Are your staffers itching to use their iPhones and iPads in the workplace? Before you flat-out say “no,” consider that personal devices will not be disappearing from the workplace anytime soon. (Recently, a Gartner VP promised that the iPad would be a “market-disrupting device” and warned that the cost of inaction to IT departments would be high.)

Is the iPad a revolution in productivity or just a thorn in IT's side?

In a recent blog post for Forbes.com, CITO Research’s Dan Woods explains how to say “’yes’ without creating a mess.” Woods taps PC Helps’ very own CEO, Brian Madocks, for advice.

In his post, Woods takes a look at what the consumerization of IT means in practice, and offers up a “playbook” for IT:

1. Don’t just say no to “bring your own technology” or employee-preferred devices:
   Writes Woods: “Show some leadership and help figure out how to get it right so that the company is protected and the users are happy.”
2. Listen to the end users:
   Ask your employees how they want to use the devices and formulate a set of guidelines that meet both IT’s and the workers’ needs.
3. Research and test your approach:
   Don’t just roll out BYOT to the entire company; start small, with a pilot that includes a mix of user types. Use the knowledge gained for a broader roll out.
4. Document and communicate a clear set of policies and guidelines for end users:
   We all need rules. Come up with a set both IT and end-users can live with and abide by.
5. Plan for a more complex support burden:
   Questions such as synching corporate mail and calendars will come up, and often. Be sure you have a support plan and trained staff ready to handle every type of query.
6. Don’t rely on device manufacturers for support of your end users:
   AppleCare will not help you synch your mail, and they really don’t care if you are on a deadline.
7. Prepare your help desk for the task:
   According to Woods: “Mixed device environments require specialization and expertise, as well as ongoing training and skill-building. Your existing help desk staff may need to be retrained, expanded, or supplemented.”

Read the full article here.

Jenny Sweeney iPad, Mobile Devices, tablets, What We're Reading Brian Madocks, BYOT, Consumerization of IT, Forbes.com, Gartner, PC Helps

It’s reassuring to reach an actual human being when calling the help desk. It’s even more of a comfort nowadays, when automated menus are standard and pressing “0″ often loops you back to the beginning of the options menu.

It sounds simple, but some companies do not understand the concept.

That’s one of the main takeaways from a recent commentary piece by Mike Schaffner published on Forbes.com, and it’s something we hear all the time from our customers. In fact, one of the most common bits of praise we get in our quality assurance surveys is not that our consultants are amazing software ninjas (which they are, by the way), but that “real” people answer our phones.

In Schaffner’s piece, he lists the four basic requirements customers have of IT:

• To know whether IT is working on the issue, or at least where it stands in the queue;
• how long it will take to resolve the problem;
• periodic status updates; and,
• to do what they promise, or say so when they cannot.

It sounds simple, but some companies do not understand the concept. They give it a stab with pricey help desk ticket systems that promise to produce valuable data for trending analysis. But, Schaffner points out, “although efficiency and systems to track issues are great, they don’t mean anything to our customers.”

Indeed, they don’t. A caller’s main concern is his job, and how quickly — or slowly — he can get back to it.

How’s your help desk’s motherboard-side manner? Tell us in comments.

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Jenny Sweeney Customer Service automation, Forbes.com, Help Desk, ninjas