Author: Westech | Date Published: 14 September 2009 12h35 | Article Release

Typical IT support

Have you ever wondered why, many companies these days are faced with bad IT Support, Computer Support or Networking Support? Generally the service levels offered in any industry are poor in South Africa, but why does it seem worse in the IT sector? Is it because whoever is complaining is already frustrated with “IT” because they cannot work? Well, probably, so what happens is that the expectations of the users are not met and the service level that the IT company delivers is automatically questioned and considered to be poor.

What companies fail to understand is that, if a typical user cannot receive e-mail for example, it is automatically the IT Support companies fault. This is not necessarily true. There could be many factors that will cause the users e-mail to stop working, such as, a faulty internet connection, which could be the supplier of the line or the internet service provider. It could be a 3G problem or it could be a Virus, a hack-in attempt on the ADSL Account, faulty hardware and in most cases the users themselves.

General IT support or Networking support can be poor because of a lack of knowledge on the computer support technician’s part and he therefore would spend more time on site “Learning” how to fix the problem before he can solve the problem. This in my opinion is of great concern in the industry and the reason for this are that there is a major skills shortage in the country with regard to IT, so IT Support companies do not have enough resources to deliver good service and they wind up employing junior technicians to fill the gap. This has a negative impact because the junior technician does not have the necessary experience to handle certain situations or crises when they are put under pressure.

The entrepreneurial types will start up their own Computer Support Company or Network Support Company and cannot handle supporting more than a few companies, so when they are called out to fix a computer or network problem that is urgent, they fail to respond in time and therefore offer bad service levels.

Bigger IT Support companies have the resources and the skill however still cannot get it right. Why, because they are not proactive in their maintenance approach. They use a fire fighting technique and are then working under pressure. Computer support problems can be predicted by simply monitoring the computers and networks in a proactive manner for example by checking the event logs, which are very accurate, so problems like a hard drive crash can be detected beforehand.

A lack of communication is also a very common mistake computer and networking support companies make. A typical example is when a frustrated user attacks the Support Technician when he arrives on site and is asked to fix something that he has not arrived to repair. He would “to be helpful” agree but does not pass this message on to the office. He then forgets and, again , delivers poor service. A centralized helpdesk system should be used to control and log all computer and networking related problems.

Another mistake Computer support companies make is that they respond in an adhoc fashion and fail to give sufficient advise on new products . The customer’s company then falls behind in technology, both hardware and software wise. Information Technology moves and develops so quickly in almost every aspect. This is why Computer and Networking support companies need to be up to date on an ongoing basis. For example, last year a certain Anti Virus company was better at releasing updates and better at catching viruses than this year, so what needs to happen is that the Support Company must advise accordingly. If they fail, well the support company’s reputation will be questioned and will be seen to deliver bad service.

Regular Site re-evaluation is good practice, however requires time. Most Computer Support companies fail to do this as they are under resourced and over worked.

Documentation of a customers site is another big blunder that most information technology support companies make. Because of the high turnaround of support technicians, most companies will get a new Support Technician on a regular basis. What happens now is that “the new guy” has no clue as to how the site is setup. Now he has to spend excess time on site learning and then the clients get unnecessary fluctuating support costs.

IT Support companies also do not manage the growth of the customers data nor is it backed up so when the server crashes (which it will at some point) they cannot recover the users data and again….have been labeled as a poor support company. I can ramble on about the failures of Computer and Networking support companies but I would rather explain how Westech operates.

Because of our 20 years of experience, we have learned how Computer Support and Network Support can be done correctly and result in happy customers. If you think that we have not made the above mistakes, well then you are wrong because we have and that is how we have managed to perfect our support.

What do we do? We offer Computer Support and Network Support to our clients. We also supply all the related software and hardware.

How are we different?

Firstly, before we do anything on a site, we audit and document it.

Secondly we appoint a junior and senior support technician to each site.

We also channel every support call through our helpdesk (helpdesk@westech.co.za) so we have a record of our work and your support requests. During our audit we install our CenterPoint software which allows us to have a full inventory of your Software and Hardware at any time as the software runs daily as a service on the computers and servers

We manage our clients data with DataShield Backup Software. We keep our clients data off site and archive this too. On a regular basis we test the backups with a test restore.

Using our CenterPoint software, we can proactively maintain your entire network infrastructure and advise when its necessary for upgrades.

We monitor our clients servers and workstations daily with our CenterPoint software.

We have introduced a remote support function into our helpdesk as well as telephonic support in order for us to respond as quickly as possible. We follow up with every quotation request via e-mail and we send contact reports and e-mail follow-ups after every support call, be it for regular maintenance or ad hoc support and this allows us to gauge our clients satisfaction and deal with any complaints that our customers have quickly and efficiently. This is what gives Westech its leading edge.

Furthermore, we also focus on security and how to curb internet abuse and how to optimize your bandwidth for the benefit of the company.

For more information contact roy@westech.co.za to set up an appointment