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The Care and Feeding of Your Office Computer System
Written by
Joyce Mangelsdorf
DeVry University
Network and Communication Management
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The most important IT advice I would offer is:
- Document EVERYTHING
- Organize it in a way that other people can find the information(1)
- Back up early and often
Let’s start with documentation: When purchasing hardware, it is important to use one vendor, the same goes for your software. If there is a problem down the road, you have one point of contact, instead of seventeen.(2) Hardware and software should only be purchased if a purchase order is generated. That way there is a record of when the purchase was initiated. Copies of the purchase order and the corresponding invoice should be stapled together and filed (3). The files should be in a secure area, something with a mote would be nice.
No matter what your worker bees say, never, ever leave the software drivers with them. Sure as God made little green apples, when you have to rebuild their machine they will tell you IT has that software. They will swear this on the heads of their children. Don’t go that route. Take their software drivers when they first arrive, make copies of them and put them in the central working cd container (4). Then put the originals in the vault in the basement that is guarded by the troll.
The same reasoning applies to the software licenses. Every piece of software that is installed on your machines needs to be a legal, licensed copy; otherwise all kinds of hurt could rain down upon you. Keep the licenses in a safe place (by the basement troll would be good). Keep a copy of every license and which machine it is installed upon in a binder. (5)
Every time you install software, find a miraculous fix or figure out exactly how the hardware is supposed to be set up; WRITE IT DOWN. Don’t wait for the next day or later when you have more time – that will never come. Write it down, use screen shots and file it in a binder. Also store an electronic copy on your server in a central location where all your techs can get to it.
Last but not least, train all your employees to save their important data to the server. The operative word there is “important” data. Photos of the kids and mp3’s don’t really qualify as important. Back up your server faithfully and, if you can’t afford to off-site your tapes, invest in a high end fire proof safe. Important files will be erased or become corrupted. If you back-up your data and test the backup regularly you could possibly save the business and become the office hero at the same time. I think the tights are optional.
(1) This is the “Hit by the Bus” theory. If you are hit by a bus on the way in to work in the morning, it is very important that other people can carry on. Of course, if you’re really paranoid about people trying to take your job for themselves, you can write everything in Sanskrit.
(2) If possible, try to find a smaller company that really wants your business. If you have an issue with some of their product, it’s a lot easier to find someone to help you than if you need to deal with a behemoth.
(3) You probably don’t need to use the Dewey Decimal System to organize that file. The alphabet should do nicely.
(4) This is the one that all the techs will use for installs, so you might need to make a couple of copies. If your worker bee insists they must have the drivers, give them a copy too. Remember, it is in very bad taste to tell them it is their drivers and actually just put the “Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie” video on their disk.
(5) It wouldn’t hurt at this point to start the rumor about the guy who put illegal software on his machine; how the Feds came in one day…and he was never seen again.
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