more.
Let's see...
You can start by refering to us as "geeks gone wild".
The majority of us do not like to be refered to as "geeks".
Treating us with respect will go a long way.
You can start by refering to us as "geeks gone wild".
The majority of us do not like to be refered to as "geeks".
Treating us with respect will go a long way.
Your predicament in which a provider requires a browser other than IE sounds like bad planning. Why anyone would require you to use something other than the most popular browser will come back to bite them.
As for the Help Desk Ticketing situation:
I think you understand why a ticketing system exists so I won't belabor the point. What I will say is that the Help Desk Department can and should make help desk requests easy for the user by enabling several ways to reach the Help Desk.
Our users can enter the ticket directly, email a narrative to the help desk email account, vist the department, email, call, or bump into any one of our IT staff who will help them and log the ticket into the help desk system for them., If no one picks up their phone in the help desk hotline hunt group, their voicemail is automatically entered into the help desk system as a wav file attachment. We have a written triage policy that lets the user know how soon someone will get in touch with them and how soon the problem should take to resolve. My staff will visit the user to resolve their problems rather than do "walk throughs" over the phone. It's not because we don't have tools to fix issues remotely. It is because making my staff to be visible makes the user feel appreciated.
We don't have a pretty boat to transport people to the Help Desk Department but that's only because senior management removed it from the IT budget.
As for the Help Desk Ticketing situation:
I think you understand why a ticketing system exists so I won't belabor the point. What I will say is that the Help Desk Department can and should make help desk requests easy for the user by enabling several ways to reach the Help Desk.
Our users can enter the ticket directly, email a narrative to the help desk email account, vist the department, email, call, or bump into any one of our IT staff who will help them and log the ticket into the help desk system for them., If no one picks up their phone in the help desk hotline hunt group, their voicemail is automatically entered into the help desk system as a wav file attachment. We have a written triage policy that lets the user know how soon someone will get in touch with them and how soon the problem should take to resolve. My staff will visit the user to resolve their problems rather than do "walk throughs" over the phone. It's not because we don't have tools to fix issues remotely. It is because making my staff to be visible makes the user feel appreciated.
We don't have a pretty boat to transport people to the Help Desk Department but that's only because senior management removed it from the IT budget.
Point taken but IE is no longer has the market share. Chrome will eclipse IE as the dominant browser shortly. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_web_browsers
Does that mean that you wouldn't support IE because it only has 40% - 50% market share?
That's what seemed to happen to RIM... And TV networks cancel shows because they ONLY get 2x the viewers that other shows have gotten, but failed to grab the majority of viewers from their direct competitor.
People just don't seem to see the big picture, just what's in front of them...
People just don't seem to see the big picture, just what's in front of them...
I'm not going to spend days hacking together kludges for IE. People using IE are holding back web development and foisting inferior experiences on everybody else. If a lot of websites didn't work with IE then it would get deprecated very quickly and we could move on.
despite what Microsoft have brainwashed us into believing.
IE is bloatware and crapware, trying to support all the bad decisions Microsoft have made over the past 15 years and has several rendering modes and proprietory selection wich does not work properly before IE9.
On top of this IE 9 does not work on XP. The latest versions of all the "real" browsers work on XP.
IE is bloatware and crapware, trying to support all the bad decisions Microsoft have made over the past 15 years and has several rendering modes and proprietory selection wich does not work properly before IE9.
On top of this IE 9 does not work on XP. The latest versions of all the "real" browsers work on XP.
you would ignore it. That's a solid business plan.
There were countless broken sites out there that only worked properly with IE which nobody seems to have a problem with. I like seeing the tables turned.
Developing for IE rewards and encourages their refusal to support standards:
Developers make sites for IE because it was the most popular. Those sites don't work with other browsers because IE doesn't conform to standards. More users are forced to use IE.
Developing for IE rewards and encourages their refusal to support standards:
Developers make sites for IE because it was the most popular. Those sites don't work with other browsers because IE doesn't conform to standards. More users are forced to use IE.
I copied and pasted "Like the majority of the world???s web browsing public?" into the subject line and got a message that "The subject contains invalid characters." They all look like valid characters. My bad... your database layer does not know to scrub data.
You can blame management all you want, but the fact remains that us technical people have not done a good job of managing expectations, we have not done a good job educating the non-techies, and we (as a broad group, there are many exceptions) have not built an image of ourselves as being a credible resource. Yes, I love being a techie, I hate working with people, but the fact remains that people use our tech and if we want to be successful in this business we need to learn how to work with people. If we as techs have not built a good relationship with our customers then we can build the most incredible and useful systems for ourselves, but the broader group of peeps who have the ability to pay us for our work will never use those systems because we have not given them a reason to.
Take some responsibility and sell your product in human terms, build relationships, and you will be a winner. Complain because not everyone is a geek or they are too old fashioned to get with the program, and you are a whiner.
