I have been a Systems Administrator now for going on 10 years and I have been around as far as working with different types of organizations. I started out as a Helpdesk drone with a local ISP and it took a while to adjust after being brainwashed at school that we all would come out being superstars and make lots of money. After a few months of explaining to people how to run IPCONFIG /RELEASE and RENEW I took the plunge and applied elsewhere.
My next position was with a bakery that had several offices all of Atlantic Canada and intially I was just a Support Tech but not long after I had been promoted to Sys Admin. I was happy. I liked being able to interact with staff and getting to know all of the inner workings of the environment. I felt very comfortable supporting everyone and ended up being one of the go to people after a while. Even after the company had been aquired by a much larger Organization I syill felt very much in control...and really it was good for me because I got to get exposed to new Technologies and become a part of larger projects Canada wide.
A few years later things began to slow down, same old thing day in and day out. Due to red tap and office politics it seemed like more projects were being cancelled or put on hold than actually moving forward to completion. Eventually I had enough, nothing to do and no new knowledge being aquired. Some people like the idea of just cruising along being the master of their domain but for me it got to be like pulling teeth. Once again I found myself browing the job sites and beefing up the resume.
My next adventure was with a large MSP. Well, it didnt start out large but we grew rather quickly and soon enough we actually had to move offices because we ran out of office space. The reason for the increase in staff of course is because we took on a lot more clients. Those of you not familiar with MSPs...a Managed Service Provided basically handles and supports systems for oraganizations that either do not have an I.T. department of their own or have decided to outsource pieces of the work in order to save money.
Each day was something new at this place and I was loving it, the time just flew by and there was so much work to be done barely looked up to peer out the window during an 8 hour shift. We had to know so many things about so many clients that before long the learning curve for new hires was very demanding and we did find ourselves losing the new guys quite often. Another challenge was actually training people for what we do. I felt bad seeing some of these people look at me with pale faces and nervous eye twitches after they sit through a day or two of listening to calls, fixing server, installing applications and lord knows what else.
As the years past we got to the point where we had to actually dedicate certain people to be Client Experts as we were just growing out of control. This gave some of the Junior people that actually did survicve the first few months a resource to talk to about a given client depending on what the issue was. At present our Client Experts now have several companies under their wing and it almsot seems as though were migrating back to the know everything about everyone model. It starts to get a bit hard on the head from time to time trust me.
Another thing I find about working with a MSP is that the amount of correspondence between all of us with like email and Portal Announcements can pretty much take up your entire day. We get so many FYIs, proceedures, escalations notes and monitoring alerts to process in our brains that Im surprised we can even think long enough to actually fix anything. lol I was thinking the other day that there are many clients whom Ive never had dealings with for a very long time due to other commitments or projects and its very easy to get out of touch with what is happening sometimes. I find I forget things like my login, what servers we access from the Internet and what applications they use.
Its common knowledge that the world of Information technology is very fast paced and ever changing but when you take that and multiply it across 40 or 50 seperate Clients all running unique infrastructures it can make for a scary work week. Feel free to visit my website http://techhelp4free.googlepages.com/myarticles for more articles, thanks for reading.
chao for now
TA
Sounds expensive doesn't it? As a smaller business your only option is to manage your own or just call someone every time you have a problem.
This is referred to in the industry as "break fix".
1. It breaks.
2. You call someone.
3. They fix it.
4. It breaks again.
5. You call them again.
....and so it goes on.
The more it breaks the more money they make and it becomes an expensive option for your business.
But don't worry. Help is at hand!
There is another option - a managed service provider (MSP).
The keywords here are pro-activity and cost control. OK, sometimes there will be reactive issues to be dealt with but a reputable MSP will aim to prevent problems arising in the first place.
Secondly, a managed service model means you pay the same amount every month without being charged for the hours worked. That means it's in the interest of the provider to work proactively to minimise issues.
That's a win-win situation for both parties.
Here are some key features and benefits of an MSP:
? Fixed costs for budgeting
? Enables better long term planning and budgeting.
? Skills and experience of an IT department at a fraction of the cost.
? Tools in place to monitor remotely, cutting out on travelling and on-site time.
? Reduces the need for staff to spend lots of time dealing with IT problems.
? Increased employee productivity and morale. Reduced frustration!
Not convinced yet? Here are two typical examples of where an MSP can benefit businesses:
? Example 1
Space running out on the server ? this is picked up by monitoring and an engineer looks at it and resolves the problem. The client doesn't even need to know about it.
What would have happened without Managed IT Support? Eventually the server would have run out of space completely and would crash/refuse to boot up ? this would cause considerable down time and prevent employees from working. Worse still your service to customers could deteriorate.
? Example 2
Anti-virus software not updating, this is picked up by daily monitoring by the MSP and corrected.
What would have happened without Managed IT Support? The customer's machines would ultimately have become infected with a virus. Over time further viruses could have entered the system. Your entire IT system could crash thus affecting business continuity. Worse still viruses could be unwittingly transferred to outside parties via email.
To summarise, an MSP enables you and your team to focus on fee earning work. Ultimately this benefits your profitability, your efficiency and your customer service.
Both Ben Needles & Jamesed61 are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Ben Needles has sinced written about articles on various topics from Business Credit Cards, Anger Control and Business Credit Cards. About the Author (text)An Experienced I.T consultant who has worked for several large companies as well as an MSP. . Ben Needles's top article generates over 550000 views. to your Favourites.
Jamesed61 has sinced written about articles on various topics from Wedding Invitation Ideas, Personal Desktop and Wedding Bells. BITS computers are an Based company providing , Wiltshire, the West Country, and South Wales. Jamesed61's top article generates over 1600 views. to your Favourites.