1

Good Morning!

SO I am working for a small non-profit company and I am the IT guy for about 40 end-users. I AM utilizing the spiceworks helpdesk system, but I am trying to become a bit more professional. SO far I feel like I get unorganized quickly, also suffer from ADD which doesn’t help… But I was told by someone to do follow ups and document EVERYTHING, which I think that i have been doing a good job with so far under notes when resolving a helpdesk ticket… But is there a better way to make list in the helpdesk system or something where I can prioritize my tickets and to do list. Because as we all know there are always new issues that arise and it can become overwhelming making the call on prioritizing two tickets that seem to have the same priority!! I just feel AGAIN like I am failing at my job!! I am over seeing EVERYTHING IT, (Alarm Codes for buildings, ATT Accounts, all 40-50 workstations, website building, you name it , telephones) and I get over whelmed. In fact I got written up because I dropped the ball on sending an email out about making some changes with the alarm paraphrase to disarm it if you don’t have the key pad code… SO, my girlfriend and myself think I need a revamp of some kind. Is there anything that is follow up related in the spiceworks helpdesk? If so where would it be? Sometimes I get so frustrated and overwhelmed I want to break my supervisor’s office door down and scream at the top of my lungs: YOU *&^%$^&^$ HANDLE ALL OF THIS, MAYBE THEN YOU WOULD APPRECIATE ME A BIT MORE AND CUT ME SOME SLACK!! I am SO grateful for my job and I am just about to start evening schooling in march for computer science and I just want to do the right thing here but there are quite a few personality’s here if you know what I mean and I hate political UN-just BS situations where you have to keep your mouth shut and just take it… Grrrrrrrrrr…

27 Spice ups
2

Firstly, I’d suggest documenting everything within the Knowledge Base. It makes it much easier to find later, and you can add a link to the KB article in the ticket for completeness.

Secondly, I find it handy to have two ticket queues - Active, and Pending.

They’re two views of tickets assigned to me, one with a due date in the past (or today) and the other in the future. This means I don’t see those I don’t need to do right now. Anything where I’m waiting on follow up from a user gets the due date set to tomorrow, so it’ll drop back in then.

3 Spice ups
3

Your job sounds verbatim what my first job was. A fairly small, nonprofit, where I was responsible for anything involving electricity (and then some.) It sounds like what you need, more than anything, is another job. That was the only thing that fixed my problems. One thing that helped me while I was there; I CCed my boss on everything that I deemed even minutely important. He got annoyed with me for all the emails in his inbox, but it forced him to see how much I had to do on a daily basis.

Hang in there. Life sucks right now, but it will get better.

3 Spice ups
4

I wish I would have read this book 15 years ago when I started in IT:

http://www.amazon.com/Management-System-Administrators-Thomas-Limoncelli/dp/0596007833

Do yourself a favor and get it. I bought it last week and read it cover to cover over the course of 3 days or so and have to say it has already helped me make some drastic changes in the way I work.

12 Spice ups
5

If you can, start talking with management. If you can get management to side with you and support you, it’ll make your job much easier. Then, users know they can’t just get/do what they want, as they know management will back you up.

As with above, keep documenting and letting your boss know exactly what’s going on. The more they know about what you do, the less users can say that you’re not doing it.

1 Spice up
6

That is the best book ever, and should be required reading for every IT admin out there, as well as be on the must have list on your bookshelf.

3 Spice ups
7

Get this book.

Also…

David Allen’s GTD (Getting Things Done) method. I’m a huge fan. Here’s an entertaining overview that he gave to Google staffers a few years ago. It isn’t an understatement to say that GTD can change your life if you’ll let it. Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” is also pretty amazing for time management, too, but is really better for setting the vision for your life.

3 Spice ups
8

First and foremost importance is your documentation. Even if you have to set aside a little time at the end of the day, after hours or at the beginning of the day before everyone gets there, do it. It’s important. As to how the documentation should work, create some templates. For instance, you want to have some kind of policies, like an acceptable use policy. You also need to organize an outline for a disaster recovery plan. There are plenty of places in which to get templates. Make sure that you have stuff like contact information for vendors and whatever else you might need in the event of a total disaster.

Another thing you can do is use something like your calendar to put in deadlines for things. That helps a lot to keep you on task. If you want to follow up on something, put something in your calendar within an acceptable time frame to remind you to follow up on something.

9

Cannot be spiced enough. $10 for the Kindle version. It’s a quick read, easy to understand and even easier to apply.

4 Spice ups
10

Another vote for Time Management for SAs. I love that book so much. Helped with every facet of my job.

11

It is important when choosing priorities to remember what seems pressing to you (documentation for instance) doesn’t have the same priority for others (sending an email out about making some changes with the alarm paraphrase to disarm it if you don’t have the key pad code). Experience will teach you how to balance the two. You will also learn to coach your supervisors why something you spend time on is important. If you are caught between 2 equal priorities, don’t be afraid to ask for help in choosing which comes first. I am often taken by surprise at the way my bosses see things differently than I do. Its not bad, its just different.

1 Spice up
12

There are a bunch of short videos by the author of TMSA here:

  • Tom Limoncelli on Time Management | O’Reilly Time Management for System Administrators | Sysadmins
    http://www.tomontime.com/

Too bad the O’Reilly ebook is twice the price of the Kindle version.

1 Spice up
13

In the Spiceworks side, utilize your custom categories and ticket views. They are a life saver when trying to weed through a lot of tickets to prioritize.

For us, we have 2 types of tickets I get a lot - general support tickets, and tickets giving info regarding an ongoing problem with a new software. I’ve currently got over 40 tickets open, and it’s a little overwhelming to figure out what I need to address right now, what can wait, and what should wait.

