Interviewer: Ben Hoffman
User name: Lisa Aron
Background / Skill level: Production Support Manager, Industrial Light & Magic; high level of proficiency with technology.
Q: What are a few examples of your most regular tech problems?
A: If we or our users can't access our IS apps on the network drives, if Outlook is hanging or crashing, if the network is excruciatingly slow and we can't get work done. Most of my days are spent in meetings now so I deal less and less with hardware.
Q: What is your first step when you come across a need for help? How long before you escalate the issue to the next step?
A: Kill all the apps and restart. Then ask others around us if they are having a problem as well, or if they know of something going on system-wise that may be the cause. If that does not solve the problem, I will mail the help desk. They also have ticket tracking software they use, but I usually call them and have them create the ticket themselves, rather than access the app myself to submit the request. I prefer talking to a human.
Q: Does your company have an intranet site that offers FAQs or other technical help? If so, how often to they resolve your issue?
A: If there is, I don't know where it is and don't know anyone else that uses it. Maybe I should find out.
Q: Do you struggle to properly convey the nature of the problem to IT staff?
A: No. I love our guys. They talk to us and actually try and understand what we're dealing with.
Q: Typically how long before problem introduction to problem resolution?
A: Depends on the nature of the problem and the priority, which they assess internally; anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, and sometimes even longer. When things are taking an unreasonable amount of time and they have not even been looked into yet, I follow up with them and explain the level of urgency, especially since often we have users of our IS software that is dependent on them resolving IT issues for them.
Q: Does your IT staff have remote access to your system? If so, do you find this method useful? If not, do you think this would be helpful in your situation?
A: Yes. They do and I imagine it's useful because it means fewer trips they have to make on foot to do basic troubleshooting. We have a pretty big campus and they can save hours on a call by not having to get from one end to the other and drag equipment back and forth. We've had some security issues with it but we did an internal audit and fixed many of the problems.