And, if you are a customer and not getting what you want, then complain to management or vote with your feet. One way or another the message will get out. Patrick, You did not name the web host that doesn't support IE for your own reasons, but if we cannot support you with our voices then I hope that you let the hosting company know that they lost a sale and why. I'm very much in favor of positive reinforcement (I try to keep my mouth shut when I don't have something good to say), but sometimes you've got to lay it on the line.
Take some responsibility and sell your product in human terms, build relationships, and you will be a winner. Complain because not everyone is a geek or they are too old fashioned to get with the program, and you are a whiner.
And, if you are a customer and not getting what you want, then complain to management or vote with your feet. One way or another the message will get out. Patrick, You did not name the web host that doesn't support IE for your own reasons, but if we cannot support you with our voices then I hope that you let the hosting company know that they lost a sale and why. I'm very much in favor of positive reinforcement (I try to keep my mouth shut when I don't have something good to say), but sometimes you've got to lay it on the line.
Expectations are set before anyone even vaguely technical gets near the problem.
The fact that some of these non-technical people are on IT's books simply blurs the issue.
I love working with people and being a tech. I got taught along time ago that a major component of any IT system is people. So you seem to be in the wrong career as far as I can see.
The fact that some of these non-technical people are on IT's books simply blurs the issue.
I love working with people and being a tech. I got taught along time ago that a major component of any IT system is people. So you seem to be in the wrong career as far as I can see.
I've been a Tech-Network Admin-Systems Admin for going on 20 years now. Yes, some 'customers' are challenging, if life was easy it would be boring.
I may have not made myself very clear. I could work by myself in a cave and never talk to anyone and I would be happy, at least for a while. I am not talented at working with people, but I have had to teach myself to become a teacher and teach myself how to communicate more effectively with people. Working with computers is much easier than working with people (for me), but to work effectively with the systems I have had to learn how to work effectively with the people that use them.
I have deliberately made the choice to not step into management, but I am a trusted advisor on technical issues for management, and I had to earn that trust. Not easy. And every time there is a change in the management I have to start earning trust all over again. There are ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Yup, sometimes management asks for the impossible. I will present to them (gently, with documentation) why it is not possible with the understanding that I will do my best to attain the impossible, and I then make the process as absolutely transparent as possible so that they may possibly learn. Some do, some don't. But I usually have more patience than the one's that don't learn.
I may have not made myself very clear. I could work by myself in a cave and never talk to anyone and I would be happy, at least for a while. I am not talented at working with people, but I have had to teach myself to become a teacher and teach myself how to communicate more effectively with people. Working with computers is much easier than working with people (for me), but to work effectively with the systems I have had to learn how to work effectively with the people that use them.
I have deliberately made the choice to not step into management, but I am a trusted advisor on technical issues for management, and I had to earn that trust. Not easy. And every time there is a change in the management I have to start earning trust all over again. There are ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
Yup, sometimes management asks for the impossible. I will present to them (gently, with documentation) why it is not possible with the understanding that I will do my best to attain the impossible, and I then make the process as absolutely transparent as possible so that they may possibly learn. Some do, some don't. But I usually have more patience than the one's that don't learn.
For some reason I never made the conceptual leap that management skills = people skills.
Apparently having manager in your job title automatically confers them, so I was told. I've toyed with the idea a few times, but I'm a born tech. Might as well let get the less gifted get promoted out of my face, so I can get on with the job. Besides some have intimated, that I have some them and us issues, not to mention having an unfortunate habit of telling it like it is, in ways that don't salvage their fragile egos...
Apparently having manager in your job title automatically confers them, so I was told. I've toyed with the idea a few times, but I'm a born tech. Might as well let get the less gifted get promoted out of my face, so I can get on with the job. Besides some have intimated, that I have some them and us issues, not to mention having an unfortunate habit of telling it like it is, in ways that don't salvage their fragile egos...
The IT staff know it, the clients know it and management definately knows it. But the helpdesk is an easy "answer" to "track" work being done. Whether it works or not is irrelevant to management. Anything that is not simple, seamless and actually works only handcuffs the IT staff that WANT to support users and bogs down the support process. "Put in a ticket" The white flag of IT!!!
It's always easy to beat up on IT. Organizations have been doing it since the decision was made to get involved in servers, networking or anything else in that domain. The big hurdle is that at every level the organization views IT as a cost center, not an investment. Comparing that to some ridiculous cruise to Disney is short sighted and irrelevant. At the end of the day all things IT tend to be rather costly. Due in whole or part to the stigma of being a cost center already, IT is always forced to make do on a shoe string budget or worse, to cut corners which leads to many of the things pointed out in the article.
Once leadership accepts IT as an investment in the growth and viability of the organization long term things can start to change. An effort to properly manage expectation and culture with internal marketing has to be done in order to really make a difference.
