Unit 12: IT Technical support
Future trends in IT technical support
New companies and applications will help to widen the internet and expand our technical support. The Google glasses are a future trend because you can now speak and see people and friends through your eyes while you are on the walk. The future trends in IT are making our lives easier with technology and an example of this is the Google glasses because this means that you don't need a phone because of the glass and many other things that the glasses will make your life easier. cloud computing is also another future trend and this is basically another place where you can store data and information. More trends are things like websites are expanding and they are having website chat on their websites so you can talk to people about things you might want to know about on their website.
We are used to computers and machines that we operate using our hands but some of the future trends and making it easier in the way that we are using the computer by making the keyboard and mouse more comfortable and faster to type with. such as touch screens. With IT evolving so is customer service and making it easier for customers to buy their products through the internet or even in store. With the increase with trends more employment opportunities are coming around and means more and more jobs are being offered to people. Digital technology is helping to improve businesses online because of online shopping and being able to apply for jobs online and searching various products. Dell are using video talking now so that you can communicate with other people who are using the same web.
Tools and techniques
Control panel- On the control panel you have install and uninstall programs on the uninstalled menu. You can also change other things on the control panel such as the resolution of your screen to make it fit to the size that you want
Defrag- This is a tool which is used to clean up your hard drive and compresses files so that it makes room for more documents. Also when you defrag your computer it means that your computer will run a lot quicker and smother.
Disk clean up- this is basically used to free space on your hard drive and to remove any unwanted or useless data. Any files that it finds that you are not using anymore and have no use for then it will delete them off your computer.
Anti-virus- Every computer should have a anti virus installed or at least a free version of an anti virus. Anti viruses prevent any malicious data to be getting into your computer. Different anti viruses have different potentials to protect your computer, so for some of the paid anti viruses it might mean that you will have more frequent updates for any of the new viruses.
Software diagnostics- This is used to solve or find out any faults which you might have with your computer and find out solutions for them. It finds the problems that you might have with your hardware and your software that you might have with your computer.
Control panel- On the control panel you have install and uninstall programs on the uninstalled menu. You can also change other things on the control panel such as the resolution of your screen to make it fit to the size that you want
Defrag- This is a tool which is used to clean up your hard drive and compresses files so that it makes room for more documents. Also when you defrag your computer it means that your computer will run a lot quicker and smother.
Disk clean up- this is basically used to free space on your hard drive and to remove any unwanted or useless data. Any files that it finds that you are not using anymore and have no use for then it will delete them off your computer.
Anti-virus- Every computer should have a anti virus installed or at least a free version of an anti virus. Anti viruses prevent any malicious data to be getting into your computer. Different anti viruses have different potentials to protect your computer, so for some of the paid anti viruses it might mean that you will have more frequent updates for any of the new viruses.
Software diagnostics- This is used to solve or find out any faults which you might have with your computer and find out solutions for them. It finds the problems that you might have with your hardware and your software that you might have with your computer.
VNC virtual network computing- this is when you can access your own computer from another computer and being able to use your own computer while on a different computer. When they are watch they can see what the admin is doing and can also control as well as them. This is used in colleges or schools encase someone has a problem with their computer then they can call IT technical support and they can resolve your problem on your computer.
Toolkit- This is used to help fix your PC and comes with useful tools that helps you fix the PC, Technical support use the toolkit to help them.
Task manager- The task manager can access your computer whenever and can see what you have been looking at. His job is to keep you on task and to make sure that you are not doing anything that you are not supposed to be doing such as looking at holiday websites. They can also end whatever you doing if they think it is not appropriate.
Remote access is helping in IT technical support because of security and it is helping make login onto your computer safer and more difficult for other people to find out your password. companies use remote access because it means that their work is backed up and safe. Remote access provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection.
Techniques
Questions- you can ask the person face to face to find out what the problem they are having and how to fix it. Or you can use telephone and ask them step to step what the problem is with their computer to try and get it fixed. Asking the technicians questions will make it quicker to fix the computer.
