It doesn't take long for the smallest problem in the IT industry to go wrong before it turns into a huge disaster. Things may look fine from the surface but it's just a matter of time before they become a problem.
Things begin to load slower, the network seems to be glitchy, and the same problem has to be fixed continuously. These are all signs of a disaster waiting to happen. It is best to stay on top of these minor issues in order to prevent a disaster that is waiting to happen.
Your IT guy may think he's doing a great job because he is getting fewer complaints as the days go on. Wrong. The less amount of complaints usually means that your employees have given up on trying to get their issues resolved. They are tired of calling IT support, wasting time while the issue "is being" resolved, or they have just lost confidence. Not having these small issues resolved can lead to bigger problems for your company's network.
"A decrease in help requests doesn't always mean the manager is doing a good job," Oli Thordarson, CEO of Alvaka Networks. "It usually means that the user community has lost confidence in that IT group. What comes next is growing shadow IT, alternate user support mechanisms, and then possibly firings and personnel shuffling."
People usually complain because they know someone will listen or do something about what they are complaining about. When people stop complaining it usually means its because someone has stopped listening. Or they finally got whatever they were complaining about handled.
Thordarson mentions that when users complain to their IT department, it is because they expect their IT shop to be responsive to whatever the problem is. A large number of complaints could be a result of a migration, update, or another major change; while a declining number of support tickets could result from an improvement or a long-standing process being resolved.
Is your team constantly having to get the same issues fixed? This is not okay. This usually means there is a hidden problem behind this headache of a problem that keeps reoccurring.
"Hidden work with late nights, minor but unexplained outages, simple tasks taking increasingly longer to complete – a death by a thousand paper cuts is all too frequently occurring in organizations," says Adam Serediuk, director of operations at xMatters, a notification and collaboration platform.
A certain amount of inefficiency is inherent in any organization, and most processes trade efficiency for effectiveness. However, when the same systems continue to break over and over, and no one takes the correct measures to prevent it from happening, it creates a hole that is hard to climb out of. The result of fixing the same things over and over usually results in extreme annoyance and employee burnout.
Don't let these simple problems continue to be pushback on your business. If these issues are continually having to be resolved with no success, it is going to hurt your company in the long run. Not to mention put your network at risk because of these unresolved vulnerabilities. Ditch your non-responsive IT guy or company for a corporation that won't leave you with down-time and a security risk.
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