It happens to every IT pro out there. After a long day of performing remote control sessions and analyzing your system performance, you go home only to find more end-users in need - but this time, they're your friends and family! They know you're the expert, they need help, and so it's only natural that they'll pick up the phone with the desperate plea: "My computer's not working! Will you come and fix it?" While providing high-quality service is part of your day's work, it's not necessarily your favorite leisure activity when you're off the clock. So we want to know:
Do you mind providing technical support to your family and friends in your spare time? It's OK, you can be honest - we all can relate!
The official release of SysAid 7.0 is now available! With over 130 new features, SysAid 7.0 is our largest release to date. It offers major new innovations and important enhancements to help you work more quickly, stay on track, and achieve your IT goals.
Major highlights include:
* New SLA/SLM module to improve and evaluate the quality of service you provide
* SysAid Calendar to stay organized and make your deadlines
* New API functionalities to integrate SysAid with your other applications
* SNMP enhancements for your network devices
* New iPhone application for your Apple gadgets!
This May marks SysAid's next step into the future of IT - our newest release SysAid 7.0 will be officially released on May 24, 2010!
With more than 130 features, SysAid 7.0 is our largest release to date. To help you learn all about SysAid 7.0 and what it can do for you, this newsletter is full of information about its new features, functionalities, and enhancements. Check out the SysAid 7.0 Flash Presentation for a comprehensive overview of what's new - SysAid 7.0 includes something for everyone! For a detailed list of all of SysAid 7.0's features, you can also read the SysAid 7.0 Beta Release Notes.
On Wednesday May 26, we'll be holding a free live webinar on the ins-and-outs of SysAid 7.0. Take a tour of our newest releasewith the SysAid Product Management Team - all you need is a web connection and speakers. This session will cover a comprehensive overview of all that's included in SysAid 7.0 as well as live demos of its most exciting functionalities. Register now for the Introduction to SysAid 7.0 Webinar!
You don't have to wait until May 24 to already get started with SysAid 7.0. Yesterday marked the [b]Beta release of SysAid 7.0, and SysAid Pathfinders are already busy trying out all of its new functionalities. Join the SysAid Pathfinder Program to experience SysAid 7.0 Beta and influence its release in these final stages of development!
In the spirit of our new release, we're gearing up for the next round of the SysAid Certification Program. It starts on June 3, so you'll have to register soon to catch the early bird discount of 10% off the regular price. This course will teach you important strategies, methodologies, and techniques within the context of new SysAid 7.0 features, so it's a great opportunity for you to master our latest release!
Finally, we here at SysAid are starting May with new energy and inspiration we gained at the first ever SysAid Technology Conference! Just a few days ago, almost 100 SysAiders joined us in Vegas for three amazing days that truly surpassed all of our expectations. We'll soon send you updates about all that happened there plus the dates and location of our next Conference! I want to extend a special thank you to all those who attended and made it such an extraordinary experience.
For more exciting SysAid news, insights on our new release, and a tutorial on the new SysAid Calendar, read the May SysAid Newsletter!
SysAid 7.0 is the largest SysAid release to date! Among its 130 new features, there's something for everyone to be excited about. If you're looking for better high-level management of your service quality, the SLA/SLM module is for you. Want to better communicate with your end-users? Send pop-up broadcasts to all users logged-in to your network. Maybe you want notifications if you've exceeded the number of purchased licenses of a software product. Because every IT department has its own unique demands, we want to know:
What SysAid 7.0 development are you most looking forward to?
The Beta release of SysAid 7.0 is now available, so you can now do more than just read about its new features - you can see them for yourself! Register now for the SysAid Pathfinder Program and get started with SysAid 7.0 Beta today!
It's hard to believe that on April 22, we'll be celebrating SysAid's seventh birthday! They say that 7 is a lucky number, if that's the case, then this anniversary marks a particularly successful SysAid season! First up: the Beta release of SysAid 7.0 is scheduled for May 3, 2010! This landmark release includes over 100 new features, a new SLA/SLM module, and many new additions that were developed in direct response to your suggestions and feedback.
