Friday 28 March 2014

Making Good Use Of The IT Support Department

By Gloria Munger


When IT support services were first introduced to the business world they were usually only manned by one or two technicians. Their main responsibility was to ensure that systems were backed up, and computers were kept working. These departments were quite often based in a small room where the technicians could be found surrounded by diskettes, tapes, and broken computers.

In a lot of companies at that time, users would often attempt to fix any problems themselves, rather than call for help. This has all changed now. Networked systems, and sophisticated software, have meant that the support engineers have to be highly skilled, and understand many different systems.

The complexity of these systems meant that the size of the team supporting them had to increase. As companies grew and the software systems they started to use needed to serve more functions, people with a variety of skills were required. However, as well as maintaining the new equipment, the legacy software still needed looking after.

The way that an IT support team operates has had to change to cope with the growth of multinational companies, all working in different time zones. The departments are normally open 24 hours a day throughout the week, especially if there is just one support team for the whole global network. This means that if a user wants to report a fault, it is typically done by raising a support ticket on the company intranet.

Some people question the value of working this way when the fault could just be on a single computer. However, this method is a good way to make sure that the correct person is tasked to deal with the problem. This means that they will have a better idea of the overall picture, and your report may help them prevent other users having the same problem in the future.

Taking what appears to be a simple e-mail problem as an example, many scenarios could be involved. It could be caused by a poor configuration on an individual's computer; a server might have a problem and needs to be taken off-line, or a number of users have reported the same fault and there is a problem with the software. Each of these scenarios would need investigating by a specialist.

Some businesses decide that their systems have become so complex, that instead of having an in-house team, they opt to use an external consultancy. These consultancies will use freelancers who are based locally to the company who is having the problem. Whether this is cost efficient is a matter for the business to decide on, however, you can be assured that the person who is tasked with the job has the precise experience required to solve that particular fault.

IT support has had to change a lot to keep pace with technology. It is unrecognizable from from its humble beginnings. It is looked upon in a different light by companies and their employees, and is no longer the butt of jokes. The engineers and technicians that work in these departments have to be highly skilled individuals, and up-to-date with the latest technologies.




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