Desktop
by marlok
by rx4314
by zlitocook
by bec
by road-dog
Absolutely remote control is a great tool to help desktop support fight fires more expeditiously. The phrasing of the original question does not take into account several factors that directly affect the number of fires to fight!
1) Configurationcontrol. Less downloaded software on PCs equals less problems.
2) Geography. More users centrally located means more congestions issues, but less travel time to/from for support.
3) Complexity. As applications used per users increases, probability of problems increases exponentially.
4) Server maintenance. A properly configured server will serve more users with less problems.
5) Documentation. A good set of documentation will greatly reduce the amount of research required to troubleshoot.
6) Division of labor. It used to be common for networks and client / server to be separate departments. If they are combined, a support person has greater responsibility.
7) Tools / Equipment / Training. How effective you are in terms offires fought per manhour will improve when TET is optimal.
by tomsal
..and I thought I had it bad supporting 80 users by myself.
I really REALLY REALLY think that if a company only allocates resources to bring a single tech on board for the servicing of 200-300 employees, they are one incredibly tight-arsed company.
Not to mention incredibly stupid and illogical.
How a tech stays alive supporting hundreds of users by his/herself is beyond me.
Personally I can only assume that those 200-300 users at least have some computer knowledge/are some what professionals.
At my company our main workforce are CSR-types hired at $8-10/hr, very little computer skill at all. They panic on how to send an attachment through email for Pete's sake. ;)
No only with tech support, I'm the IT manager as well so I have to deal with the servers, networking, logistics issues, budgets, policies, etc.
All that said it would be *IMPOSSIBLE* for me to deal with 200-300 users of the type I have (that sounds bad, but I'm too lazy to be eloquent and politically correct - I'm friends with many of them, they are good people) by myself.
Did you know that the preferred USER/TECH ratio is around 35-40. This was according to some six-figure a year earning CIO big wig who's conference I attended about a year ago.
So if you take that info to heart that means if you have 300 users to yourself you are basically tasked with handling the work load that 10 techs are recommended to undertake.
As for the secret to handling high workload....
Remote systems are good if you are in a standard environment. Here remote systems are nearly worthless with about 70% of what my users need help with.
ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE! ORGANIZE!
I use a priority system to deal with who gets help first.
I've been with this company for many years so over that time, I've learned what things are priority and what things aren't.
by marlok
by tomsal
Wow you guys are big, cool. I sometimes FEEL like I work for a huge company because like my prior post suggested I'm pretty much the only one who handles all the IT issues, since my immediate boss is our senior developer - he mostly just codes all day long, but will delegate tasks to me and discuss any IT matters at hand.
As for why a company would only have one tech for all those people - hey, if they hired all the people THEY SHOULD to run the business EFFICIENTLY and service the CUSTOMERSbetter - then it would be harder for the execs to drive a new high end BMW each year (and god forbid if they couldn't pay their country club dues - where would they golf?) lol.
by zlitocook
Well the hospital is non for profit so they say:)
But they seem to get all the support for server and software they need. But not in the user area, we are upgrading to a new software for patients now. And are suppost to hire a new technician in a year or so. But that is only because all the doctors will have to be on line too.
by marlok
I work on a large campus (1000 acres) 120 clients. From my location to farthest client is 1 mile. I do not want to make to many of those trips in one day.
In my division I am the only tech-IT person- Lan manager, etc. So I talked to the department heads and selected "knowledgeable" users to act as Area Champions, first line of defense when a problem arises is the area champion, then if problem can not be resolved then I must make the trip. I make less trips now. (:>)
I agree - I started a "Turn-Key" program here , where I used a series of two hour sessions to train a representive group basic word processing, database, network and trouble shooting skills.
Now there is at least one person in each department to deal with simple issues, which, let's face it. make up a good part of my support calls.
by zlitocook
by arthurp
With the down sizing of our IT staff, it wass essential that we took an alternative approach to the methods of support.
With the reduction in manpower, the business targeted IT problems with a triage, working upon the principle that if the customer's system meant that they could not work, then they were dealt with first, and software installs were a lower priority.
However, as the weeks rolled on, we realised that the software installation queue was getting out of hand, so copped the lossand provided a dedicated engineer who was able to utilise network tools, (SMS, LANDesk ect), for software installation. This engineer was given free reign over the software installation, (Servicing approx 2,500 requirements, many of them mutiple installations).
Within a period of approx' 2 months the engineer had brought the software installation queue down to just over 100.
Another concept that we took onboard, was the support of laptop users.
