Surely you’ve heard the term “consumerization of IT.” The trend has been around for a few years now, long enough to have its own acronym, CoIT.

If you’ve been playing along when your colleagues discuss it, pretending you know what they are talking about, these two recent online features will save you from any future awkward business conversations.

Two sites offer a comprehensive look at the IT consumerization trend.

The first is an easily digestible, 15-minute animated video from Microsoft. With interviews from people on the street and Microsoft techies, the video covers everything consumerization, from definitions and history to security and compliance concerns. If you don’t like cutesy cartoons, the page has links to six documents including two Forrester reports and a FAQ.

Watch the video here.

The other feature is a debate between two techies, Orin Thomas and Mike Resseler, and it’s a little brainier. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Consumerization of IT Aeron chair, Forrester, Mike Resseler, Mobile Devices, Orin Thomas, tablets, WindowsITPro.com

It was about two years ago, and there was a particularly terrible car wreck near PC Helps’ offices in Bala Cynwyd, a suburban town on Philadelphia’s city limits. Someone hit a pole (or something like that) and our entire office building had no Internet or external e-mail.

As a tech support consultant, I rely on Internet access for many things, including, most importantly, remotely connecting to my customers’ machines and being able to search for information about the problems they are having.

(For the record: Our other office in Ohio was not affected, so our customers were fine.)

For a good part of the morning, I had to provide tech support using some innate intelligence I didn’t think I had.

After the initial shock of not being able to see my customers’ desktops and find external knowledgebase articles, I righted myself and successfully made it through the calls.

But the experience stuck with me, and, at the time, got me thinking about how PC Helps functioned almost 20 years ago, when it first switched on its phone lines. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Help Desk, Rants FedEx, floppy disk, Internet, iPad, Mobile Devices

Although the new devices debuting at the Consumer Electronics Show are dominating tech news this week, we came across two articles about the state of the help desk that warrant mention. The first, from Computerworld, reports that help desk calls in business are increasing; the second, that university students and faculty are sorely lacking in skills to get their tech problems solved quickly and efficiently. Read on:

In Computerworld, writer Patrick Thibodeau reports on a recent study conducted by the Help Desk Institute (HDI), in which researchers found that calls to the help desk increased for the second year in a row.

Some university help desk services need a technological makeover.

Thibodeau says researchers point to a number of factors that could be contributing to the increase: a multiplatform workplace, a more centralized help desk and thus better recordkeeping, complicated software upgrades, increasing awareness of help desk services, etc.

He quotes HDI analyst Roy Atkinson, who points to the fact that IT complexity is increasing, especially as users seek to connect multiple devices, including mobile phones, tablets and laptops to corporate networks. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney What We're Reading Bomgar, HDI, Help Desk, Mobile Devices

According to an Aug. 12, 2009, Computerworld UK article, six out of 10 CIOs were not able to measure the financial effect outsourcing had on their company. The result has been a whole lot of pointed fingers, canceled contracts and dissatisfied customers.

Stop clinging to the old rules, which said that if you hired an outsourcer with a pretty SLA, things would work themselves out. Try a new tack. Here are six things to look for in an outsourcing outfit:

1. First-level certified consultants: First-call resolution rates are higher, and callers are less likely to be put on hold and bounced around from tier to tier.

Stop clinging to the old rules, which said that if you hired an outsourcer with a pretty SLA, things would work themselves out.

2. After-hours and round-the-clock coverage: If you think keeping a tech or two on the clock to cover after-hours calls suffices, think again. It penalizes employees who work off-hours or in other time zones. An outsourcing company should offer the same level of support at any hour of the day.
3. Advanced-level support: Advanced-level requests should not be treated with any less urgency than basic-level calls. The result will be less worker frustration and downtime.
4. Wide range of supported applications: Mobile devices are becoming essential tools in the workplace. Hiring an outsourcer that supports a range of applications, plus mobile devices like the iPhone and BlackBerry, translates into less downtime and positive overall image of the help desk.
5. Smart training programs: If a help desk focuses solely on break-fix issues, it’s just serving as a Band-aid. By addressing employees’ needs with training, you’re not only fixing the Read more…

Jenny Sweeney ROI BlackBerry, CIO, Computerworld UK, Help Desk, iPhone, Mobile Devices, SLA, software support

I cannot say if productivity was a watchword 10 years ago, when salaries were fat and perks were plenty. It’s definitely on everyone’s minds these days though, when many companies have smaller staff and employees have fatter workloads.

Throw social networking and other electronic communications like e-mail and instant messaging into the mix, and productivity becomes a greater challenge for employees.

In particular, the study found that those who IMed frequently with their bosses were more productive than those who didn’t.

Well, that’s what conventional wisdom says.

MIT and IBM present a different case. In a study published in April, researchers at the two institutions found that instant messaging and other forms of constant communication actually increase employees’ productivity levels. Another win for Chatty Cathy. (For Win 1, see the post “Facebook Addicts + YouTubers = Sharper Employees?“)

According to an article by Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, the researchers analyzed the e-mail traffic, buddy lists and social networking friends of 2,600 IBM consultants over 12 months. They compared the consultants’ communication patterns against their performance in billable hours. Those who maintained constant communications averaged an increase in revenue of $588 per month over the average, while those who did not produced $98 per month less than the average. Read more…

Jenny Sweeney Outsourcing, ROI, Worker Productivity Ars Technica, FACEBOOK, IBM, Jacqui Cheng, MIT, Mobile Devices, YouTube