Written By: Sean Fitzgerald Pres. IT-NetLogistics
As a group our help desk personnel have been involved in hundreds of “IT Product Rollouts.” We have collaborated as a group, to share some of our insight about opportunities you don’t want to overlook during these type of IT initiatives or deployments. To begin with, how many opportunities does a nationwide company have to visit each of their office locations? How many times will this same company have enough “Boots on the Ground” to visit each office and gather valuable information about each location? It’s our position that one of the rare times this situation will be available is during an “IT Rollout or Deployment.” When a new piece of equipment needs to be installed or changed out across your entire network it’s time to get serious not only about that initiative, but about the other opportunities that present themselves. Let’s talk asset management! During your project you will have a human technical asset visiting each of your locations. This technical person will either provide for the installation of a specific piece of equipment, or an entire new platform. So now let’s get serious about what information these human technical resources can provide to you at little to no additional costs. Haven’t you often wondered how much IT equipment and of what type is sitting in the back room of every one of your locations? Haven’t you ever wondered what type of telephone system is at each location and specifically how many new ports it may be equipped with for future growth? What if it was determined that over half of your locations had extra unnecessary port cards installed that could be used (rather than purchased) for other locations? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to dispatch a service technician to any of your locations knowing that they will or will not need any additional equipment because your inventory reflects this? All of these things and more are possible by having the technician fill out a data gathering site survey form (prepared by you) along with any specific photograph’s you request. How simple! How valuable! If your enterprise were to hire a company to perform these sight surveys you would find that the required time would be a minimum of an hour travel and perhaps an hour or more of on site time. We have seen these tasks take from two to four hours per location and oftentimes more. Since you will be involved in an “IT Equipment Rollout” you already have a technician visiting each of your facilities therefore, there is no travel and in reality, your provider should be willing to perform these services at no additional fees. Put some thought into what specific data gathering information would benefit your company and take advantage of this opportunity. Perhaps your equipment is leased and when the lease expires you are required to provide specific data for its return. As you think about the opportunity of having technical human resources visiting each of your locations there will be no shortage of ideas for data gathering opportunities. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words and if properly taken it will provide you with lots of valuable data.
Warm Regards
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