To get a taste of SysAid 7.0 before its Beta release, check out a screenshot sneak peek of some of its new functionalities. While we can't reveal too much now, here's some of what you can look forward to: a new SysAid Calendar, improved speed and usability, and an entirely new edition of SysAid for all of your enterprise needs!
Want to be one of the first to see SysAid 7.0?Become a SysAid Pathfinder to take the Beta version of SysAid 7.0 for a test drive before its official release. This is your opportunity to influence SysAid 7.0 and give us the feedback that helps us make SysAid even better with every new release!
The absolute first to see SysAid 7.0 will be all those SysAiders attending the SysAid Technology Conference at the end of this month! Here's the great news: we've extended the registration deadline until Monday, April 12, so that means you still have almost a week to get all your paperwork in! Sign up now and see lucky number 7.0 with us in Vegas!
Last but not least, this April gives us fascinating insights into new IT Benchmark results! Read the April SysAid Newsletter see how the IT Benchmark module has already helped IT departments improve their performance and establish better helpdesk processes. The newsletter is also the place to learn howe to add required fields to your service request forms, get the scoop on 7.0 Wishing you a fruitful and successful spring season!
We all know that a career in IT is a demanding one, and unfortunately, technical malfunctions and support emergencies don't only occur in the comfortable nine-to-five timeframe of a standard workday. It's entirely possible that you've performed midnight remote control sessions from your own living room and often wrap up service requests while watching some TV in the evening. Others of you may put in enough hours in the office that once you leave work, your time at home is your own to enjoy as you see fit. So this month, we want to know:
How much do you work from home? Answer our poll and add your two cents!
Having been there for a "behind-the-scenes, making-of-the-movie" experience, I might not be objective, but I think the acting here is inspired! We just may come out with a director's cut that includes bloopers!
In case you missed this month's newsletter, I thought you all might be interested in checking out our Q&A with John Dix, Editor-in-Chief of Network World and IT Panel host of the SysAid Technology Conference. It's a pretty entertaining read!!
SysAid Technology Conference John Dix Goes on the Record and Joins Us in Vegas
Although the IT panel discussion at the SysAid Technology Conference will include plenty of IT talk about cloud computing, virtualization, and ITIL best practices, if John Dix's personality is any indication of where the conversation will lead, we're in for a candid, laid-back, and unforgettable experience!
We had the opportunity to sit down with John Dix, Editor-in-Chief of Network World and the host of the Conference's IT panel, for a little Q&A. With plans to turn the IT panel into an interactive, "roundtable" experience with all Conference participants, John shared his thoughts on tech innovation, the evolution of computing, and what it is about Vegas that he's most looking forward to. We also got the inside scoop on embarrassing moments in the life of a Network World reporter and why some things should stay "off the record!"
John Dix
Editor-in-Chief
Network World
How many computers do you own? What was your first computer? I bought my first computer in 1987, an 8086 NEC PC with very little RAM, 5M bytes of disk and a 56Kbps dial-up modem. That was a pretty snazzy machine in the day, and cost about $1,200. Today I have a Dell laptop that goes everywhere with me, and we have two more PCs and a Mac at home (wife and two kids). Oh, and of course my Blackberry is essentially a computer in its own right.
If you were stranded on a desert island, what piece of technology would you need to have with you? Just need my trusty smart phone. The telephone would help guide the rescue team to my little piece of paradise, the Web browser would enable me to figure out how to catch some fish, the email would let me keep up with work, and I could use the calendar to track the days left before rescue.
What are the biggest changes you've seen in IT since you began to write about the industry? March 10th marks my 30th year in the industry and in that time I've witnessed the mega shifts in computing. When I started out in 1980 we were just beginning to see the emergence of distributed processing which, as the name implies, involved installing smaller computers near where the work was required to augment the mainframes locked up in the glass-enclosed data centers.
