IT technical support Essay Example for Free

IT technical support Essay External would mean that the company would send you to perhaps a training course which would perhaps cost a bit more then internal training. Internal training would mean that you would train within the company. The amount of training that the IT Technical has done would depend on the organisation hence the better the company the better the IT Technical support will be. Budget A good company with loads of money would be able to employ more technicians which may not be the case for a charity where they are on a low budget where they may only have a few employees. The more employees you would have, the more efficient your company would be which wouldnt be the case for a charity. An example of a company that would have a huge budget would be Microsoft. They have many employees and are able to expand in certain things as in the amount of computers. A charity like Oxfam would not be able to expand which would mean they would only have a few computers and employees. Overall a bigger budget would mean more and better things as in training, computers and more for the IT Technical Support. Type of Organisation. The policies and procedures would depend on the type of organisation as in if it was a company like Microsoft they would have very high and clear policies and procedures. If it was a charity, the policies and procedures would be much more simple meaning they would not have as many targets as a large company would have. This would be because the bigger organisations would have more employees hence they would get through things much faster. This would mean that the IT Technical Support would be depend on the organisation as in Microsoft would have a big team whilst a charity like Oxfam would not. Company Culture This would depend on the employees. A company like Microsoft, Cisco and IBM would have a professional work culture because they would usually work in a team meaning a lot of cooperation would be needed as well as patients. If the staff relationships were good this would mean that they would be very professional meaning they would be able to do their work. This would mean that Microsoft, Cisco, IBM IT Technical Support would be very efficient as in the amount of work completed perhaps because they are company orientated. Work pressure This would depend on the type of company it is. If it is a very big company like Microsoft the work pressure would have very high standards because of all the deadlines that the staffs have to meet. The work pressure of the company would be able to tell whether the staffs are capable of performing the task as in if they can handle it. If they cannot then they would not be needed especially if they work for a company like Microsoft where all the policies and procedures are at a high standard. Overall it would mean that a large company would have a restricted time limit and a charity would have a longer amount of time. This would mean that the IT Technical Support would have to meet the deadlines. User IT expertise This would vary because at Microsoft the user IT expertise would be at a very high standard because they are trained to be very computer literate especially with the training that the company has therefore would depend on the training. For example a charity would not be that focused on the user IT expertise. It would depend if the user is well ne through the right educated meaning that they should have gone through the right procedures which would be linked to the amount of knowledge they have in order to work in a big company. This is needed so that the IT Technical Support knows what they are doing. Other factors Other factors would include Security as in which type of antivirus that the company would use, this would be mainly because of malicious threats also to prevent certain faults. A big company like Microsoft would use an antivirus that cannot be penetrated. A charity may use a normal one such as Norton or one that is better. Fire walls are used in order to stop fraud. Another factor would include the confidentiality; this would consist of the privacy of files that would be restricted to certain staff. The confidentiality would mean the clients files as in their history, Address, Phone number, Date of Birth, account number, Age ECT. This would mean that they would have the data protection act in use where if in breach they would be sued for this. This would keep the IT Technical support on task which would mean that they would not be able to show files or share. Confidentiality is a major thing for a company where they protect certain things from people, it may either be encrypted. Task 3 (M2) Produce appropriate support material that will guide users in relation to a specific area of expertise a) Produce support material that will guide the employees at Cranks Ltd in relation to an appropriate specific area of expertise. This support material can be for one of the following or choose your own. The procedure chosen should not be trivial and the support material should be in depth and cover every aspect of the procedure for everyone concerned   Procedure for advising the staff that the Operating System will be getting updated Tuesday 13th January I will be producing support material that will guide the employees at Cranks Ltd in relation to the system getting updated. The support material that I will be providing will be in depth so that the staff will be able to understand it. The support material will be a letter and an email and a meeting will be held so that the staff will be well informed and aware of what is going to happen. A letter will be produced which will be sent to the staff of Cranks Ltd twice, a week before the Operating system gets updated and then two days left to the system getting updated. The email sent to the staff would contain exactly the same information as the letter. A meeting will be held for the IT Technical Support which would insure that the staffs are well prepared. The meeting will be held before the letter is sent out to the staff. The meeting will be a week before the operating system will get updated where an email will be sent to the staff informing them of the meeting. In this meeting I will be telling the staff what is actually going to happen and what needs to get updated. Notifying the employees at the meeting The Operating system will be implemented on the 13th January. The primary reason we are updating the operating system is so that it can perform tasks efficiently and allows you to get through more tasks throughout the day. This operating system features a friendly user interface. The operating system will have everything the previous operating system had but with a couple more features and it works more productively. The Operating system package has been ordered to be sent to us on the 9th January so that everything is all set up for when the engineers come in to install the operating system. The engineers will be coming in on the 13th January 2009 for the whole day so that everything is set up correctly meaning functioning to the standard. The staff will have to make sure that everything is saved which also includes them having a back up file as an added security measurement. The staff will find using this system is no different from the other therefore know training will be needed. The area will be restricted until the engineers have completed the update therefore you will not be able to go into the area. Once the operating system is updated everything will commence as normal on the following day where you would continue on the tasks that you would usually do. The procedure was explained during the meeting but as an extra measurement it will be shown on this letter which will be sent to the staff twice. Letter Dear IT Technical Support Staff I am producing this letter as a guide to you in relation to