Risks of Grumpy IT Staffers
Should you outsource your IT?
Author(s): Ena Ishikawa
Date: 9-Oct-2015
That famous line from “IT Crowd”
Have you ever seen the famous TV drama called “IT Crowd”? It’s a really funny British sitcom, in which the protagonists always rather grumpily say:
Hello, IT. Have you tried turning it off and on again?
… when answering support calls over the phone. It’s really well-done as a TV series, but, how about the situation at your company?
Is your Internal IT Grumpy?
A IT helpdesk engineer needs to interact with various departments and their employees, so a person working in this position has to have a high EQ or emotional quotient to be able to work well with others.
Even the same terse advice of “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”, will be perceived differently if delivered by a pleasant staffer than a grumpy one. Most people would want to interact with the pleasant staffer.
There indeed might be reasons for being grumpy, like being overly busy or a lack of sleep and so on, and you might even think it’s ok if a staffer is grumpy, if they do their job as they need to do. But if there is only one IT staff in your company, there are some risks to consider.
Should you Outsource your IT?
Although it depends on the size of a company, looking at the situation comprehensively, IT outsourcing is very efficient especially in case of a medium-sized company or a foreign branch, which is under 200 employees.
And it is certainly not easy to find the right IT staff for foreign affiliated companies, who can speak English, do what needs done, and also possess superior human interaction skills. If you find someone like this, she or he should be very expensive.
Furthermore, it’s often true that in this size of company, the one IT staff handles everything regarding IT issues. If that describes your organization, there are the following risks:
- There is nobody who can do the IT work, when the IT staffer is out sick.
- If the IT staffer quits suddenly, the ability to manage IT is suddenly lost.
- Because all IT activities are being done by one person, critical information is not shared, and is likely kept in a rather chaotic state.
- In the first place, his or her IT skills will be insufficient and unbalanced, naturally, compared to those of an organization.
- Various stresses of typical IT work, such as doing projects on weekends or holidays, are borne solely by the individual staffer.
- It’s very difficult to control the cost of labor on projects, which are of course never flat or fixed.
How can eSolia’s Bilingual Helpdesk Help?
Your company’s future might be brighter if you might seriously consider outsourcing to eSolia, especially if you have only 1 or 2 IT staff, or even, no staff.
Our Bilingual Helpdesk will build on strong foundations with our primary engineer + α team system.
Also, we can devise an on-site visit plan according to your needs for full-day, half-day or on-demand support. Did the above pique your interest? If so, please rely on eSolia.