Are You the "Go To" Person?
Often companies and organizations who cannot justify full-time or even part-time IT staff, designate a "go to" person for computer-related support. If you're the "go to" person, your primary role in the organization may be the office manager, bookkeeper, controller, production manager, engineer, or any other number of positions. You may be very comfortable with the basics and are eager to learn, but more often coordinate the company's requirements through an outside IT provider.
Do Any of these Situations Resonate with You?
- When you need assistance, you need it now. When you have a problem that requires additional expertise, you may find it takes days for your provider to return your calls. Often, you have to call them back again and again to resolve the same issues. You may see a different technician every time, and the problem must be explained yet again.
- The choices are overwhelming. Your accounting, manufacturing, or job cost system vendor has just notified you that the version you are running will no longer be supported. The latest release of that program will not run on your current equipment so you’ve obtained quotes from various value-added resellers. Everyone is attempting to convince you that their solution is best for you, but you’re not sure if you’re comparing apples to apples. It’s overwhelming to sort through the proposals and determine which direction is the best for your company.
- There's just not enough time in the day. You just don’t have enough time in the day to dedicate as much time supporting the computer systems as before. The changes in technology occur too often to keep up and sometimes the tasks at hand are overwhelming.
- You may want to grow into a full-time system administrator position. You would like to increase you knowledge in information technology areas and as the company grows, you would like to become the full-time system administrator. You may have taken some classes, but they weren’t specific to your environment.
- Your selection of an IT vendor is a reflection on you. You're a good steward of your company's money and you’re responsible to select an outside vendor or consultant to perform an upgrade of an operating system, application or e-mail server, or another key system. You only have a small window of time where the system can be down. You don’t have the expertise or time but management is depending on you to ensure minimal interruption to everyone’s job. You need to make sure you have someone who is very knowledgeable and cost-effective, quick but thorough.
- You're tired of fiinger pointing and lack of resolution. You’ve been experiencing some intermittent problems. Your hardware vendor blames the software; the software vendor blames the network. You’re tired of finger pointing and just want the problem resolved.
- You feel you're always being "sold" a solution. Your business or organization may currently work with an IT service provider who specifies only solutions they happen to resell. They may simply not understand your business and the solution required to meet your objectives or just may not have the appropriate skill sets.
Achieving Success
The "go to" person and other part-time system administrators who find success working with Micro Visions typically share these characteristics:
- Share their organizations values of high standards of excellence and continuous improvement.
- Appreciate quick response time and proactive approaches.
- Value a trusted partner who advocates for your company's best interests.
- Prefer to work collaboratively.
What's the Next Step?
Now that you know with whom we work, the various issues that a typical "go to" person may experience, and what characteristics they may possess, find out more about how we work.