By Joe Puckett, director of recruiting and training at PC Helps

The Rave:
Once iOS 5 is in place, future updates are faster and much less disruptive. Key changes that contribute to this improvement are that the updates are incremental, run in the background and can be done without a wired connection to a computer running iTunes. It all starts with a shift from erase-everything-then-reload-it updates to changing only the things that need to be changed. This allows the device to remain functional during the update and reduces the size of the update package to the point where it can be handled wirelessly. Incremental updates are an improvement that makes everyone happy.

First in a series about upgrading to iOS 5 – No Pain, No Gain.

The Rant:
The update to iOS 5 is not very incremental at all and is more disruptive for many than some of the previous updates, mainly because the introduction of some welcome new applications requires icons to be added. However, the resulting effect on the organization of some people’s existing applications was not so welcome. A significant number of people reported losing some application data despite the backup that is run as part of the update process, with the most common reported loss being contacts.

The Conclusion:
There is far too much to be gained by upgrading to iOS 5 for most people to consider holding back. Like a pre-workout warm-up and stretch at the gym, there are a few things that should be done to reduce the chance of injury. Helping people run a back up and copy the file to a safe location before the upgrade is a good precaution. Taking screenshots of the current icon organization on the device (hold down the Home button and press the Sleep/Wake button) provides a roadmap if the added app icons displace anything. No pain, no gain, but no sense letting it hurt more than it has to.

About the author: Joe Puckett is PC Helps’ director of recruiting and training. He grooms the talent here, and creates our internal and client-facing corporate training courses. A 15-year PC Helps veteran, Joe is the one to ask if you ever have a software question.

In an e-mail response, a reader pointed out an even greater obstacle, something he called the infuriation factor.

“The reason I don’t call our help desk is because it is outsourced to desks outside the U.S.,” he wrote. “The ‘Help’ can’t speak English adequately enough to understand or communicate effectively. A problem which should only take five or 10 minutes to resolve sometimes takes as long as an hour and a half.”

He has a point, and it’s a biggie, for sure.

“Desktop application support is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal.”

Most of us have had a frustrating help desk experience or two, where we were placed on hold, forced to listen to tinny ’80s Lite rock, only to be “helped” – eventually – by someone whose English was so-so, and who was proficient only in gatekeeping.

I’m not by any means xenophobic, and I’m not offended if an ATM asks if I’d like to bank in Spanish, Hindi or English, but the point of desktop application support – or any support – is to clear up conundrums. That’s hard to accomplish if the people involved cannot communicate with each other. It’s even more difficult if the help desk employs a tiered structure and bounces callers around until they get a technician who can actually help.

The language issue is a symptom of a larger outsourcing problem. That is, that because the need for desktop application support isn’t easily quantifiable, and because it’s difficult to prove return on investment with such services, it’s is often treated as an afterthought, or a small piece of a gargantuan, all-in-one outsourcing deal. This not only sullies the help desk’s image, it also tarnishes the IT department’s reputation overall.

Recent industry publications have suggested that multimillion dollar outsourcing deals are the stuff of history, and that companies have begun opting for nimbler, best-of-breed help desk outsourcers. Still, the challenges remain: how to change the help desk’s reputation, how to prove its value, and how to keep an eye on the budget. (Jen Darr)

Is your IT department all-in-one or best-of-breed? Tell us in comments or send us an e-mail.

MORE INFO IN: 5 Lessons to Learn Before Outsourcing | Hidden Demand | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Fear of asking “stupid” questions is the culprit for many misunderstandings in life, and it clearly plays a standout role in this case. Inserting footers and page breaks shouldn’t be so hard to figure out, right? For a fresh-faced techie, who has immersed himself in software all of his adult life, yes, asking how to fix footers qualifies as stupid.

But for those who started out in business using a typewriter, electric or manual, inserting a footer meant simply typing it at the bottom. Adding a page break was as easy as pulling the paper out of the machine. They did not concern themselves with section breaks, be they even, odd or next page; nor did they care about field codes to insert current date and time, file name or page numbering style. Heck, they may even have brought in a mariachi band for presentation sound effects. (OK, that’s a stretch.)

Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer has catching up to do, plus a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.

So, for many, “How do you make the same footer appear on all but the first two pages?” is not an inane question, especially when considering how much has changed in the past 20-odd years. The Internet and computers have had a profound impact on the 21st century, more so than any other technological advance. Each new development requires new skills and understanding. Computer literacy is no longer a special talent; it’s a necessity.

