Priorities

How many users, how many servers?

Their are many good ways to track, but lets get some feel for size first.

You need to attempt to establish and enforce problem levels and priorities.

First would come any user who cannot do their job. It seldom matters what else is on your plate, if the user cannot perform any work tasks, the company is loosing money.

Then could come your critical admin tasks.

Followed by minor fixes and repairs for the staff.

Chas

On my first Admin job I was the lone gun. I found the best organizational tool I had was a chalk board (dry erase when I finally conned one out of the purchasing agent.) I would make columns and set up my week from there. This way when "Joe User"came into my office he could see my board and realize he was gonna have to wait. By the same token anyone in management could also see that the tasks they set forth were "on my schedule" This was my "Bible" for three years and I kept it up to date. I found after I moved on the board came with me. I still use the same one today. Just my way of doing things =)

First you need to know what you are supporting. Keep this up to date as your area evolves and business expands.

Next, you need to think of how your support meets the business needs. IT is all about tools for the business. Setting priorities must match the business support.

Organize and advertise. Job boards have a long history in business, and make an excellent billboard for others to see what is going on. Electronic job boards are just an evolution of this. If you use a scheduling tool like Calendar in Outlook, make it a public folder. Consider a big screen so it is easily visible to visitors in your work area.

A ?user first? approach can easily lead to firefighting only. At a minimum, non critical user support should be deferred until the maintenance task at hand is complete. You might try blocking out maintenance time each day or each week. Pick a time when you have the least amount of user troubles as a rule (like Friday afternoon). Users and management will begin to respect your maintenance time if you stick to it and are empathetic with their needs.

Sell management by relating to something they understand already. For example, routine maintenance on cars versus driving until the warning lights come on or the tires are flat.