Fault log- Fault logs are used to give you notes of the problems that occur and then when you click on the problem it will give you a brief description of what the problem is. This allows the technician to keep track with the faults which have occurred in the past and would be able to solve the problems in the future.
Database- You can use the database to solve faults that have happened in the past and you can go back to the database to solve the problem because there might have been a problem that you have solved in the past to help you. Once you have solved the problem you can add it to the database for any future problems.
Monitoring tools- is a way to monitor what is happening on your PC. You can use software such as lightspeed to control what websites you can not look at and the way it does this is it checks the URL to see if there are any X's or any inappropriate information in the URL.
Toolkit- This is used to help fix your PC and comes with useful tools that helps you fix the PC, Technical support use the toolkit to help them.
Task manager- The task manager can access your computer whenever and can see what you have been looking at. His job is to keep you on task and to make sure that you are not doing anything that you are not supposed to be doing such as looking at holiday websites. They can also end whatever you doing if they think it is not appropriate.
Remote access is helping in IT technical support because of security and it is helping make login onto your computer safer and more difficult for other people to find out your password. companies use remote access because it means that their work is backed up and safe. Remote access provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection.
Techniques
Questions- you can ask the person face to face to find out what the problem they are having and how to fix it. Or you can use telephone and ask them step to step what the problem is with their computer to try and get it fixed. Asking the technicians questions will make it quicker to fix the computer.
Fault log- Fault logs are used to give you notes of the problems that occur and then when you click on the problem it will give you a brief description of what the problem is. This allows the technician to keep track with the faults which have occurred in the past and would be able to solve the problems in the future.
Database- You can use the database to solve faults that have happened in the past and you can go back to the database to solve the problem because there might have been a problem that you have solved in the past to help you. Once you have solved the problem you can add it to the database for any future problems.
Monitoring tools- is a way to monitor what is happening on your PC. You can use software such as lightspeed to control what websites you can not look at and the way it does this is it checks the URL to see if there are any X's or any inappropriate information in the URL.
Central infrastructure
It is useful to have a central infrastructure because it makes your work more safe and less easy to loss because you have always got your work backed up. Central infrastructure are things like a memory stick where you can keep work on it and also Google docs can also be another place to save your work and this is because it means that your work is less easy to be lost and also this means that if your memory stick get corrupted then you have always got it backed up somewhere else. You can also have other places to store your data such as organisation databases.
Importance of keeping fault logs (M1)
The fault log stores all of the faults for the PC and will also describe them. The point of fault logs is to show you where a problem has occurred, so when you click on of the fault logs and it comes up with an error sign, then you can click it again and it will tell you the problem that you have. Then when you know what the problem is you can find out a way a solving the problem such as searching it. fault logs are important because it describes the problem and also tells you exactly where the problem is. There are three different colours for faults in a fault log and they are red, yellow and green, red means that there is a problem and it needs to be resolved, yellow means that it is a warning and green means that everything is fine and running.
One of the main reason to keep a fault log is that if there is any problem that you don't know how to solve then you can look at the description on the fault log and you will have a better idea on how to solve your problem. If you have know idea on how to get around the fault then you can copy and paste the description of the fault in Google and there will always be a way of getting around the problem you have.
The fault logs need to be kept accurate because if there is to be a problem then you can look back to past fault logs to resolve the problem quicker and more efficient. Having a accurate fault log will make it easier to solve future problems and it means that if anyone else has a similar problem they then can look back to your fault log for help.
