IT Manager : Handling Maintenance and Support

Oftentimes in the organization there are tasks that needs to be done on a regular basis. On the Infrastructure side we do backup, system health check and bandwidth monitoring. On the Software Development side we have some record updates, additional report creations and minor process changes that is too small to be treated as a project.

A Help Desk strategy to address minor issues can help organize the maintenance and support challenges of an IT Department. It acts as the filter wherein only the tasks that are not solved by Help Desk are being given to key IT people.

Setting it up:
1. Automate what can be automated.
2. Gather regular issues and concerns, so the organization can create a "Knowledge Databank"of their corresponding solutions.
3. Make "Knowledge Databank" accessible to the user, sort of like a self-service offering. This will be IT Department's first level of support.
4. Create a point/contact person for every process, He/she will address specific issues and concerns that is not answered by the "Knowledge Databank". These point/contact persons are the IT Department's second level of support.
5. Reaching to 3rd level is usually the time when that issue/concern has to be treated as a project. By then, the concern must be very difficult or has to take considerable amount of resources for it to be addressed. It will then be reviewed and prioritized like any other projects.

A Help Desk strategy is very important to organization so it can maximize it's IT resources. This prevents misappropriation of staff to lesser priority tasks.