Once leadership accepts IT as an investment in the growth and viability of the organization long term things can start to change. An effort to properly manage expectation and culture with internal marketing has to be done in order to really make a difference.
IT is like gasoline for the delivery trucks or janitorial service or phones. You have to have it but it's not a profit center and you want to spend as little as possible on it.
My current company is the first place I've been that actually gets the help desk experience right. They keep it really simple. We use a chat application to simply note our problem to a monitored channel. A member of the support team may ask a few simple questions to further diagnose the issue, and then enters the ticket. The ticket number is later emailed to the requestor so that they can keep track of it. Does that mean that some unnecessary items get communicated to our help desk? Sure. But you know what? People look at that team as being a partner--not a hurdle to get over just to get some assistance.
Simple. Efficient. Brilliant.
Simple. Efficient. Brilliant.
I agree with the sentiment of this article, often the decision makers are divorced from the practical environment and make decisions that do more harm than good.
Honestly though, I dropped IE sometime in the 90s, since it is prone to bugs, and open to a host of security issues.
As well as having to occasionally log faults through helpdesk, I also work in helpdesk, and as much as some policies make things difficult, I think there needs to be some level of education of regular users, since some people have utterly unreasonable expectations of how services should behave.
Honestly though, I dropped IE sometime in the 90s, since it is prone to bugs, and open to a host of security issues.
As well as having to occasionally log faults through helpdesk, I also work in helpdesk, and as much as some policies make things difficult, I think there needs to be some level of education of regular users, since some people have utterly unreasonable expectations of how services should behave.
...and I get similarly annoyed by having to keep a copy of IE lying around simply to deal with the dumb websites which don't support anything else!
IT support in our company was transformed when the IT team opened a "drop-in" room which is open during all office hours. Deals with a huge percentage of IT issues (let's face it, most of them are trivial) quickly, cheaply, easily and face-to-face.
IT support in our company was transformed when the IT team opened a "drop-in" room which is open during all office hours. Deals with a huge percentage of IT issues (let's face it, most of them are trivial) quickly, cheaply, easily and face-to-face.
The Help Desk serves as a gatekeeper, fixing easy requests before they get into the system, rejecting inappropriate requests, and prioritizing the ones that need to be handed off. Still, as one of the guys to whom work is handed, I'm constantly confronted with workers furious the gate isn't narrower and customers just as mad there's a gate at all.
This article suggests painting the gate in Disney colors and handing out cookies, but I really am curious what's worked for people. My guess is, "not much."
This article suggests painting the gate in Disney colors and handing out cookies, but I really am curious what's worked for people. My guess is, "not much."
I think Patrick's article was addressing a different point entirely but these comments have branched off into the old 'Management vs. The IT Department' debate.
Firstly, I agree with Patrick that IT need to present a pleasant experience to its users. Not just initially but throughout the whole process. So many of us in IT think we own the department and things should run the way we want them to that we forget we are a service department. Yes, the business may crumble without IT, but without the business there would be no IT. Tech staff really need to understand this rather than continue to blow the old "management doesn't give us what we need' trumpet.
And in regards to management not giving IT what it needs, I used to feel exactly the same as bjk. It was a very frustrating time in my career and I was sick of the lack of respect IT received from stakeholders. But I have now realised it's all about perception and shifting things into a cost perspective because that's really what these people care about. If systems are failing and IT are having to do all sorts of fancy things to keep it running because management wont approve expenditure, then in their opinion, that's what the IT department is for. They don't give a rats a$$ about how much work we have to do. All that matters is the bottom line. IT staff need to think on the same wavelength. How will it save the company money? And freeing up IT staff to do other things is not the answer. They want answers that means something to them not to us. Think about it.
Firstly, I agree with Patrick that IT need to present a pleasant experience to its users. Not just initially but throughout the whole process. So many of us in IT think we own the department and things should run the way we want them to that we forget we are a service department. Yes, the business may crumble without IT, but without the business there would be no IT. Tech staff really need to understand this rather than continue to blow the old "management doesn't give us what we need' trumpet.
And in regards to management not giving IT what it needs, I used to feel exactly the same as bjk. It was a very frustrating time in my career and I was sick of the lack of respect IT received from stakeholders. But I have now realised it's all about perception and shifting things into a cost perspective because that's really what these people care about. If systems are failing and IT are having to do all sorts of fancy things to keep it running because management wont approve expenditure, then in their opinion, that's what the IT department is for. They don't give a rats a$$ about how much work we have to do. All that matters is the bottom line. IT staff need to think on the same wavelength. How will it save the company money? And freeing up IT staff to do other things is not the answer. They want answers that means something to them not to us. Think about it.
One of the problems with the way IT is usually structured is that the first time a customer sees a technician is when something is broken; and if the customer associates the technician with broken things then this is not a good customer experience.
