Six Years on For Columnist
I am constantly amazed how many people come into the shop with one of these articles – asking us “Can you do this to my computer?” Originally when I started writing Byte Me articles around 6 years ago I think that my Mum & Dad were my only audience. In fact my Mum still cuts out every article and we have a huge box of newspaper clippings at work that take pride of place among all of the computer parts.
This week marks yet another milestone as I coerced my builder Nathan into reshuffling some shelving and storage to make way for yet another technician’s desk. He kept up his usual great standard, found some much needed room and had a 7th tech space ready by late Wednesday night. Just as well as the sawdust had barely settled when a new tech joined the team at 10am the next day.
Our latest team member, Shaun brings quite a number of years of IT experience with him as well as a can do attitude. He has agreed to a one month trial however if his first day is anything to go by we may have already found ourselves another valuable member of the team. So what is driving these expansions?
Three weeks ago we picked up the 2nd of two large corporations that have joined us in just the last 5 months and this latest 85 computer strong company is also going through a change of ownership. So what does it take to get a project like this under control? In this case the number of changes, new servers and software licencing will consume around 500 tech hours over a 4 week period.
Once things are sorted it should drop back to around 40 hours of support each week but one of the biggest challenges is maintaining a level of support to all of our existing customers that they have come to expect. It can be quite a juggling act and the general nature of our industry does not help.
The IT industry is largely a disaster industry. If you are a big corporation then usually you have an accurate IT replacement program as continuity of service is the name of the game. However for home users and small businesses feeling the heat of tough economic times the luxury of replacement before failure is often not budgeted for.
Every day we have dead computers being brought into the store and nearly every time it is a disaster for that person. The pressure to get a PC back onto its feet or a replacement up and running is often immense whether it is to simply get a school assignment submitted on time or a point of sale system back on line.
In our industry you have to have enough techs to look at most new jobs within a few hours and to aim at providing a solution within 24 to 48 hours. Every job has a different level of complexity so some are completed within a few hours of being dropped off however some jobs simply do not have a quick fix, particularly if the problem is an intermittent one.
Until Shaun joined us this week we were certainly getting pushed but his help should once again shorten the average job wait time and keep customers happy. If you feel that your PC is close to throwing in the towel then consider that they are easier to replace when they are still running and that dictating the downtime is always better that waiting for the computer to decide it.
Kerr Solutions at 205 Musgrave Street is contactable on 49 222 400.
For more advice and assistance from Kerr Solutions, like and follow us on Facebook