Initially we found that we needed to conduct a Q&A, (Quality & Assurance), to access the situation from the customer's point of view.
This revealed what we already knew, but gave fresh emphasis for leverage with the business.
Taking into account that 40% of the company were laptop users, and 25% of these were either Revenue earning, support or retention, who were being handled through normal triage levels, (1- 3 days), it was imperative that we considered ideas that were otherwise considered to be too radical for the business.
One such method, was to open a "Drop-in Centre".
by arthurp
One such method, was to open a "Drop-in Centre".
The 'drop-in-centre', was designed to provided dedicated support to laptop users, (irrespective of management position), upon a first-come, first-served basis, but ensuring that we did not alienatethe desktop comunity.
Although we had an idea of what we needed to supply the customer, we accepted that we would need to alter our service to suit the requirements of the customer.
The centre is manned by myself, and supports 12 different computer systems, (Fujitsu, Compaq, and IBM, with Dell thrown in for good measure), handling in excess of 60 calls a week, ranging from total system rebuilds, (both hardware & software), software, and peripheral installations, and the issue of consumable items. As well as advice and guidance upon the use and operation of company standard software, to the operation of a CD-Burning facility for customer data backup that is operated upon a self-help basis.
The centre has also become the first pointof contact for sales-staff, and home-workers who are experiencing difficulties remotely accessing the network; and the visiting executive seeking help and guidance when they visit the UK.
If you are thinking about starting a drop-in centre, you will need a good engineer, with good customer skills; ensuring that they have the confidence to ask the customer to wait, even if their world has fallen apart in front of them; and will certainly not throw their teddy bears out of the pram.
Although the pressure is there, and the customer needs to know when he will receive his system back, I will not give a ball-park-time; but state that I will contact them after I've completed diagnostics - many accept this & are only too happy that someone is looking at their system.
by arthurp
Job satisfaction; the management team leave to to run the centre in a way that I am happy with and I also provide feedback to the management upon both the software and hardware functionality.
Personally I recon that I have the best job in IT Support, if only because the IT user appreciates your efforts; especially when you've just managed to recover their data that another engineer has said they couldn't.
It has it's down side as well, I'm constntly busy, but then again even the operator know my extension off by heart; which isn't a bad thing !
by danhenry
really, to properly support this number of users is impossible. You can ameliorate some of the problems by using PCanywhere, Timbuktu. There are others out there but quite a bit of training is involved for the likes of SMS, or Tivoli; and i can't see your company going that way. Sounds like you are with a business that has yet to think of IT as an integral part of the team..IE they think of it as OVERHEAD rather than and money maker.
I would start looking for something else.
by arthurp
Maybe you can't .. .But we have very successfully.
One of the failings of an IT department is not recognising it's resources, (especially individual talents). However, the major failing is that we don't appreciate other utilities that we often take for granted.
If you software updates, patches and installations using logon scripts, and via utilites such as LANDesk you have the capability to reach all of your customers who log into the network. Those that utilise RAS will need to handled separately.
How do you roll-out a package update, to an entire staff, with minimal effort ?
The Drop-in Centre speaks for itself, and yes it does work; I'm the person that runs the facility.
More often than not it's a quick fix solution, with the major failures, (power conversion problems, broken keyboards, modem failures ect) thrown in for good measure.
Please don't be so blinkered ...
A good quote from one of our VP's, "With this number of IT staff, we should be in trouble. However, quality speaks for itself".
I'll be honest, if I was to walk into a company that needed support staff I would recruit my colleagues as they are a dedicated team, who continually assess their work, goals and achievements.
Arthur
by lordinfidel
Mostly tips-
One of the first and foremost things that needs to be done is getting a working set of standards of programs to support. If your company uses IE, then insist that only IE be installed, not other browsers. Same with e-mail clients, media players, virus software, etc..... In short, get everyone on the same page. It makes support issues easier.
Next, get an executive to be your designated "decision maker". I use my vp of operations during mission critical project persiods to prioritize work for me. If someone comes to you demanding you to do something and it is basically "not-mission critical". Talk to your exec and let him decide if it can be put off until you are done with your mission critical project.
Remote admin is great. If you are the central admin for the company, make sure you have all of your server tools on your system. (\\server\$ is your friend)- If 2K AD, make yourself a mmc with your major snap ins.
Task lists-- If you are very busy, takethe time to make out a simple task list. It can be done in anything. I prefer exel becauase I can color code work that needs to be done and move it up and down in priority.
Make sure you have some sort of inventory program that can keep notes.Keep some sort of history on issues so that you are not repeating your self.
Just some tips
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