I worked as a field service technician in the data processing market years ago. The company had us do regular preventive maintenance which was more like public relations in that the customer got to see their technical support during a non critical onsite visit. This level of service is expensive and no longer expected.
I worked as a field service technician in the data processing market years ago. The company had us do regular preventive maintenance which was more like public relations in that the customer got to see their technical support during a non critical onsite visit. This level of service is expensive and no longer expected.
By the customer.
Getting IT management to hire enough people to make it possible is another thing entirely...
Getting IT management to hire enough people to make it possible is another thing entirely...
In an ideal world you would always "present a pleasant experience to its users. Not just initially but throughout the whole process". Who could argue with that? However my point is that providing that experience requires investment. You do not get there from here without investment. Absent investment, you do not get that experience. I think that's pretty clear.
I agree with you that, for better or worse, perception rules the world. Shifting perspective requires the ability to partner with business folks who listen to IT just as much as it is required that IT listen to business. That is often not an option. You overlook willingness as a prerequisite to collaboration, assuming that willingness exists when, in my experience, it often does not. Stamping one's feet and jumping up and down screaming "I want! I want!" does not suddenly make resources available to get it done.
Due to a knowledge deficit, fear, doubt, or whatever excuse you care to make, the bottom-line is that progress will not be made without collaboration, and collaboration is difficult to arrange.
If it truly is all about costs, then you would be right about IT getting on the cost reduction wavelength. Unfortunately, that's not what its all about, so you're wrong.
If you come to an IT department seeking a new shiny tool in order to support growth, and want them to execute, you need to support their ability to deliver through resources and cap-ex (e.g. Investment).
If you think they can deliver the new shiny without investment while they are already severely hamstrung simply serving the support role (which is where many organizations exist today in their thinking), then expect failure.
Its a two way street, and always has been. Shifting responsibility from one stakeholder to another is a fruitless endeavor.
"And freeing up IT staff to do other things is not the answer. They want answers that means something to them not to us.". Empathy is required in any equation where results are desired. How do you deliver results without resources to execute? Please explain your thought process. I'm all ears.
I agree with you that, for better or worse, perception rules the world. Shifting perspective requires the ability to partner with business folks who listen to IT just as much as it is required that IT listen to business. That is often not an option. You overlook willingness as a prerequisite to collaboration, assuming that willingness exists when, in my experience, it often does not. Stamping one's feet and jumping up and down screaming "I want! I want!" does not suddenly make resources available to get it done.
Due to a knowledge deficit, fear, doubt, or whatever excuse you care to make, the bottom-line is that progress will not be made without collaboration, and collaboration is difficult to arrange.
If it truly is all about costs, then you would be right about IT getting on the cost reduction wavelength. Unfortunately, that's not what its all about, so you're wrong.
If you come to an IT department seeking a new shiny tool in order to support growth, and want them to execute, you need to support their ability to deliver through resources and cap-ex (e.g. Investment).
If you think they can deliver the new shiny without investment while they are already severely hamstrung simply serving the support role (which is where many organizations exist today in their thinking), then expect failure.
Its a two way street, and always has been. Shifting responsibility from one stakeholder to another is a fruitless endeavor.
"And freeing up IT staff to do other things is not the answer. They want answers that means something to them not to us.". Empathy is required in any equation where results are desired. How do you deliver results without resources to execute? Please explain your thought process. I'm all ears.
Good response bjk. I completely agree with you that it needs to be a two sided affair and this is seldom the case. I guess what I'm trying to say is this is the way things work and I don't see it changing. We either need to accept, adapt and move on, or we will continue to be unhappy and look for other jobs or whatever, only to go through the same thing again (not always, I'm sure there are plenty of employers out there who do 'get it' but I'm referring to the norm). The way to adapt is always present things in terms of cost benefit or ROI.
I don't disagree with you that resources are required to deliver results but it needs to be presented properly. If you are expecting empathy, then I think you'll be waiting a very long time. Think about services we use for personal things. Honestly, how often do we as individuals empathise with service departments/companies? If my internet drops out at home, I really don't care what reasons they give me, I just want it fixed and I don't want to have to spend more money on it. Stakeholders approach us in the same way.
I know this topic could go on forever with arguments back and forth. Believe me, I know what it's like and am in the same boat. But I've found my success rate has vastly improved after I started showing how investments actually save money as opposed to costing.
I don't disagree with you that resources are required to deliver results but it needs to be presented properly. If you are expecting empathy, then I think you'll be waiting a very long time. Think about services we use for personal things. Honestly, how often do we as individuals empathise with service departments/companies? If my internet drops out at home, I really don't care what reasons they give me, I just want it fixed and I don't want to have to spend more money on it. Stakeholders approach us in the same way.
I know this topic could go on forever with arguments back and forth. Believe me, I know what it's like and am in the same boat. But I've found my success rate has vastly improved after I started showing how investments actually save money as opposed to costing.
