IT Departments in mid-sized to large enterprises are split up into sub-departments based on roles and responsibilities. There’s a reason for this and it makes complete sense for all the obvious reasons. You would think it would be a simple thing to understand but (l)users have the amazing in-ability to comprehend this. Why? Well read on…
You see I am one of two tech support personnel that supports local Canadian IT operations in my company, we have two sites in the city, I manage the IT support for our manufacturing site and my ‘com padre in arms’ supports our Research & Development site. We are both members of the Client Services Department which is part of the IT department. The rest of the IT department is situated in another city and in another country, this is where the core IT operations are churned and it’s where our Network and Business Systems Groups are located. Being in Client Services we fix certain things and we make certain things work, we are the frontline for the IT department, the users first point of contact. But this is where the problem lies.
Because we are in IT, everybody in the company, especially the noobies, think that we are responsible for fixing everything IT related, be it sorting out permissions to solving Citrix platform issues and sorting out problems with the phones. They are wrong because I am but a beautiful butterfly (Guess what movie) amid a myriad of other IT specialists, we all have our talents and we all have our roles and responsibilities and mine does not include fixing your phone, we have a specialist for that, and she’s good at it.
Just because you have a problem with something on your computer does not mean that I’m the one that’s going to fix it. I am not an expert on absolutely everything related to computer hardware and software. We have defined unspoken roles and responsibilities, or at least we like to believe we do. The IT dept is divided into different groups, Networks, Client Services and Business Systems.
Why do people expect me to be able to fix something related to GP when I have absolutely nothing to do with it? Great Pains, I beg your pardon I mean Great Plains is a platform that is maintained by the Business Systems group within the IT dept. Sure we partly support the citrix client which is used to gain access to applications hosted on our servers such as GP, anything that is ‘Client Side’ is supported by us. But just because the software appears to run locally on your machine doesn’t mean it is and it doesn’t mean that Client Services are the ones that are going to fix your issue. A little piece of me dies inside whenever I tell somebody I can’t fix their problem because I feel like I’m letting them down, this is my burden to bare, because being at the frontline of the IT department people expect me to be able to resolve their issues, well I can only do so much and as much as I’d like to fix your GP issue, I can’t, because I don’t have a clue how it works. Okay, granted I could sit and RTFM, I’m really good at that, and when I do that I would probably know more about GP than the people that implemented it but that’s not my responsibility and it’s not where my interests lie. We have a group of specialists just for that, use them.
Not a day goes by where somebody will ask me to take a look at their Citrix or GP issue where the problem is clearly server-side and I’m getting so tired of machine-gunning out the same answer every time, “Send us an email about the issue so that it can be routed to the correct personnel that will take ownership of the problem and help you to resolve the issue.”. But no matter how many times I drill this into the thick skulls (that are obviously filled with air – how nasty does that sound but hey, it’s the truth) of the people I am guaranteed that the next day they will ask the exact same thing.
Let’s use an analogy, I love analogies, I learn from them. When you take your car in to an auto mechanic to have the engine fixed do you also expect them to re-wire the speakers and fix the upholstery? Hell no so why do you expect the same from the IT dept?
So why won’t users get a clue? I don’t know but either get a clue or GTFO.
Filed under: Adventures @ Work | Tagged: Citrix, Clueless, GP, Great Pains, Great Plains, IT Department, IT Support, RTFM
I’m guessing it’s A Bugs Life? :-D
But about the users – maybe try being nasty, just once, and see how fast they DON’T come running back to you with the same issue…
HAHA That’s WHY it is SO important to log a job ticket in the proper manner! So that it gets to the right people!
I have loads of time for people who actually log a ticket, However if some n00b comes along and tries to hijack the system and goes, Jared…. can you come look at my computer? I get a really horrible feeling like I wanna kick them!
It’s not that they don’t get it it is they don’t want to get it. I get calls all the time from people who bypass the system. Lately I have just replied to their email asking them to please forward to the help desk.
When they don’t I figure oh well too bad they don’t have a problem. The problem is no one in this IT Department (mgmt) has learned to say NO.
If that doesn’t work try working slower. The more someone yells the slower I work. Drives them nuts.
Lets not get started on the users not knowing what they are talking about. Whenever we get a new user here, I carefully explain to them how to call the help desk (we set up a speed dial for them) and yet it will take them at least 3 tries of calling me directly before they get the idea that if they dont call the helpdesk then I just wont help them.
Dont worry I can certainly empathize with their problems, but really they create mine when they cant follow processes, so I get a lot of users saying I am unhelpful, on the plus side, I get more saying I am very helpful, those would be the ones that do call the helpdesk.
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