Two papers about the Hell Desk
Supporting Tech Support
Posted in Management, 4th February 2009 13:09 GMT
Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V
Two papers from the Reg Library today about housing Tech Support teams and getting the best out of them.
The Virtual Support Centre: delivering support anytime, anywhere
So here’s the pitch, from an outfit called SupportIndustry.com (and sponsored by Citrix). Virtual Support Centres (VSC) are tech support centres and IT help desks that enable staff to be situated anywhere, in smaller groups in cheap locations. Or at home. There is even a word for this: “homesourcing”. Aargh!
Employers continue to manage centrally but reduce operational costs, improve service delivery and customer satisfaction. And the staff are happier too, SupportIndustry.com claims.
VSCs “deliver all the cost benefits of global support outsourcing but with the control that many feel has been lacking in offshore engagements”. Sounds like magic? There’s a SaaS angle too.
Sun certification and team performance: the impact on system administrators
So the title does not make the heart sing, but it's not a bad read, for all that. This is a love letter from IDC to data centre sysadmins with tech qualifications, and particularly Sun qualifications, as I am sure you guessed already. The Sun pitch is very low key – the meat is provided by key findings from a global IDC research study of 75 sysadmin teams. Who needs Sysadmin Day, when you can read things like this:
“Meaningful concentrations of certified system administrators increase the achievement of significant operational metrics, including efficient management of corporate servers, network and server availability, and meeting service commitments.” In other words, it directly contradicts the notion of tech workforce dispersal, as advocated by SupportIndustry.com
CIOs, are you listening? More sysadmins with more training equals better performance. Sounds like common sense? ®
Watch Now : Virtual Machine Movement with Hyper-V
COMMENTS
Get back to work!
"CIOs, are you listening? More sysadmins with more training equals better performance. Sounds like common sense?"
Common sense is neither ... Especially InTheseTryingTimes[tm]. Anything that is overhead is going to be downsized. To a CIO (most of whom are clueless about real world technology), HellDesks are an obvious place to trim the budget. I mean, everyone knows that computers are SUPPOSED to crash, right? So just reinstall & get back to work!
::sighs::
Awesome.
I'm happy to do helldesk, so long as I can do it at home, sans pants.
neat...
Like the CFO or the CEO is going to listen to this....
two reports not necessarily contradictory
As long as you have well qualified sysadmins concentrated organizationally, within your agency. Good communications (IM!) and management necessary for the "homesourced".
@Ash: Wednesday 4th February 2009 13:58 GMT
I think the papers were about HellDesk, not real support.
Real support means a ClueBat, a LART, a Tazer, a set of lockpicks and a nice big roll of disposable carpet. For HellDesk, all you need is a cough and list of Carol Beer quotes.
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
The new Office Garage series:
Top 10 SIEM implementer’s checklist