But I've noticed this. The people who want to get it do. There aren't many of those. I remember very well one user right after another blindsiding me with issues, and non-issues, and deliberately circumventing the channels. I did NOT come up with these channels either. They were created by people over me. When I tried to play by the rules, some of these users said I wasn't "helpful" simply because they didn't get to go to the head of the line just because they wanted to.
It boils down to the perception people have of technical work. Another poster already made the reference to the , "Just push some buttons and it's done" notion. But it also is the whole, "I want my thing now, and I don't want to pay for it." thing that is prevalent in both individuals, and management. Geeks have, in the past, just worked 16 hour days to make it happen because they like to solve problems, and they felt like they had to.
Some very wise young people are learning to find another way to make a living these days.
It boils down to the perception people have of technical work. Another poster already made the reference to the , "Just push some buttons and it's done" notion. But it also is the whole, "I want my thing now, and I don't want to pay for it." thing that is prevalent in both individuals, and management. Geeks have, in the past, just worked 16 hour days to make it happen because they like to solve problems, and they felt like they had to.
Some very wise young people are learning to find another way to make a living these days.
for how much work we have to do.
When they have to pay for it.....
In order to save money in IT, you have to invest.
As IT changes all the time, or more correctly what people expect from it changes all the time, investment has to be a constant as well.
Shifting perceptions is a valid point. But
So if you rang me up for support and I said.
RTFM you muppet, you'd be upset.
If I told you where the manual was, how to use it, talked you through your current issue, you'd be upset.
After all the manual cost money to write an deploy and was meant to cut support calls....
Basically waht you want as a manager and as a customer of support are contradictory. When you worked in IT (as oposed to managed ) it was the contradictions that made you upset.
When they have to pay for it.....
In order to save money in IT, you have to invest.
As IT changes all the time, or more correctly what people expect from it changes all the time, investment has to be a constant as well.
Shifting perceptions is a valid point. But
So if you rang me up for support and I said.
RTFM you muppet, you'd be upset.
If I told you where the manual was, how to use it, talked you through your current issue, you'd be upset.
After all the manual cost money to write an deploy and was meant to cut support calls....
Basically waht you want as a manager and as a customer of support are contradictory. When you worked in IT (as oposed to managed
) it was the contradictions that made you upset. 
C'mon, this is the twentyfirst century fer chrissakes! There HAS to be more effective ways of alienating the people we serve than this!!! 
I expected more from this article, at least give me 10 ways to most efficiently alienate the users!
I expected more from this article, at least give me 10 ways to most efficiently alienate the users!
10. Make up new words. Mix and combine with as much technical jargon as possible. Most people will not admit they don't understand you.
"The configuration on the fluxtransformer database must be corrupted. This is going to take awhile to fix."
9. Tell them their hardware or software are unsupported.
"Your computer is brand new? We don't support that yet. Your computer is 1 year old? We don't support outdated hardware. You plugged in a mouse that we didn't officially sanction. Not supported!"
8. Bureaucracy. Make sure no one knows who is responsible for anything and no one is allowed to fix anything that they're not responsible for. If users start to catch on, change it up. If properly implemented you can pass problems around for weeks without anyone trying to fix them.
"Your printer isn't working? Sorry that's not my area anymore, try talking to Bob."
7. Tell them to get a mac. Continually remind everyone that if they were using macs like you they wouldn't have these problems. Never ever address the fact that this wouldn't work in your business environment.
6. Hide. Don't let anyone see you. Let all calls go to voicemail. Don't let anyone know what you're working on. Take as long as possible to respond to tickets or email. Do everything you can to make people to question weather you actually exist at all.
5. Use band aid solutions. Fix problems as quickly and crudely as possible without addressing the underlying problem or cause. Never address any problem that wasn't explicitly pointed out to you and documented in an email or ticket.
Restart the computer, if it works, run.
4. Deny access to everything but don't take over responsibility for those functions. Don't just block executables, block mp3s, wavs, jpegs, pdfs. Disable access to local HDDs then impose tight quotas on network shares.
"You need your critical server restarted? Fill out form 212-A and we'll look at it next week. Want to change your desktop background or screen saver? Access denied!"
3. Deny the problem actually exists. If there is no problem, no one can expect you to fix it. Arbitrarily close unresolved tickets. Tell everyone it worked fine with you. Open programs and close them immediately. If you don't encounter an error you can assume that it is fully functional.
2. Blame the user. Always assume the user did something wrong and then tell them how they broke it. If you can't find a real reason, make one up.
"You didn't try to work remotely from home did you? The host of viruii on your home PC have no doubt infiltrated our network and caused all these problems."
1. Alienate yourself, literally. Green face paint, red hair dye, a mohawk and a toy phaser will make people seriously doubt that you can help them. Alternatively, tattoos, piercings and leather could also do the job.
