Social Networking as Help Desk
Some interesting observations from a new survey focusing on IT and Social Network usage within larger businesses, but one bit in the article really jumped out at me.
End users gave many reasons for doing an end-run around their IT departments: IT is too slow, they have little confidence in the department’s problem-solving abilities, they felt more comfortable working with people they knew. (Emphasis added)
There are real risks to being nameless and faceless within your own organization, as we’ve discussed before. If you’re in an IT support role, one of those risks is end users hitting up their social networks for assistance, instead of you.
On the flip side of this, your end-users have options other than working directly within the IT framework. You may think they are doing things using the tools you’ve provided, and within the constraints you’ve put in place just because you don’t support other options. Don’t think for a second that savvy end users can’t work around that, and use the information available to them online for the support you won’t provide.
The world has changed, people can and will work around their IT departments if they have to, and how safe will your job be if they feel the need to do so more and more frequently?
This is true. I keep an eye on the Twitter traffic mentioning the brand names for our clients. The users (mostly higher students) ask each other where information is located, how to get past problems, and why is it down? I have been asked not to help them because they are not using the official support channels.