Category Archives: Manage Service

Worst advice we’ve ever heard about creating your own help desk?

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A well managed help desk is critical to a company's success -- don't cut corners!

A well managed help desk is critical to a company’s success — don’t cut corners!

A well-managed help desk is critical for your company’s success. Regardless of whether your business is large or small, your help desk can improve efficiency and boost profits by handling various tech problems that come up in the course of your business activities.

Why does a software program keep quitting unexpectedly? What’s the password for a certain device? Why did the device crash, and where are the data back-ups? These are just a few of issues your help desk might need to address.

What’s the worst advise we’ve ever heard about creating your own help desk?

You might have gotten advice about setting up your own help desk. The people giving you this advice might understand the purpose of a help desk; however, their suggestions will likely lead to wasted money and time, both in the short-term and long-term.

Here are several examples of terrible tips for creating your own help desk:

  • Hire newbies. The idea is to cut costs by hiring people who are relatively inexperienced; furthermore, companies might not want to spend much on training them. But the costs of working with inexperienced and poorly trained employees will likely exceed any money you managed to initially save.
  • Your help desk must do everything. Why else do you have a help desk, if not to handle every problem personally? Companies might have unrealistic expectations about how much work their help desk can handle without the staff cracking under the stress. It’s critical to find ways to help employees help themselves sometimes, especially with more minor computing problems, while the help desk staff handles more complex issues.
  • Your help desk needs complete self-sufficiency. This is another unrealistic expectation – that your help desk staff must tackle every problem entirely on its own. There are times when consulting with outside experts is necessary.
  • Email and phone are enough. Setting up a help desk might seem simple; all the staff needs to do is field emails and phone calls, right? Not at all. You need to have a system in place that prioritizes and organizes help desk interactions. This way, you can keep track of patterns of problems and respond to issues that demand the greatest urgency.
  • Don’t waste time on feedback. In some companies, the help desk doesn’t bother soliciting or reviewing feedback. It’s considered a waste of time or a token gesture towards employees. However, feedback is essential. Complaints are worth listening to. Your help desk must respond to your company and its changing needs. Otherwise, it will  remain out of touch from your employees, who will also avoid making use of it.

Don’t hesitate to contact us about managing your help desk well. The most cost-effective decision you can make regarding your help desk is to outsource it or at least call on outside IT professionals to give you further support.

8 Things that make your computer issues worse

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Computer issues may be inevitable, but here are a few things to avoid so that they're not worse than they have to be.

Computer issues may be inevitable, but here are a few things to avoid so that they’re not worse than they have to be.

Computer issues are inevitable. You can’t expect to depend 100% of the time on every single device or program you use. There will be software bugs or hardware failure; a device might get misplaced or an important file deleted.

Running your business successfully depends in part on anticipating these problems. If you aren’t prepared, the outcome will be worse.

What are 8 things that make your computer issues worse?

 

 

 

 

  1. Poor documentation. You lose track of passwords or license keys to various software programs. You don’t know what previous versions of a software you used, when it was last updated, and whether it functioned problematically. These are all examples of poor documentation. Without proper documentation, you’ll have a harder time implementing solutions for your computer problems.
  2. Unnecessary downloads. Your computing devices might be filled with too many useless or clunky programs or files that take up a lot of space and slow them down. Some of these programs may also have cyber security vulnerabilities, especially if you got them from disreputable sources.
  3. Infrequent backups. Any time you don’t back up your data at the frequency needed, you risk losing significant amounts of time and money whenever there’s a failure in equipment, cyber attack, employee error, or other disaster that results in data loss.
  4. Dirty equipment. Your hardware might get clogged up with dust; the screens might be scuffed or stained. Devices can slow down, overheat or break down if you don’t clean them on a regular basis.
  5. Untrained employees. Maybe your employees don’t understand how to fully use a software program, which decreases their productivity and making it more difficult for them to fix errors. It’s possible that they’re unaware of cyber security protocols or other important computing issues.
  6. Lack of synchronization. If multiple people are working on the same project, they should have access to the latest version of all files; with lack of synchronization across devices, the files they share might all differ. Without synchronization, it’s also much harder to make system-wide changes across devices on your network, such as installing a new security feature.
  7. Inadequate cyber security. If you lack the capacity to prevent cyber attacks, monitor your system for intrusions, and respond quickly to a successful hack, you’re in serious trouble. Downloading one corrupted file can wreak havoc on your system.
  8. Thoughtless spending. You might be using your limited IT budget to hire staff unnecessarily or to make purchases that aren’t cost-effective for your company. It’s also possible that you’re spending too little; for instance, you might be long overdue for an equipment upgrade, but keep delaying it, even though it’s slowing down your productivity.

To increase the chances that any computer issues you face will be minor or at least handled efficiently and effectively, contact us. We’ll review the state of your IT configuration and point out ways to make it work better for you.