Examples of a fault log in technical support
Name of person- Jack
Title- Technical support
Time/date- 12:30 AM 11th August 2013
Description- The mouse would not turn on
problem- Mouse was not working
Impacts of organisational policies and procedures
These are some of the common procedures and policies within an IT organisation that they will take into account when carrying out work operations. Organisations need to make sure that they follow these policies and procedures to keep the organisation safe from viruses and security issues.
security- in an organisation they need to make sure that their network is secure because hackers might be looking at ways to break into the network and look at any information which might be valuable to the company, they also need to make sure it is secure because anyone could be looking at what they are doing otherwise and there are certain things that a company might not want other people to see because people could use the information against them.
viruses- in an organisation they need to make sure that none of their computers are getting viruses because this could mean that people are losing the work that they have on that computer and also the computer that they are using might be expensive and don't want to have the technicians constantly coming down to fix the computer. they would have to make sure that they have the right anti virus software which covers every virus and has regular updates encase of any new viruses, normally companies are supplied with free anti virus software.
copyright- in any organisation they will not allow any sort of copyright and it is against all of their rules, if any copyright claims are put on you then you might have to go to court depending on what you have taken.
Internet use- when employees are using the internet they are not to be expected to be looking at any inappropriate sites and just be using the internet to help them do the work that they are there for, some site the must not be looking at for example is holidays or different jobs. Organisations don't want to be looking at your history and seeing that you have been looking at videos that are unrelated to their job.
Skype
Skype is used for communication to other people, some companies use Skype to talk to other employees about work that they are doing, in game design companies Skype is particularly useful because this means that they can still talk while they are doing work at home. They also can use the webcam feature that Skype has so that they can show ideas to one another instead of trying to explain it for about an hour. Skype is also very good because if you are trying to explain to someone a problem that they have then Skype might be a better way to talk to each other than trying to explain it over the phone because you can also show them the device that you are having a problem with.
Outsourcing
Outsourcing is where an arrangement is made in which one company provides for another company. Outsourcing is a trend and is becoming more and more common to do now because it makes it easier and also cost efficient. Outsourcing is a way to sell products globally which means more customers world wide.
Outsourcing advantages and disadvantages
Advantages
Some of the advantages for outsourcing are that it is cheaper, specialist organisation, time efficient, focus on other things. Outsourcing can help the company out on time management and costs because it means that they don't have to train the person to do the specific job. The reason why it would be cheaper to do outsourcing is because in places like India they have a lower income, so this means that they would work for less. Companies make more money of outsourcing because they don't have to pay for the employees health and safety. Outsourcing means that the companies have time to do other things which are higher priority and will give them more time to get all of their work done.
Another advantage of outsourcing is that the company can look for people who specialises in IT support and this will have a Hugh benefit to the organisation, this will mean that the organisation will be very experienced and be able to get more work produced.
Disadvantages
The disadvantages for outsourcing are language barrier, time zone, redundancy, customer dissatisfaction, different terminology. Outsourcing could also increase the lack of good quality work done in the workplace. Outsourcing can cause problems by using people from different counties because the language barrier will be different and customers often find it hard to understand what they are saying. Also in different countries they may use different PC and might find it hard to use the PC at first, this might be a problem if a customer has a particular problem with there PC. Not everywhere there is windows on every computer so they might find it hard to use, there are also different keyboard layouts in different countries.
Using different people from different countries for jobs means that people who live there are not getting a job and are staying unemployed, this is because of the fact that people from different countries work for less. Giving jobs to people from different companies is making people who live in the country unemployed and on benefits.
The reasons why organisations would choose in-house support rather than outsourcing.
The reason why organisations would rather go with in-house support rather than outsourcing is because with in-house support it specialise in one thing that might be useful to the organisation where as outsourcing does a variety of things which they know about but the don't just specialise in one thing. In-house also has a benefit because they employ people who already live there and instead of people who live in a different country so they would not get that language barrier.
If the organisation uses in-house it means that it is more efficient because of the fact that it is quicker because if there is a problem the you would be able to go and fix it, whereas if the organisation went with outsourcing it might take them a lot longer or they might not even be able to help the customer in need. Using in-house is also a lot more time managing because of the fact that the people there will get the work done quicker because they already specialise in the work that the customer would be asking them.
(D1)
Team viewer- Team viewer is a computer software package that allows desktop sharing and online meetings. team viewer can be used to set up discussions in an organisation while using face cam. You can also use team viewer to take control of a persons PC so that you can see the work that the person is doing or already has done.
