Case studies

Five examples of missions undertaken by the consultant in IT support and management.

1. IT management demanding skills of coordination, determination and resilience to restore an IT infrastructure after its destruction by flooding
2. IT support where proactivity and database skills accelerated the resolution of tickets and overcame negative competition between team leaders
3. IT support where proactivity allowed the recovery of lost hardware and avoided a financial loss, and boosted the performance of a nearshore helpdesk
4. IT management where soft skills overcame user reluctance during a critical rollout
5. IT support where proactivity and soft skills improved the reputation of the local IT team, relieved tensions between workers and management, and boosted the performance of a nearshore helpdesk

Case #1

IT management demanding skills of coordination, determination and resilience to restore an IT infrastructure after its destruction by flooding

For an American plastics manufacturer : role of « Plant IT Manager ad interim » to replace the manager who is leaving the company, until a new manager is found.
Estimated duration : minimum 5 months.

Situation at startup

• Approximately 120 users spread on two sites (two factories).
• IT helpdesk outsourced in Latvia, consisting of one support agent not taking calls most of the time and relying on an answering machine). The agent is also supposed to oversee the validation of payments for suppliers invoices, which she doesn't do. The agent has no competence in IT nor in accounting.
• Server and network administration is handled by specialists in Latvia and Czech. Some server administration tasks and corporate applications are supported by a team in India.
• One month after the beginning of the mission, major floods hit several countries in Northern Europe. One of the client site was devastated by flooding which affected the server room. The IT rack swam in over 2 meters (7 feet) of muddy water for 24 hours and all premises were unusable.
• Three months after the beginning of the mission, the head office in the U.S. decided to completely externalise IT services with a new contractor in India and completely suppress local IT teams worldwide.

Solutions

• Setup a local replacement L1 support to compensate for the almost non-existent official helpdesk in Latvia.
• Manage suppliers and arrange with them for on-site interventions related to network infrastructure, UPS maintenance, CCTV expansion (thermal cameras watching for potential fires in the factory). When a supplier or remote team intervention demands a server shutdown, synchronize several interventions on the same day and hour in order to minimise downtime.
• Review and update the annual SOPs under GMPs (standard operating procedures ruled by Good Manufacturing Practices).
• Update technical documentation for both sites and translate it from French to English for the new service desk in India.
• Prepare the transition to the new IT service desk in India with its managers.
• Planning and evaluating the new server room installation with local suppliers.

Case #2

IT support where proactivity and database skills accelerated the resolution of tickets and overcame negative competition between team leaders

For a German bank : role of « IT Support Engineer » to replace the previous engineer who moved to another department in the bank, with tasks to deliver L2 on-site support and manage printers (all aspects).
Duration : 1 year.

Situation at startup

• Approximately 300 users in a head office.
• The bank is newly installed in Belgium after having bought the Belgian branch of another bank, and various data systems are being merged.
• The helpdesk uses a shared Microsoft Access database to manage tickets.
• The support team has bad reputation in the company, with poor metrics which the team leader tries to minimise by presenting them on sophisticated graphics the IT director didn't ask for.
• There is a blatant competition between all infrastructure and support teams following the merging, some team leaders back-stabbing each other, which negatively impacts service to users.
• A team in charge of server administration is made of two men affiliated to a trade union, protecting their territory by unnecessarily routing some tickets to them, which slows down their resolution.

Solutions

• Considering the extent of problems plaguing the IT service, the consultant went straight to talk to the local IT director, offering solutions which were immediately accepted.
• To replace the Access database with something more convenient, the consultant installed a Linux server on a simple workstation, created a MySQL database and developped a customised PHP application able to output metrics in a more suitable way asked for by the IT director. A new printable form was made to show a better perspective of relationships between teams involved in the ticket resolution.
• The consultant created new procedures (SOPs) to improve service delivery and more importantly the collaboration between L2 and distinct L3 support teams, skipping troublemakers whenever possible to speed up the resolution of some incidents and requests, therefore improving KPI figures.

Case #3

IT support where proactivity allowed the recovery of lost hardware and avoided a financial loss, and boosted the performance of a nearshore helpdesk

For an American pharmaceutical company : role of « IT Support Analyst » to deliver L2 on-site support and perform rollouts.
Duration : over 4 years of total collaboration spread on 3 distinct missions.

