I’ve been in IT forever and I hate talking about it. It’s like when you’re on that conference call and someone feels like they need to validate their existence by telling the group of their experience. Is it really necessary to do that? So this will probably be the last and only time you hear me talk about it. My parents bought me an Apple IIc in 1984, then an AST 486DX 33MHZ PC in 1990, and from there it sparked my love. It’s propelled me to work in an IT department ever since then, doing things like building cheap computers from scratch, crawling under desks to diagnose equipment, flying to different countries programming/repairing computers, servers, network equipment, managing 1000’s of endpoints, managing IT departments, consulting IT departments, and now this. I love what I do, but sometimes it’s easy for me to forget the “ultimate user” on the other side.
Are you that user? Maybe you’re reading this blog and realize that your IT department doesn’t communicate well. Or maybe when you call the help desk, you get the feeling they’re not listening. Maybe they aren’t. Even if they are, how are they solving your problem? Maybe they are solving your problem, but 3 days later you have to call again. Are they being the best IT department they can be? Probably not – we all have room to grow.
In speaking with many help desk managers (oh by the way they like to be called the service desk, because it sounds fancy – really there’s a reason for that though) out there, they seem to struggle with the common goal of tacking your problem (they like to call problems ‘incidents’ too – yeah, it’s just how the world turns in IT) before they hang up with you. In other words, first call resolution. If they can’t solve your problem before you hang up, or shortly after receiving your submission online, the chances of getting it solved anytime soon drops dramatically. It’s like watching the show “The First 48”, where detectives strive to close murder cases within the first 48 hours, or chances are the crime will go unsolved.
So what does this mean to you? Being an employee of an organization leaves you with very little choice on getting IT help. You can’t just call another IT department, unfortunately. My recommendation would be to approach the IT Director. Send a kind email with your struggles, but also provide a solution. Don’t complain, and never throw anyone under the bus. You might want to vent, or air out dirty laundry, but really it would be like telling the chef that the soup was too salty. They remember who you are next time.
IT Directors are very interested in improving operations, like processes and technology, even people. Mention to them how you feel a certain process might need improvement, but it’s possible they don’t even have a process defined. Processes can drive the need to invest in technology, like Ivanti Service Manager. We offer this product and we’re masters at it. Tell your director that investing in something like this can provide a platform to build new processes, increase your productivity and help him/her reach that gold standard of service for their IT department. Even if there is already something in place, Dataseti can consult and help improve your IT department with new ideas and industry leading practices, today.
So let me ask, why are you still reading this? Contact your IT Director now and let Dataseti help blaze a path. Why wait another minute for your IT problems to be solved?
-Randall Reed, President & CEO
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