the system getting updated on Tuesday 13th January 2009 for the whole day. This letter will consist of the procedure that will have to be taken before the Operating system will get updated. Procedure The Operating system will be implemented on the 13th January. The primary reason we are updating the operating system is so that it can perform tasks efficiently and allows you to get through more tasks throughout the day. This operating system features a friendly user interface. The operating system will have everything the previous operating system had but with a couple more features and it works more productively. The Operating system package has been ordered to be sent to us on the 9th January so that everything is all set up for when the engineers come in to install the operating system. The engineers will be coming in on the 13th January 2009 for the whole day so that everything is set up correctly meaning functioning to the standard. The staff will have to make sure that everything is saved which also includes them having a back up file as an added security measurement. The staff will find using this system is no different from the other therefore know training will be needed. The area will be restricted until the engineers have completed the update therefore you will not be able to go into the area. Once the operating system is updated everything will commence as normal on the following day where you would continue on the tasks that you would usually do. Yours sincerely A. Gooman Azhar Gooman Email Dear IT Technical Support Staff I am producing this email as a guide to you in relation to the system getting updated on Tuesday 13th January 2009 for the whole day. This email will consist of what is happening and when also the procedure that will have to be taken before the Operating system will get updated. Procedure The Operating system will be implemented on the 13th January. The primary reason we are updating the operating system is so that it can perform tasks efficiently and allows you to get through more tasks throughout the day. This operating system features a friendly user interface. The operating system will have everything the previous operating system had but with a couple more features and it works more productively. The Operating system package has been ordered to be sent to us on the 9th January so that everything is all set up for when the engineers come in to install the operating system. The engineers will be coming in on the 13th January 2009 for the whole day so that everything is set up correctly meaning functioning to the standard. The staff will have to make sure that everything is saved which also includes them having a back up file as an added security measurement. The staff will find using this system is no different from the other therefore know training will be needed. The area will be restricted until the engineers have completed the update therefore you will not be able to go into the area. Once the operating system is updated everything will commence as normal on the following day where you would continue on the tasks that you would usually do. Yours sincerely A. Gooman Azhar Gooman Task 4 (M3) Explain the advantages and disadvantages to users and organisations of outsourcing the provision of technical support. Cranks Ltd are considering outsourcing their IT technical support. This is to be a confidential report as this matter is very sensitive as if they outsource the Technical Support the staff in that area would be redeployed (employed elsewhere) or made redundant. a) Explain the advantages and disadvantages for the staff at Cranks Ltd of outsourcing IT technical support. There are many advantages for the staff at Cranks Ltd of outsourcing IT technical support Advantages: Outsourcing the staff would allow the business to be able to save on expenses if the IT Technical Support has outsourced such as certain equipment, software and maintenance of which the IT technical support would deal with. Once you have outsourced IT technical support there would be enough time to complete other tasks of yours. The technical support would have very good user IT expertise meaning that they are very knowledgeable in solving problems therefore would be able to work professionally especially in a team or as an individual. The company itself would have to pay a sum of money for outsourcing but once paid there will be no other expense as in equipment, software and more. Another advantage would be that the customer satisfaction would be improved drastically this is because of the efficiency that the technical support performs at. If outsourced abroad this would mean that they would learn the companys culture and perhaps would have the ability to learn different languages. One of the most major disadvantages is that you will not have that much control over what happens once outsourced therefore things could change as in your first purpose of outsourcing the IT technical support, this would perhaps cause an interruption as in to the clients if the task is out of sight once outsourced. The clients will then end up leaving because of the quality of service. If you wanted to promote a technician you wouldnt be able to because there would be none at the company At times there may be a communication barrier between you and the selected vendor therefore may become a slow process and wouldnt be that efficient. The chosen vendors may have other plans to the selected outsourced department in this case would be the IT Technical support. b) Explain the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing IT technical support for the Cranks Ltd Organisation (Business) Advantages Outsourcing the business would be a great way of helping it to grow in reputation which would then lead onto more clients. Once done the company would be able to have time on focusing on different factors which would also help it grow. The expenses would be reduced. The company would become very efficient meaning that it would be on task. The business would be able to save on expenses such as certain equipment, software and maintenance. Outsourcing the business would lead to an increase in quality which would mean that the reputation would increase which then makes the company money and perhaps even a bit of profit from the work produced. Another advantage would be that if outsourced abroad to somewhere like India, there would be a time zone difference as in night there and day here this would mean that the work would be done with much efficiency. lastly you would be handing most of the responsibility to the outsourced Disadvantages: There are many disadvantages towards outsourcing IT technical support for Cranks Ltd Organisation. One of them would be that there would be hidden costs which would mean that it would be expensive because you would be signing a contract and if abroad there would be more complications towards the cost. At times things could go wrong as in you would have to do a lot of research before outsourcing, this would mean choosing a good partner so that there are no complications as in deliveries and other factors. One of the major disadvantages of this would be that once the business has outsourced the confidential data would be in risk of exposure. Once the company has outsourced the employees are at risk of losing their jobs. The quality of the company might not be as it was because of the change and perhaps the way it will be managed and organised would be different. An outsourced company would perhaps lead away from customer focus this is because you will be more focused on the needs of other things. There may be a communication barrier. Lastly you will not have any control over the management. Lastly the vendor may be contracted to a multiple amount of other businesses therefore be more interested in the others. 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