"The configuration on the fluxtransformer database must be corrupted. This is going to take awhile to fix."
9. Tell them their hardware or software are unsupported.
"Your computer is brand new? We don't support that yet. Your computer is 1 year old? We don't support outdated hardware. You plugged in a mouse that we didn't officially sanction. Not supported!"
8. Bureaucracy. Make sure no one knows who is responsible for anything and no one is allowed to fix anything that they're not responsible for. If users start to catch on, change it up. If properly implemented you can pass problems around for weeks without anyone trying to fix them.
"Your printer isn't working? Sorry that's not my area anymore, try talking to Bob."
7. Tell them to get a mac. Continually remind everyone that if they were using macs like you they wouldn't have these problems. Never ever address the fact that this wouldn't work in your business environment.
6. Hide. Don't let anyone see you. Let all calls go to voicemail. Don't let anyone know what you're working on. Take as long as possible to respond to tickets or email. Do everything you can to make people to question weather you actually exist at all.
5. Use band aid solutions. Fix problems as quickly and crudely as possible without addressing the underlying problem or cause. Never address any problem that wasn't explicitly pointed out to you and documented in an email or ticket.
Restart the computer, if it works, run.
4. Deny access to everything but don't take over responsibility for those functions. Don't just block executables, block mp3s, wavs, jpegs, pdfs. Disable access to local HDDs then impose tight quotas on network shares.
"You need your critical server restarted? Fill out form 212-A and we'll look at it next week. Want to change your desktop background or screen saver? Access denied!"
3. Deny the problem actually exists. If there is no problem, no one can expect you to fix it. Arbitrarily close unresolved tickets. Tell everyone it worked fine with you. Open programs and close them immediately. If you don't encounter an error you can assume that it is fully functional.
2. Blame the user. Always assume the user did something wrong and then tell them how they broke it. If you can't find a real reason, make one up.
"You didn't try to work remotely from home did you? The host of viruii on your home PC have no doubt infiltrated our network and caused all these problems."
1. Alienate yourself, literally. Green face paint, red hair dye, a mohawk and a toy phaser will make people seriously doubt that you can help them. Alternatively, tattoos, piercings and leather could also do the job.
Most IT people would love to give customers superlative service but they are NOT given the money to do so.
Long wait times for help desk. Hire more staff. No, staff cost more money.
Stuck in voice menu hell. Train all help desk staff to be knowledgeable in most technologies so that call can go directly to a person. No, training costs more money.
Web site works only on one Web Browser. Build web site that works on most Web Browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari). No, re-developing web site for multiple Web Browsers costs more money.
PS. I have the latest version of 3 Web Browsers on my desktop.
What can people do? The next time your organization talks about budgets, stand up and say "The IT budget should be increased this year so that IT can provide better service."
Long wait times for help desk. Hire more staff. No, staff cost more money.
Stuck in voice menu hell. Train all help desk staff to be knowledgeable in most technologies so that call can go directly to a person. No, training costs more money.
Web site works only on one Web Browser. Build web site that works on most Web Browsers (IE, Firefox, Chrome, Safari). No, re-developing web site for multiple Web Browsers costs more money.
PS. I have the latest version of 3 Web Browsers on my desktop.
What can people do? The next time your organization talks about budgets, stand up and say "The IT budget should be increased this year so that IT can provide better service."
I have been listening to this crap for 30 years now about how IT is sooooo unappreciated and mis understood.
If you went to your doctor and he or she babbled at you in medical lingo you would think their bedside manner needed some work.
IT people have never thought of creating a bedside manner for their own dicipline and seem to go out of their way to alienate their customers.
My conclusion is that they secretly enjoy playing the geek role as it elevates them above everyone else. At least in their own mind.
Take a pill
If you went to your doctor and he or she babbled at you in medical lingo you would think their bedside manner needed some work.
IT people have never thought of creating a bedside manner for their own dicipline and seem to go out of their way to alienate their customers.
My conclusion is that they secretly enjoy playing the geek role as it elevates them above everyone else. At least in their own mind.
Take a pill
Your average help desk tech doesn't come close to making what your average Doctor makes.
Newsflash all....you get what you pay for.
I'll treat you like kings...but I don't even look at an issue until my minimum fee of $300 per issue or project is deposited. The griping I used to hear about bedside manner is not there any more. Now I hear, "Too expensive."
So how much do you value good service? Or do you think you're entitled to it just because?
Newsflash all....you get what you pay for.
I'll treat you like kings...but I don't even look at an issue until my minimum fee of $300 per issue or project is deposited. The griping I used to hear about bedside manner is not there any more. Now I hear, "Too expensive."
So how much do you value good service? Or do you think you're entitled to it just because?
My Help Desk Staff is great. They don't talk down to the users. They listen. They truly want to help.
You will find bad apples in every profession.