There’s no argument that all corporate workers need technological skills to do their jobs — not developer-level or expert knowledge, mind you, but practical training and ongoing support. Anyone who didn’t come of age with a computer clearly has catching up to do, not to mention a whole lot of maintenance as their existing skills become antiquated.*

The question for CIOs and other IT leaders is: How will you give your employees those skills?

Will you force them “underground” for software support, to huddle and hatch costly, time-consuming workarounds, or will you encourage them to solve their problems productively with the proper training and support? (Jen Darr)

*Source: Ezziane, Zoheir: Information Technology Literacy: Learning and Teaching.

MORE INFO IN: desktop application support | eTraining | contact PC Helps

PowerPoint style “routinely disrupts, dominates and trivializes content.”

This is good news for the obvious reasons – because he believes in transparency and accountability – but also because he is such an information purist. Perhaps some of his presentation principles will rub off on corporate workers.

A little background: Tufte’s article, titled “PowerPoint is Evil” and published in Wired in 2003, should be required reading for the c-suite, if not business majors. In it, he laments the fact that PowerPoint doesn’t serve as a supplement to presentations, as it promises; rather, it has replaced them.

Tufte continues by saying that the PowerPoint style “routinely disrupts, dominates and trivializes content.” He even compares it to Stalin.

He offers a colorful metaphor:

“Imagine a widely used and expensive prescription drug that promised to make us beautiful but didn’t. Instead the drug had frequent, serious side effects: It induced stupidity, turned everyone into bores, wasted time, and degraded the quality and credibility of communication. These side effects would rightly lead to a worldwide product recall.”

Tufte’s piece is funny, and you could say it’s a bit impassioned, but think of the presentations you have sat through, or the ones you’ve forced upon your colleagues.  Many workers would benefit from a little PowerPoint training, at the very least.

MORE INFO IN: Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Monday marked the launch of EnterpriseEfficiency.com, a social community of sorts for CIOs and IT leaders where they can discuss and swap ideas on how to make IT departments more efficient.

For a site that just launched, it’s remarkably robust, and has an impressive lineup of contributors, including veteran tech pub journalists, authors and supergeeks.

Of note is editor-in-chief Fredric Paul’s blog post about the challenges of supporting multiple mobile platforms in the enterprise. (Read the post here, “How Many Smartphone Platforms Do We Really Need?”)

And speaking of efficiency and CIOs,  PC Helps is a sponsor of Windows Intelligence, the largest one-day Microsoft conference in California. The conference is being held on March 29, 2010, in person and online. Brian Bradley, PC Helps’ VP of business development, will be speaking about Office 2010. Visit the Windows Intelligence web site for more information and to register. (Be sure to use Microsoft promo code PCHELPS for a discounted rate.)

MORE INFO IN: Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

I understand we’re in a recession, and the pressure for you to prune your budget is great, but how on Earth do you expect to get the same quality IT outsourcing for less money? I didn’t major in business, but I do know that in a capitalist society, nothing is free. Didn’t they teach you that in economics 101?

Here’s the thing: Trying to save a dollar here and a Euro there during a recession is shortsighted, sir. You need to think long-term. To try to envision the copious ROI that will come your way. I think it was my grandma who said “You reap what you sow” – although someone may have said it before her.

If you put on your MBA cap, you will see that skimping on your IT support will cost you in the end.

If you put on your MBA cap, you will see that skimping on your IT support will cost you in the end. Your employees will call for help only when their monitors are on fire, or when they forget their password for the fifth time in a month. That’s hardly big-picture thinking.

They will not call when they need help with an Excel pivot table; maybe they’ll fudge it, and perhaps get a figure incorrect, throwing off the numbers for the project they are working on. That could cost you dearly, Mr. CIO. But I suppose what you don’t know won’t hurt you, or, what you can’t see doesn’t exist. My grandma didn’t tell me that. That may have been Dr. Phil.

So anyway, when it comes time for another whopping project, maybe an Access database to be used by an entire department, the pivot table employee will wing it again, and he might bring in the help of a colleague, who knows a wee bit more about Access. The two of them will tinker around with their pet database, and maybe they will get it 98 percent correct. Close enough, right? No, sir. That 2 percent will come back to haunt you.

If you didn’t skimp on IT services, your employees could have called a database expert for help. Although on the surface it may seem more expensive (if you don’t see the demand, does that mean it’s not there?), it’s actually saving you boatloads of grief, and money, over time.

What’s more, that expert will not only fix a misbehaving database, he will also show your employees how to approach database design the proper way. His company will then furnish you with a report that details call complexity for all employees, which can help you identify future training needs. That’s awful nice of him and his employer.