Think Your’e Computer Savy, Here’s 3 Things You Should Never Do On Your Computer: Learned the Hard Way

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You know that sinking feeling when you've done irreversible damage to your computer, or your career, with one simple click?

You know that sinking feeling when you’ve done irreversible damage to your computer, or your career, with one simple click?

The day is sailing along just fine. You’ve been super productive and the office is in good cheer before the holiday weekend. It’s almost time to call it a day, you just have to close out the last few things you were researching on your computer. Quickly you start clicking through closing all the windows when a random pop up appears. You hit the no button, of course you don’t want to buy any weird super accelerated diet pills. That’s when it happens. Your screen flashes, everything goes black. It’s the beginning of the end. Here are 3 things not to do on your computer from people who learned the hard way.

1. Hitting a Button on a Pop-Up- Similar to the story above, one business executive was hurrying along, no doubt on his way to an important meeting when he was met with an ominous message on his screen. The warning claimed that illegal child pornography had been found on his computer. The message appeared to be from the FBI, but it conveniently allowed him the option of paying a fine to avoid federal prosecution. The man being in a prominent position, feared a child pornography investigation would ruin his reputation, paid the fine. Unfortunately, the message was not from the FBI, it was a form of spam known as ransom ware. It downloads onto your computer after clicking a link on a phishing email or pop-up window. Days later, the malware appears, freezing the computer screen, and displaying the pornography warning. Never click a link or any button on a pop-up window. To safely close a pop-up window, locate the button or tab in your task bar that corresponds to the pop-up. Right click on the button and select close. Furthermore, remember if the FBI is going to arrest you, they won’t use a pop-up on a computer to communicate.

2. Not Double Checking Who You Are Sending That Email To – Just ask the wonderful folks at the admissions office at UC San Diego what happens when you don’t check that email address one last time before sending. 46,000 applicants received a welcome email stating that the university was thrilled they’d been admitted and couldn’t wait to see them. A nice sentiment for the students. The problem is someone sent it to all applicants instead of all admitted students. That meant 28,000 rejected prospects got a little reminder that they were not accepted. The entire admissions staff was required to field the thousands of calls from naturally upset email recipients and inform them that no, the decision hadn’t changed. They were still not welcome.

3. Spill Coffee on Your Laptop – Every morning Sally is the first one at work. She grabs her cup of coffee and starts reading emails preparing for the day. One morning she had just sat down, coffee in hand, when a big booming voice scared her to death. As Bill laughed and announced proudly how he had made it into the office early. He had a big project to work on. Sally jumped straight into the air and watched helplessly as the coffee flew nearly to the ceiling and then directly down on your laptop keyboard. She wiped up what she could and everything seemed to be fine until about 15 minutes when the whole computer crashed and refused to power up at all. If you spill liquid on your laptop, immediately shut it down. Unplug it and seek help.

For more tips on keeping your computer in good working order, contact us. Our experienced and helpful staff can work with your to make sure your data is protected and is always available in emergency situations.

Three Reasons Your IT Help Desk is Struggling

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Maintaining documentation of problems is important, as it can help you deliver more efficient service and spot patterns. It can also give you a good idea of the effectiveness of your help desk.

Maintaining documentation of problems is important, as it can help you deliver more efficient service and spot patterns. It can also give you a good idea of the effectiveness of your help desk.

Computer problems crop up regularly in business. These range from forgotten log-in credentials to employees accidentally introducing malware onto a company network (and there are so many opportunities to do this, including infected email attachments and disreputable e-commerce links clicked on during Cyber Monday shopping). Furthermore, your own customers may encounter problems requiring IT assistance, such as a problem with your website.

A well-managed IT help desk is critical for saving your business significant amounts of time and money. But it’s possible that there are serious problems with your help desk. These can include the following:

  • Poor documentation. For example, you aren’t keeping track of when a problem started, who reported it, what devices or software it involved, it’s level of priority, and when (or if) it was resolved. Maintaining this kind of documentation is important, as it can help you deliver more efficient service and spot patterns of problems; it may be that a certain problem keeps repeating, or that a set of problems are all related. Documentation can also give you a good idea of the effectiveness of your help desk.
  • Poor flow of information. When people report their problems to you, it’s possible that it takes you too long to get the information you need from them. It’s also possible that you yourself are unclear. Maybe for the simpler problems, you don’t have a well-written, easy-to-navigate FAQ page. And maybe you don’t describe the required solutions in a clear way.
  • Inadequate staff. It could be that your help desk is understaffed. You don’t have enough people dealing with your IT problems, which consequently build up in a backlog and remain unresolved for too long. Your current staff may also not have anyone to consult with for trickier and more time-consuming issues.

Do any of these problems sound familiar to you? Are you getting bogged down in inefficiency, lack of clarity, poor communications, and vague documentation? Is your staff overworked? Don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re available to offer you help desk support so that you can better meet your company’s IT needs.