You will also find many good ones.
The trick is culling out the bad ones and keeping the good ones.
You will find bad apples in every profession.
You will also find many good ones.
The trick is culling out the bad ones and keeping the good ones.
I blame poor management. Their desire for 'results right now' without 'wasting' any time trying to think of answers to all of my 'impertinent' questions results in lousy IT services for the organization. The times I have built good systems that help the organization are when the managers involved wanted a real solution and were willing to work with me.
Currently, the layer above us in the organization wants us to put our helpdesk onto their ticket-oriented helpdesk so as to count number of calls and time per call. I got the users and their managers to fight for me against this idiotic idea. (They've delayed it for years now).
Our customers don't care about number of calls; they want a system that works and they have one now because our helpdesk is staffed by our developers so everyone has a vested interest in fixing problems.
Analysis demonstrates that a helpdesk for software that is supposed to be getting fixed/upgraded over time should result in fewer calls that take an astronomically longer time to solve. That's where we're at now. Changing the measurement of our 'success' (but only as far as the helpdesk is concerned) to number of calls would result in an overall decrease in usefulness of the system.
But no one in that layer of management wants to even discuss it.
That's the supposed 'IT Problem.'
Currently, the layer above us in the organization wants us to put our helpdesk onto their ticket-oriented helpdesk so as to count number of calls and time per call. I got the users and their managers to fight for me against this idiotic idea. (They've delayed it for years now).
Our customers don't care about number of calls; they want a system that works and they have one now because our helpdesk is staffed by our developers so everyone has a vested interest in fixing problems.
Analysis demonstrates that a helpdesk for software that is supposed to be getting fixed/upgraded over time should result in fewer calls that take an astronomically longer time to solve. That's where we're at now. Changing the measurement of our 'success' (but only as far as the helpdesk is concerned) to number of calls would result in an overall decrease in usefulness of the system.
But no one in that layer of management wants to even discuss it.
That's the supposed 'IT Problem.'
Well sort of.
At the behest of the business, in order to cut the cost of providing support (needed or not by whomever).
There's only so much milk in the cow, no matter how efficient we get the business wants more. So they bring in the business heads to manage IT, and they go for easy option one, lets cust costs. One way to cut support costs, is to not do it....
Your bed, lie down, stop whining.
The adversarial relationship is endemic to business, and in fact you often come across as one it's main proponents.
While you treat IT as seperate to the business, there will always be a disconnect. Adding in the existing disconnect between employees / customers and the business, as IT's fault is a mighty stretch even for your good self.
At the behest of the business, in order to cut the cost of providing support (needed or not by whomever).
There's only so much milk in the cow, no matter how efficient we get the business wants more. So they bring in the business heads to manage IT, and they go for easy option one, lets cust costs. One way to cut support costs, is to not do it....
Your bed, lie down, stop whining.
The adversarial relationship is endemic to business, and in fact you often come across as one it's main proponents.
While you treat IT as seperate to the business, there will always be a disconnect. Adding in the existing disconnect between employees / customers and the business, as IT's fault is a mighty stretch even for your good self.
The rest of the company doesn't understand how it works. But they occasionally see you press a few buttons and accomplish hours of manual work.
Then they see you on the computer for hours working on a major project(really looking at cat pictures no doubt) or even worse thinking and planning! Why isn't he pressing any buttons!?!? And they get angry that you don't just pull out your magic wand and fix it.
I really think some general computer knowledge should be a prerequisite for almost everyone working today.
If I had a private office I'd lock the door to do my work and put a sign on it ???No One Gets In To See The Wizard! Not no one, not no how!???.
Then they see you on the computer for hours working on a major project(really looking at cat pictures no doubt) or even worse thinking and planning! Why isn't he pressing any buttons!?!? And they get angry that you don't just pull out your magic wand and fix it.
I really think some general computer knowledge should be a prerequisite for almost everyone working today.
If I had a private office I'd lock the door to do my work and put a sign on it ???No One Gets In To See The Wizard! Not no one, not no how!???.
It's very easy to detect a technically inept customer, they'll be using ie, and it is the technically inept who drain the most support resources. Plus you could have installed Chrome in less time than it took you to whinge about it, THIS IS FOR YOUR OWN GOOD, you obviously can't be trusted to pick a browser.
They're best off without you, I wouldn't be suprised if they did it deliberately. In the meantime I suggest you don't vent your complete lack of technical knowledge on a site called "Tech Republic", one would expect at least a passing understanding that your browser is the single most important piece of software installed on your machine.
They're best off without you, I wouldn't be suprised if they did it deliberately. In the meantime I suggest you don't vent your complete lack of technical knowledge on a site called "Tech Republic", one would expect at least a passing understanding that your browser is the single most important piece of software installed on your machine.
you will write off what could have been the best cloud solution for your business because you were too lazy to install an alternate web browser?
the problem isnt them....
the problem isnt them....