Advantage
If you need help with some work that you are stuck on then you can use the share screen mode so that the IT support can help you with your problem and they can have direct access to what you are working on so it wont take a lot of time, and if you need more help then you can talk to them face to face to try and help resolve your problem.
Team viewer is compatible with all platforms which means that if you are needing to talk to someone in your company who are on a different platform then you can use team viewer to help with your problem. Team viewer means that you can connect to any PC and remotely control the PC even if there is no one at the PC at the time.
Team viewer is very secure because every time that someone logs off of team viewer on a PC it resets the password so that the next person to come on cant get straight onto team viewer. This also allows any network type such as LAN or WAN to connect to team viewer.
Disadvantage
If you have a bad connection then you might find it hard to connect to the internet and have problems loading things up straight away. If you have a problem that you need to fix and you have a bad connection then this would be bad because it might take you a long time to get the problem fixed. This would also be a problem when you are trying to talk to someone.
Another problem is that the address that the last person you where last on using team viewer will not get deleted and this could be a security problem for the user you where talking to using team viewer. But this feature is only on the free version of team viewer.
Once you have signed up to team viewer and used you username and password, other people will be able to access you work and you files along as if they have team viewer as well. this could be a problem if you have done lots of work and someone comes up and deletes all of your work. This would mean that you would need to back all of your work up before hand.
Team viewer- Team viewer is a computer software package that allows desktop sharing and online meetings. team viewer can be used to set up discussions in an organisation while using face cam. You can also use team viewer to take control of a persons PC so that you can see the work that the person is doing or already has done.
Advantage
If you need help with some work that you are stuck on then you can use the share screen mode so that the IT support can help you with your problem and they can have direct access to what you are working on so it wont take a lot of time, and if you need more help then you can talk to them face to face to try and help resolve your problem.
Team viewer is compatible with all platforms which means that if you are needing to talk to someone in your company who are on a different platform then you can use team viewer to help with your problem. Team viewer means that you can connect to any PC and remotely control the PC even if there is no one at the PC at the time.
Team viewer is very secure because every time that someone logs off of team viewer on a PC it resets the password so that the next person to come on cant get straight onto team viewer. This also allows any network type such as LAN or WAN to connect to team viewer.
Disadvantage
If you have a bad connection then you might find it hard to connect to the internet and have problems loading things up straight away. If you have a problem that you need to fix and you have a bad connection then this would be bad because it might take you a long time to get the problem fixed. This would also be a problem when you are trying to talk to someone.
Another problem is that the address that the last person you where last on using team viewer will not get deleted and this could be a security problem for the user you where talking to using team viewer. But this feature is only on the free version of team viewer.
Once you have signed up to team viewer and used you username and password, other people will be able to access you work and you files along as if they have team viewer as well. this could be a problem if you have done lots of work and someone comes up and deletes all of your work. This would mean that you would need to back all of your work up before hand.
Print management- within an organisation this is a term for
managing the print spend. There are various different ways print spend can be
managed with the employed.
Lightspeed- lightspeed software is a company that sells
content control and network management. The main purpose of lightspeed is not
allow anyone to go onto any inappropriate websites and the way the it would do
this is look at the URL of the site and look for key things such as X’s in the
URL and also anything inappropriate, this is most commonly used in schools and
colleges.
Monitoring software- this is software for monitoring the
desktop and online features of the company’s employees. You can also use this
software on your own desktop so that you can monitor what your family members
are happening. Monitoring software is not a lot different from spyware but what
monitoring software is simple just not allowing accessing you some certain
sites and spyware is where someone is spying to get information out of you and
access your account. This is also where someone is watching you without you
knowing.
DameWare- Dame Ware Mini Remote Control (MRC)
is a proven solution that lets you remotely control servers, notebooks &
laptops. With remote desktop sharing, you can control the remote computer as if
you were sitting right in front of it.
Face to face
