A fundamental element of any company is IT support. This is in charge of receiving and issuing information from the entire organization, managing and providing technological solutions to business activities, and thus being able to continue with its processes. For this reason, you will get here 10 useful tips to optimize your IT support and ways to improve your company’s IT support to achieve business goals.
IT support may seem like just another area of the company. However, the work carried out by engineers, led by the IT Director, is essential for every company, since Managed IT support like Aquarius IQ provides solutions to incidents focused on systems, technology, and information. They help the commercial, administrative, accounting, etc. operations of the organization to move forward.
Poorly optimized IT support can limit the company’s ability to meet changing market demands. In addition, it can lengthen the time required to develop new solutions. For this reason, you will get these 10 useful tips to optimize your IT support to achieve your business goals.
- IT staff, equipment, and tools
It could seem like a very recurring theme in all similar blogs or articles. But equipping IT staff with inadequate and/or outdated software and equipment is synonymous with poor performance. This can result in wasted time on monotonous tasks that are detrimental to the development of internal IT processes, as well as your response time to requests. If the team is efficient, it will always work with what it has, but if you can offer more tools that, in turn, allow you to provide quick and efficient solutions.
- Constant training
As in any work area, computers and technology are constantly updated which help simplifies IT tasks. Lately, new processes, methods, tools, software, and techniques have emerged that support the development and improvement of IT activities. This contributes to the delivery of increasingly agile and efficient solutions to the rest of the company. For this reason and more, IT personnel must be trained in these new solutions and tools that contribute to the improvement of their work, and therefore, to a better response to incidents and solutions.
- Defined architecture
It is a priority for any IT support department to define a technological and service model that establishes written and communicated principles and guidelines, inside and outside the department. These guidelines can help manage the purchase, use, and recycling of the equipment that the company owns. Establishing an architecture of tools and equipment management processes can provide agility and order to the processes already established within the organization.
- Give independence to IT engineers
The activities of the IT support department may seem very systematic, and even a bit square. However, every IT engineer or user has a unique and creative way of doing their job. These ways of working and solving problems can provide greater effectiveness to the processes already defined in advance. If you allow every element of staff to work proactively and have the opportunity to bring their knowledge to bear, you might be surprised at how much time you can save and streamline the IT department.
- Integrate the IT support department into the business culture and goals
Many times, the IT department seems to live in a parallel world to the company, seeing itself as a provider of resources or maintenance that is not affected by what happens in the organization. The field of interpersonal and interdepartmental relations is very important to improve work dynamics and productivity. The first step can be to contextualize the IT staff about the technological needs of the company and their contributions to the overall operation of the business.
- Plan workflows and automate
Reducing unnecessary tasks within the IT support department is a big step toward improving workflow. The automation of some processes and proposing an organized flow that involves the IT staff, their time, and tools, can be a great ally for the department to function as a gear. The objective is that all repetitive activities are reduced to make way for the development of critical and truly essential work for the business.
- IT audits
These audits are control activities aimed at evaluating the use of Information Technologies and security within a company. Certain points of the audit support to review and qualify the design, performance, and compliance of the controls implemented in relation to IT. Having an external and neutral perspective can give you an indication to improve your processes, services, infrastructure, and information, and in turn, identify potential risks and areas of opportunity.
- Give feedback to staff
Whether positive or negative, feedback is essential to align the IT support team. If the leader observes that any of the department’s collaborators have areas for improvement at a specific point, whether it is attention or problem solving, he has the possibility of correcting, suggesting, or celebrating, immediately. The corrections at the moment can avoid failures in processes. In the same way, a word of encouragement can be extra fuel to improve the employee’s performance that same day.
- Make the company aware of bad practices
All the collaborators that make up the IT area have a specific and unique function. This department is not only responsible for managing internal computer systems. Also the technical support of the users, of delivering electronic services, and they are a fundamental part when making decisions regarding technology. Each company must be aware of the importance of the department for its processes and their development. However, this point is more focused on those practices that the department suffers as a result of bad practices within the company.
- Bet on innovation
As connoisseurs of everything that the company needs in terms of technology, the IT support department must be aware of the new changes in terms of trends. However, a conflict can arise when you ask for effective and efficient systems but do not invest time and money in improvements that can offer you a competitive advantage. But, if there is an investment for the improvement of tools, or new ideas to improve processes and flows, this can lead to an internal improvement and a satisfactory service for the company.
To conclude
The IT support provides the company with an increase in efficiency, an alignment of processes through the IT infrastructure and helps to achieve the goal. The tips that you get can help you manage workflows and work times, while also helping to improve team productivity.