You have the right to try to squeeze the same services out of a provider for less money. That’s why they made you CIO. But don’t say I didn’t tell you so when you are staring at the numbers, waiting in vain for ROI to show up.

Sincerely,
Jen Darr

MORE INFO IN: PC Helps eTraining |Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Part Five, the White Paper:

The anticipation of rolling out Office 2007 and Vista to thousands of end-users has many IT professionals sounding like kids at the doctor’s office who are about to get a shot. The question they just can’t get out of their minds is, “How much will it hurt?” Unlike the one-and-done shot, software migrations can cause pain in at least three areas over several months, even though they will provide long-term benefit.

The first impact is on end-users. The new interface will result in confusion surrounding the common functions that have been performed daily and without effort for years. The most common query with previous version changes was how to find a particular menu. With Office 2007, it will be, “Where did all the menus go, and what is this ribbon?”

Last in a five-part Office 2007 migration readiness series.

The second impacts the IT staff. Immediately following deployment, the help desk will likely be bombarded with support questions from end-users struggling to keep their heads above water. The initial balancing act of supporting daily network and proprietary applications, in addition to Office 2007, will be the catalyst for ongoing pain for both end-user and IT staff alike.

When the sting begins to wane, the next wave of pain will commence. As end-users become more familiar with the interface, they will discover new features within Office 2007. Finding these features doesn’t necessarily mean they will know how to use them, thus high call volume to the help desk will remain steady. Unless the help desk staff completes pre-deployment Vista and Office 2007 training, they will be in the same position as the end-user. Productivity may cease, especially in the IT department.

The third impacts the business. How will a decrease in productivity without proper support impact the bottom line, and for how long? If Mary is churning out a dozen reports a day utilizing Access and Excel, how long will it take her to get back up to that clip using the new version? Interface changes increase support needs more than added functionality because the latter affects only those who try to use the new features. The former affects all users, novice or pro. In previous Microsoft Office version migrations, the applications with the most significant interface changes got the phones ringing at PC Helps.

Is there any comfort at the end of this doctor’s visit? With an Office 2007 and Vista migration assurance program and plan in place, companies can avoid most of the sting. Office 2007 and Vista offer very few new functionality features, of which almost none will concern the typical end-user. The purpose of changing the upfront interface in Office 2007 and Vista is to help end-users and IT professionals find more advanced features they have been missing for years because they would have had to dig for them.

The challenge will be bringing users up to speed with the tools they have been using for years. The bulk of that work will need to be done prior to deployment or within the first few weeks after installation. A lack of immediate support resources will result in a surge of calls to the help desk. Without complete training in the new and old versions, the help desk staff’s effectiveness and the users’ satisfaction will suffer.

READ THE SERIES: Part One, The Big Picture | Part Two, Readiness Checklist | Part Three, Staffing Matrix | Part Four, a Case Study

FIND MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Checklist + Tools | Migration Case Study | PC Helps eTraining | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Part Four, a Case Study:

Client Profile
Toys-R-Us, a public, U.S.-based, consumer goods company with 6,000 global PC end-users.

Business Challenge
Toys-R-Us made the decision to migrate all global end-users from Microsoft Office 2003 to Microsoft Office 2007. The company realized that it didn’t have the internal support resources to handle the learning curve end-users and IT staff would face, nor did it have the training aids available to deliver quick adoption and continued workflow.

With the company’s Office 2007 upgrade investment, it was vital that IT leadership not only prove ROI on their decision to upgrade, but accomplish this while remaining within budget and not compromising productivity levels.

Solution
Today, the company’s internal help desk handles all hardware, networking and proprietary application support and outsources their “how-to” desktop application issues including Microsoft applications to PC Helps Support.

Fourth in a five-part Office 2007 migration readiness series.

In October 2007, the company decided to migrate all knowledge workers to Office 2007. They chose PC Helps Support as their Office 2007 migration assurance partner for several reasons, including:

• End-users’ existing confidence and comfort with PC Helps’ “how-to” support
• The program offers on-demand support and training — 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• Pricing is scalable and usage-based, which allows the company to remain within budget
• The program provides ongoing, solution-based call reporting and quality assurance reports, which provides IT leaders with proof of ROI

Toys-R-Us rolled out Office 2007 to 30 end-users per day through the projected completion date. Windows XP operating systems remained with no immediate plans to upgrade to Vista. PC Helps’ client services team worked with the company’s corporate communications department to create and coordinate a global education awareness campaign about the timing and schedule of deployment and the array of support outlets that were available for Office 2007 questions and issues. The company changed the help desk voice menu to include Office 2007 “how-to” questions, which continue to be exclusively handled by PC Helps.