Many business users do not have administrative priviliges to install anything. And that's for good reasons.
So these users would not be able to install an alternate browser on their own.
In addition, many businesses use web based applications internally that require IE. ERP, Document Management, Laboratory Management, Process Control come to mind at my company.
So users would have to know which browser to use with which application? Or make a bunch of shortcuts on their desktop to handle the confusion. That seems very inefficient when the solution on the vendor's side is to support the #1 or #2 most popular browser.
It sounds like laziness on the web developer's side.
So these users would not be able to install an alternate browser on their own.
In addition, many businesses use web based applications internally that require IE. ERP, Document Management, Laboratory Management, Process Control come to mind at my company.
So users would have to know which browser to use with which application? Or make a bunch of shortcuts on their desktop to handle the confusion. That seems very inefficient when the solution on the vendor's side is to support the #1 or #2 most popular browser.
It sounds like laziness on the web developer's side.
There is really no excuse for excluding Internet Explorer users. Whatever we might think about this browser, most people still use it and it is a hassle having to download a specific browser or software to get access to the resources you are looking for. The blame game between IT and Operational Management is a vicious circle that does not bring any solution. Commonly what we see is IT staff not gathering the requirements properly, not having the confidence to risk on advising on one solution (instead of hundreds of solutions) and not managing the expectations properly. Operational management then feels frustrated and tries to find a solution themselves, normally outsourcing from contractors that do not know the company's culture and therefore cannot access their needs accurately. So many times I have been in meetings where Developers say "yes" to everything, don't make the right questions or don't raise any questions at all and then gather together afterwards to complaint and to point fingers.
At Aon Group, the IT department was outsourced to the care and feeding of CSC, and we were providing TOP NOTCH response to tickets. One fine day, the servers of CSC, based in Secaucus NJ - crashed. Died, gone. No restore plan. For 36 hours we were TOLD NOT TO REPOND TO ANYTHING???? True, we could do nothing because CSC would be unable to track those all important NUMBERS!!!!!!!!!!!
Catching up during the summer depends on the number of "Project" that are slated - like replacing lab computer or rolling out a new email system. Last summer we replaced over 400 computers in labs - had to wipe hard drives and get the old computer ready for auction. We rolled out a new Exchange email system. About 1000 users had to be set up at their teacher and admin computers. Catching up is a dream that always awakens as a nightmare.
...is this "article". I'm suggesting that Patrick and his like-weak-minded brethren take their IE fairlyland and go to Disney, and the rest of us can go about our real business.
The discussions here sum up the phrase even Bad IT works too. How about a little common sense here. IT does not exist to support itself, it exist to support the business. The business is its customers. It doesn't matter what my preference is the only preferences that matter is doing what is right for the business.
As far as your support staff they are your best customer service reps. These individuals have the most contact with your customers. Processes are there for a reason, use them. Walk ups should be allowed only if your support tech is not working on another issue or calls are not waiting for him. Yes the customer at hand feels good but the person who called yesterday and followed the process does not. It has to be the right balance. I have seen people sit in support techs chairs waiting for them to return from vacation. Not an ideal process in my book. These same people are amazed when you ask them to log a ticket at how fast their support requests are handled.
This isn't magic but you need to build the right process and have the right knowledge in place. If you are going to make everyone log a ticket and allow no walk ups your support structure better have a quicker response rate than someone trapsing off to find a tech to tap on the shoulder.
Talk to your customers see what they want, use your own ideas of how you want to be served. Put yourself in your customers shoes.
My customers in my years of managing support staff have made comments that they feel like they get preferential treatment. There's no magic sauce just common sense.
As far as your support staff they are your best customer service reps. These individuals have the most contact with your customers. Processes are there for a reason, use them. Walk ups should be allowed only if your support tech is not working on another issue or calls are not waiting for him. Yes the customer at hand feels good but the person who called yesterday and followed the process does not. It has to be the right balance. I have seen people sit in support techs chairs waiting for them to return from vacation. Not an ideal process in my book. These same people are amazed when you ask them to log a ticket at how fast their support requests are handled.
This isn't magic but you need to build the right process and have the right knowledge in place. If you are going to make everyone log a ticket and allow no walk ups your support structure better have a quicker response rate than someone trapsing off to find a tech to tap on the shoulder.
Talk to your customers see what they want, use your own ideas of how you want to be served. Put yourself in your customers shoes.
My customers in my years of managing support staff have made comments that they feel like they get preferential treatment. There's no magic sauce just common sense.
How about say Enron. They put themselves in their customers shoes,
trousers, skirts, blouses, cars boats, holiday villas and all available orifices....
As for the business being it's employees, I have a bridge going cheap.
trousers, skirts, blouses, cars boats, holiday villas and all available orifices....
As for the business being it's employees, I have a bridge going cheap.
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