Situation at startup

• A Research & Development site with over 400 people in 4 buildings (animal house, laboratory for research and packaging, maintenance, management).
• Some recurring PC or network issues are undocumented and demand research.
• During the last period of collaboration (2 years), it was announced that the Belgian Research & Development site would close and be replaced with a new research center in China. Complete transition until closure took one and a half year. As team leaders and managers were progressively leaving the company, some tasks were left unattended.
• Shortly after the announcement, the local IT helpdesk is closing and is replaced with an outsourced unified European helpdesk in Poland, consisting of a team having no competence in IT. Consequently, tickets were excessively redirected to local support who was overwhelmed with requests.

Solutions

• Analyzing undocumented issues to find a solution that would later be added to the knowledge base.
• Many leased computers having to be returned to the supplier could not be found. The consultant took the initiative to create a database and search every corner of each building on the site to find these devices. About 300 pieces of hardware should have been found but the consultant actually found more than 400, as older machines had "vanished from the radar" over time. Every machine was located, inventorized with precision and eventually returned to the supplier. The consultant's initiative was praised by the site director, as it spared the company the obligation of paying high compensation to the supplier.
• The consultant took the initiative to coach members of the helpdesk to improve their skills and provide better technical coaching than their local team leaders. Progressively, performance improved to meet expected KPIs and SLAs.

Case #4

IT management where soft skills overcame user reluctance during a critical rollout

For an American medical accessories manufacturer : role of « Site IT Manager ad interim » to replace the manager who is leaving the company, until a new manager is found.
Estimated duration : minimum 3 months.

Situation at startup

• Approximately 50 users on one site.
• Server maintenance and applications management is performed remotely by teams in Ireland and India.
• Workstation rollout in a laboratory is delayed because of the lab manager's reluctance and fear of losing data.
• A customised machine in the factory that assembles product parts and packages them, then selects samples for lot validation, often freezes and delays the production.

Solutions

• Update all technical documentation.
• Buy new smartphones, workstations and laptops accordingly to corporate standards to prepare various rollouts.
• Setting up short teaching lessons with the lab manager and staff to explain how data are acquired, how they transit through qualified workstations, then are stored on remote servers.
• Schedule the lab workstation rollout with the local users and a director at the head office in the U.S.
• Intensify collaboration of L3-L4 support with the hardware manufacturer and better document the application.

Case #5

IT support where proactivity and soft skills improved the reputation of the local IT team, relieved tensions between workers and management, and boosted the performance of a nearshore helpdesk

For a German insulating material manufacturer : role of « IT Support Engineer » to replace a laid off engineer, deliver L2 support and perform rollouts.
Duration : 4 missions of 3 months spread on 2 years.

Situation at startup

• One site of about 450 people.
• The reputation of the local IT team is not good, with many users often complaining about insufficient on-site support. The team leader and lives far away from the site and experience uncomfortable commuting times. The other support engineer (team member) also complaints about commuting times and openly talks about his fear of the factory due to health hazards. for these reasons, both the team leader and engineer abuse telework and their duty to occasional visit other sites in Belgium and France to reduce their mandatory presence on the main site. User dissatisfaction reached the management who demands levelling up. The situation is critical at the factory where both workers and fthe factory director complain about IT installation requests being ignored.
• A new unified European helpdesk had just been setup in Poland, consisting of a team having no competence in IT. Consequently, tickets were excessively redirected to local support who was overwhelmed with requests.

Solutions

• To restore confidence in on-site support, visit the factory in the morning at least twice a week to shake hands with workers and enquire on issues that may grow into more critical problems.
• To restore confidence in on-site support, review old tickets and fulfill requests that went out of scope.
• To restore confidence in on-site support, occasionally show up in the management building with proper dress code, making oneself visible and putting order in disorderly hardware setups in the open space before any complaints are made, creating illustrated notes for meeting rooms to explain how to fix simple issues without having to call for support.
• The consultant took the initiative to coach members of the helpdesk to improve their skills and provide better technical coaching than their local team leaders. Especially, the helpdesk was enlightened about understanding user priorities and managing their availability in call-back tasks and remote software installations to speed up ticket resolution. Progressively, performance improved towards expected KPIs and SLAs.