To make it easier to manage and prioritize my tickets, I created another category called “Pending Feedback”. Any tickets I get regarding issues with this piece of software I read over then assign to the “Pending Feedback” category. I then created 2 ticket views that will show me 1) all open tickets in the Pending Feedback category, and 2) all open tickets assigned to me. I can then sort my open tickets by the priority assigned (high/med/low) and go from there.

You can also create other custom categories and use ticket views to group your tickets. Maybe even categorize them as tickets come in (Urgent, High, Medium, Low, Minor?) then use ticket views to view only the tickets in one category at a time. You can also use ticket views to do something like - show me all tickets that are due within the next week (or next 2 days, or whatever).

14

Maybe start up a sharepoint site to use as a knowledgebase.

15

I’ve been there! Hang in there. I used to spend the day doing “actual work” and use the end of the day documenting everything that went on. Agree on the Time Management book, that’s a great resource.

16

Knowledge is power. Setup a knowledge base and training if it’s practical.

1 Spice up
17

Did you “inherit” the existing IT infrastructure or did you nuke and build from scratch? If inherited, might be good to nuke and re-do the infrastructure to make your life easier.

Have you taken advantage of Office 365 for non-profits? It can take a LOT off your plate and make life easier for you.

Google Apps also has a similar program:

Consider a centralized password manager like KeePass or LastPass/LastPass enterprise. KeePass + KeeForm plugin has excellent documentation style printouts;You can print password documentation as a single group or subgroup.

Do consider these things:

  • What bugs or irritates you the most? Is it people bypassing the ticket system and calling/emailing you directly? Everyone needs to follow proper channels agreed to by you,upper management, and HR. People should not be abusing your email/phone when they know there’s a system in place. People should also respect your home privacy and not call you after hours unless for extreme emergency (server down).
  • What things do you get called on, but can or should be handled by someone else? Find things you can delegate to others. If internet is down, a designated person can contact check something quickly (ping test batch file) and then call the ISP himself/herself
  • BYOD items? Are you supporting tablets/iphone/android issues that are not directly work-related? Are people trying to use you for free phone carrier or personal home PC support? Set rules and guidelines.
  • Timeframes & SLA agreements that you consider fair for certain issues. For example, they really shouldn’t be calling you for “how do i create a chart in excel?”, “How do I create a folder in windows”. They need to either Google/YouTube it, or take educational training classes. Questions regarding QuickBooks (outside of installation/setup) should be directed to the software manufacturer.
  • Is there a power user at your work that doesn’t mind offloading trivial application questions & issues? Consider assigning a technical “liaison” per group. If that liaison can’t resolve the local issue, then they can escalate it to you.
    Do consider attending local SPICEworks meeting; see if anyone with more experience can give you good advice or even lend a helping hand. Sometimes fresh eyes can look at your current setup, and offer solutions you never thought possible.

Do take a mental break if you need it. Some days are really rough, give yourself a break now and then. Ask HR to give you ability to “work from home” or “work remotely”.

Do remember that you are never alone! SpiceWorks & Forums are some of the best and brightest resources at your disposal. If you need a sample IT SLA agreement, PM me, I can give you what I give to my clients. It sets clear IT boundaries and agreed upon timeframes so there’s no confusion.

3 Spice ups
18

I asked to work from home once a week if I want to. I use the day to focus at least 80% of my time on a particular issue/subject/application. Usually resolving database application related tickets. Recommended if you’re able to.

Also research ways to automate/minimize menial tasks. Or even train other users on them.

19

I work with just under 100 employees, handling all of the computers, iPads, Cell Phones, MIFI’s, VPN, Copiers/Printers. And other than my boss I’m the only one. My boss handles a different aspect of IT though, She is the CIO and focuses mostly on software development, integration, things along those lines… Normally she doesn’t have the time to help in the helpdesk unless it’s something above my paygrade.

When I started here, there was no documentation (Previous guy didn’t believe in writing anything down… Including passwords) The place was a mess, still cleaning some of it up. One thing I have just started doing, is using the Time Spent feature in spiceworks. That will give an approximate of your time spent on each task (On the honor system of course)

Another thing that I do when I’m prioritizing, is I look at how big of an impact the problem has before who sent it… The CEO might be yelling about not getting email, but the office is complaining they can’t get to anything on the internet… I’d put the CEO off and get the net back up and working since that will most likely fix the CEO’s problem as well.

So don’t worry about who sent it in, just look at the impact, and how visible it is… If you have customer facing systems, one of those going down could be more important then even internet issues (Unless you’re hosting your own :))

At the end of the day, email the people with tickets still in your queue and tell them that you were unable to get to it today, but they are X on the list for tomorrow. It will help them realize that you do care about fixing the issue, you just weren’t able to get to it yet. Then for prioritizing, put those at the top and blast through them first thing assuming nothing else major comes in.

Good Luck!

20

Did you “inherit” the existing IT infrastructure or did you nuke and build from scratch? If inherited, might be good to nuke and re-do the infrastructure to make your life easier.

Have you taken advantage of Office 365 for non-profits? It can take a LOT off your plate and make life easier for you.

Google Apps also has a similar program:

Consider a centralized password manager like KeePass or LastPass/LastPass enterprise. KeePass + KeeForm plugin has excellent documentation style printouts;You can print password documentation as a single group or subgroup

Does anyone know anything about Google for NONPROFITS? Is it a frees service, also how would we migrate over to that from our current email systems through network solutions? Also is gmail something that could accept an outlook innovation and all of that kinda stuff…?