PC Helps extended its migration assurance program beyond on-demand phone support by offering an array of training formats before, during and after deployment. Toys-R-Us utilized PC Helps’ on-site training twice a week, two times per day, from October through December, and all knowledge workers were required to attend. IT staff members responsible for supporting executives were required to take advanced-level courses as well. PC Helps offered 30-minute, live, instructor-led, web-based e-training classes throughout all stages of the migration, and continues to provide training to employees today. This multi-prong training approach allows for maximum adoption in the shortest amount of time.

Results
By utilizing the PC Helps migration assurance program, Toys-R-Us successfully migrated 6,000 end-users from Office 2003 to Office 2007 in a four-month period with minimal impact on productivity levels.

IT leadership was able to prove a return on investment by providing quality assurance reports and solution-based call reports, which illustrate high customer-service levels, continued learning, and time savings.

Quality of Service
Toys-R-Us’ employees rated PC Helps’ service a 9.5 out of 10, based on the following key performance measures: Speed of connection, phone manners, product knowledge, speed of solution and overall.

Response Statistics
Abandon rate: 0.32%
Time to reach a certified computer consultant (including ring time):
• Under 5 seconds: 90.8% • Under 15 seconds: 90.7% • Under 30 seconds: 92.7%

Downtime Analysis
Based on survey responses, employees estimated the time to resolve their support issues without PC Helps would be 2.94 hours. Based on industry averages for labor costs, overhead, and benefits, the client’s hard-dollar savings by having PC Helps resolve these Office 2007 support issues in just a few minutes amounts to approximately $73.57 per call.

Next up, a white paper, “How Much Will An Office 2007 and Vista Migration Hurt?” (Jen Darr)

READ THE SERIES: Part One, The Big Picture | Part Two, Readiness Checklist | Part Three, Staffing Matrix

FIND MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Checklist + Tools | Migration Case Study | PC Helps eTraining | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps

Part Three, the Matrix:

At no other time is staffing more important than during a software migration, when employees will be struggling with or even resistant to the challenges of change. There are education awareness campaigns to launch before, questions and install issues to field during, and inevitable glitches that show up after. And that’s just a slice of what to expect.

Third in a five-part Office 2007 migration readiness series.

You have four basic choices in staffing for a migration: hiring additional full-time employee(s); bringing in temp workers; contracting with an all-in-one outsourcer; or hiring a best-of-breed company. (Of course there’s a fifth choice – migrating without a staffing plan – but we’ll skip that option. You should too.)

Here’s a look at the pros and cons of each:

In principle, hiring additional full-time employees keeps the control in your hands, but doesn’t make sense financially or logistically. You will need to train new employees on the entire Office 2007 suite, pay benefits, and dole out extra expenses for an after-hours support skeleton crew.

Such a significant time and money investment (at about $85 per call) does not make sense when you consider that you have no guarantee the new FTEs and your existing IT staff will be able to cover a full-swing migration while maintaining their regular duties. What’s more, your new employees will be generalists, supporting only a dozen or so applications. The average peak hold time for this solution is nine minutes, and the call abandonment rate is 10 percent.

At an average of $96 a call, temps are pricier than their full-time counterparts, and don’t even deliver better service (15 percent abandonment rate). A temp solution offers generalist support and an average 15-minute hold time during peak hours. It does not provide training, advanced Office 2007 support, or awareness campaigns.

Choosing a larger outsourcer seems like a smart option if you already contract with one for other services. At $59 on average per call, this option is cheaper than hiring temps and full-timers. Also, some all-in-ones offer training in conjunction with a migration. The downside: The staff is mostly generalists whose first language is not English. Some big outsourcers employ tiered-model desks as well. When you factor in the 10-minute peak hold time and 15 percent call abandonment rate, this option loses its luster.

The fourth option, a best-of-breed, is often written off as boutique-y and expensive, and even more so during an economic downturn. The offerings are definitely high-end: domestic Microsoft-certified consultants; support for more than 160 applications, including advanced-level Office 2007; training courses and awareness campaigns; after-hours support; no hold time; a call abandonment rate of .01 percent; and a 91 percent first-call resolution rate. The price is anything but expensive, however, at an average of $25 per call.(Jen Darr)

READ THE SERIES: Part One, The Big Picture | Part Two, Readiness Checklist

FIND MORE INFO IN: Office 2007 Migration Checklist + Tools | Migration Case Study | PC Helps eTraining | Desktop Application Support | Contact PC Helps