Unit 12: Tech Support introduction (post ahs moved from L85 Post)

Introduction

We have IT support because systems need maintenance and support so they work efficiently and what the user needs the system to do. IT Support there so when there is a problem with a system the IT support can fix the issues. IT support can support computers, phones, appliances and servers to keep them run as a lot of businesses and home need to keep these systems, whether its business to entertainment.

There are 4 support lines, level 1 will take very little time to sort out the problems and deal with mainly everyday issues e.g. printer is not printing. Level 2 will take a day to several days to find out and fix issues, users tend to know a lot more about computers and will have more advanced problems. Level 3 and 4 may take several weeks to several months to fix. 

Level 3 IT support will look at problems with large networks or server problems, they tend to manage these networks. Level 4 IT support will handle a business networks and server farms.

Faults
Hardware issues 

Software issues 

End User problems or causing the problems 

Error messages can appear

Network connection problems

Server issues

Unit 12: Constraints and Impact of IT support

Constraints

Accents - hard to understand certain accents  

Secuirty    

Strict access to Internet sites, the terms and constraints of the company or fire wall access. May not be able to access more resources to help fix any problems.

Time constraints

Amount time taken to do a task. Maintenance must be performed in out of hours time. tech support usally over week ends. Recording how to fix problems takes longer than fixing the actual problem

Social and culture

Financial

Restrictions to funding and going over budget

Employee skills 

Lack of training and experiencing new technology and training for it

Freedom of information act (UK Law)

Data protection act (UK Law)

obscene obligation act (UK Law)

Technology - compatibility issues, new technology can be buggy

Esclation - the level of techsupport needed to solve a problem

Impact

Down time

- Negative image to customers

- Maintenance incoveancing end users

- cost of over time for IT staff to do maintenance tasks
- system overload
- bottle necks
- damage servers and enviromental problems

Reduced down time with backup servers and use a unix server. Have test servers for new software tests before installing to the main server. Server types (main, test and backup servers). Make sure the technicans speek and write the lanuage the server uses e.g. English.

Unit 12: Tool and Techniques

Diagnostics tools

Email integration

Escalation rules

Notifications
Data base
Event viewer
Administration tools
Manuals
Search engines
Specification