Geek Techs Online
If
you are a business owner relying on supporting an internal technical support
staff, contracting for local IT support or national remote technical center, it
is critical for you to read this information on selecting IT technical support.
Choices
in choosing IT technical support include hiring internal staff with initial
certifications to maintain and manage servers, workstations, desktops, laptops,
printers, smartphones, operating systems software, antivirus, professional
office software and special applications. Some enterprises have contracted with
a local firm to provide on demand on site break/fix support. A third choice is
to engage with a national remote technical center with certifications to
support each device and software application remotely over the internet and
correct any failures. Many national technical centers include pro-active
monitoring as a value-add. Selecting a technical support provider depends on
the following:
•
Experience and Training
•
Added Value
•
Cost
Experience
and Training - The experience of the IT technical staff starts with
certifications.
Certifications
recognize the technician has completed course work to install and manage a
specific device or software application. The challenge for these technical
schools is to find instructors with the requisite training on the most current
hardware and software technology. The current curriculum many times only
certifies technology launched 2-3 years ago. The internal employee must be
trained on current technology which is an added budget item. The typical local
service provider has a difficult time in providing training unless the company
is large enough to have training support from the hardware and software manufacturers
or those large distributors that will support continuous training. National
technical assistant centers have the numbers and synergy to maintain continuous
education. The value of experience for remote technical service shows 90% of
end user problems can be handled by an offsite technical assistant center.
Added
Value - Added value from the point of view of the end user includes:
•
Response rate after initial call
End
users supported by internal technicians typically have to schedule a time to
review and correct the failure. Many times, the device would be picked up for
repair work, rendering the end user unable to electronically communicate.
End
users could also have a long interval of "down" time as the local
support firm builds a support ticket, dispatches and is able to assess and
correct the problem.
A
national firm providing remote technical access is available on the first call
from end users based on a higher number of technicians available.
•
Number of available technical agents
The
enterprise needs to understand the risks of employing internal support to
support end users. How is the coverage determined? How many technicians per 10,
20, 40 or 80 users? Local IT service providers continue to struggle with turn
over. Companies keep the same hardware and software for at least 24 months.
Technicians will work for an enterprise from 6 to 18 months because the work
doesn't provide new challenges. The Association of Support Professionals writes
in its' Executive Summary of their survey "Tech Support Turnover
Rates" the following:
"Support
departments have always had a reputation for high employee turnover, but there
is little data about what constitutes a "normal" churn rate. This
report draws on survey responses from 131 support organizations to identify
real-world benchmarks for employee losses, and offers evidence that much of the
turnover in tech support represents promotions and transfers rather than
departures from the company itself.
The
report also provides a collection of insightful comments by support managers on
how to minimize the loss of valuable support employees.
Turnover
benchmarks are provided by organization size (1-9 employees, 10-29 employees,
30+ employees) for first-level support reps, senior support reps, and
supervisors, analysts, and managers."
The
national remote technical center overcomes a high turnover by having a large
number of seats offer multi language support from multiple sites. End users are
looking for near immediate support when remote access in offered.
•
Hours of support
The
national remote access service offers a fully staffed 24x7 operation included
in the basic rate plan. Under the typical internal employee support, technical
assistance maybe just designated for within the normal business hours. The local
independent service provider will usually have basic business hours support and
possibly after hour support at an increased hourly rate and more.
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