Making Good Use Of Your IT Support Team In Your Company

By Gloria Munger


In the early years of people using computers in the business environment the IT support was very limited. It usually comprised of a technician whose main task was to make sure that system backups were made. They would be located in a small room surrounded by broken computers and spare parts.

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.

As companies continue to grow, and multinational businesses evolve, these departments are required 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is very rare that you can pick up the telephone and talk to your local support engineer, who is sitting in a tiny room in another part of the building. It is now more common to send an e-mail requesting assistance, or raise a ticket on the support page of the company intranet.

It might seem a little bit extreme to have to raise a ticket when you just believe the fault is on your own computer. However, the type of fault that you report will determine who will be tasked to solve the problem. It might be that they can use the information you have given them to prevent other similar incidents. This is where prevention is better than the cure, and a lot of system downtime can be avoided.

On a few occasions, what seems like a basic e-mail failure report might be an early symptom of a much bigger problem. It could be that similar faults have been reported by people in different locations throughout the world, and this would only be noticed if there was somebody to collate all the tickets. With this knowledge, problems can be escalated, and more members of the team allocated to solve them.

Due to the complexity of the information technology systems that need supporting these days, a lot of companies choose to outsource the task to external consultancies. These companies call on specialists to work on particular problems on a freelance basis. There are benefits to working this way; however, the ability to make use of services like these depend on the size of the company and the budget available.

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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