How IT Pros Can Win Workplace Technology Battles

by Kenton Gray on May 28, 2018
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Depending on who you ask, the IT team is either a group of knights in shining armor who have the power to fix any technology issue or the meanies who won’t let employees bypass firewalls to stream Netflix.

But regardless of how the workforce perceives them, IT pros generally spend the bulk of their days trying to make the company run more smoothly and ensuring employees have what they need to be efficient and productive.

Sometimes accomplishing those objectives is easier said than done. But if you’re an IT professional, there are a number of things you can do to increase your chances of success.

Empower the Workforce

We’re all familiar with the saying, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.”

It’s true in the workplace, too. Showing employees how to use new workplace technology and troubleshoot problems on their own benefits both the IT team and employees in other departments.

Take the time to periodically show employees how to do things like performing routine updates, freeing up space on their devices or checking their Wi-Fi speed. Offering some basic training and sharing tips and tricks on occasion can save you a lot of hassle later.

Streamline Service Requests

Of course, there are plenty of instances when employees legitimately need help.

And there’s nothing more frustrating than having to wait hours or even days to get help because their IT request got lost in the shuffle. At the same time, cumbersome help desk technology can actually cause more headaches for the IT team.

If it’s difficult to submit service tickets or IT pros have no way to track the progress of a request, employees may resort to fixing issues themselves, often making it worse in the process.

To avoid hassles like these, the IT team can push for the implementation of user-friendly workplace technology, such as the Hummingbird EX app from iOFFICE. It allows employees to submit and track service requests right from their mobile device and sorts them based on the type of request (so you don’t get forwarded a bunch of requests from the facilities management team a day later).

Consolidate Workplace Technology Interfaces

When an employee gets to work, one of the first things she’ll do (right after getting coffee, of course) is log into the myriad applications she’ll need for the day, including email, chat and task management.

While (presumably) every application is helpful, it’s still a hassle to not only have to login to several different interfaces but also switch between them throughout the day. Plus, the more technology she has to use, the more opportunities there are for issues.

Rather than adding yet another interface, the IT team should find ways to integrate new technologies into the existing infrastructure. Doing so offers two advantages:

1. It reduces the number of environments where things can go wrong.

2. It allows data to be transferred directly, rather than requiring manual input.

As a result, efficiency is increased, human error is decreased and everyone in the workplace is just a little bit happier.

We have one more proverb for you, this time from Ben Franklin: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Be proactive. Invest time and resources in preventing workplace technology battles before they start. Your future self will thank you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kenton Gray

Kenton joined iOFFICE in 2002 as the company’s Chief Technology Officer and now manages a team of ten developers and programmers. When we develop a new module or do a major upgrade, Kenton is the one who envisions the project and designs it from scratch.

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