And that, of course, gave rise to the local area networks that were needed to stitch together the newly distributed resources. Then came the PC revolution that took distributed processing to the next level, putting computing and a slew of personal productivity tools directly into the hands of workers.
While it was increasingly possible to network all these devices within a given organization, the Internet made it easier to link these computing islands, creating a more seamless fabric. Then the emergence of the Web standards was the crowning touch that fully democratized computing.
As networks have become more and more powerful, computing has, of course, come full circle. Since it no longer matters if the computer is on your desk, down the hall or across the country, organizations are recentralizing resources for cost, control and security reasons. Which brings us to today and the emergence of net-based cloud computing services. We are at the threshold of a whole new round of innovation that will unfold in dramatic fashion over the next five years or so.
What is the craziest thing that ever happened to you while interviewing someone for Network World? The craziest thing didn't happen to me, but I witnessed the immediate aftermath. I was approaching the boardroom and saw one of our female reporters saying goodbye to two vendor representatives and when she turned to me she was in a tizzy. She said she had her shoe off during the interview and had been rubbing her foot up and down the pedestal leg of the table, or so she thought. She had been concentrating on the conversation and was wondering why the guy across from her was getting increasingly fidgety. Turns out it was his leg. She was mortified.
Is there such thing as "off the record?" Most certainly. You cannot groom sources if they can't trust you with knowledge they don't want to see in print. You need that inside dope to get a complete picture of what is going on, which makes everything you do more valuable.
Aside from the SysAid Conference, what are you most looking forward to in Vegas? The warm weather (I'm escaping the snow in Boston) and some of the food. There are great restaurants all over the place.
What do you think is the most important quality for an IT professional to possess? The ability to keep innovating while contending with constantly changing business requirements, the emergence of new technologies, the daily firestorms, and the relentless press to do ever more with less.
What can SysAid Technology Conference participants expect from the IT Panel? Any time you have a chance to get top IT executives to sit down and share some of their experiences and thoughts about where we are and where we're going, it always makes for a fascinating conversation. Hopefully we can make it interactive and get the rest of crowd involved in the conversation, make it one big roundtable.
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Participating in this interesting panel experience will be top IT executives Daniel Oh of LG Canada and Ralph Warchol of Clayton Homes. Don't miss out on the opportunity to add your two cents to this discussion, see SysAid 7.0 before the rest, meet us face-to-face, learn all about SysAid, get practical skills to help you on the job, and network with other IT pros from around the world. This April, Las Vegas will be everything IT! Registration ends in a month, so sign up for the SysAid Technology Conference now!
SysAid Success Story IT’s an Exciting World of Innovation with Mike Parker
If you ever need to be reminded of why you chose to pursue a career in IT, talk to Mike Parker. Mike has successfully implemented and organized an efficient IT infrastructure at Brian Johnston & Co. Ltd with SysAid, and his attitude towards the greater world of IT is truly inspirational. For Mike, IT means more than providing technical support and resolving service requests; it’s an entire world of knowledge that gives him the opportunity to learn something new every day. “I think it is really exciting to be able to work in an industry that is constantly improving and growing,” says Mike. “There are very few areas where new ideas and technologies are being created every day. As someone who works in IT, you need to learn and grow with it, and it’s the challenge to keep improving that keeps me motivated.”
Mike Parker
Operational Systems Technician
Brian Johnston & Co. Ltd., UK “The relationship you can have with SysAid is what sets it apart from other products on the market.”
Since Mike’s implementation of SysAid at BJINS 18 months ago, his accomplishments have been truly impressive. He has successfully implemented and organized an efficient IT infrastructure with SysAid; as an active SysAid Pathfinder, he has made valuable contributions throughout the Beta testing of our new releases; he is an active member of the SysAid Community, always happy to help out fellow SysAiders with issues large and small. He’s even developing his own company to provide support and design services and is using SysAid to drive it forward! If there’s an example of somebody who embodies the spirit of SysAid, Mike is it!
An IT Department Transformed When Mike began working at BJINS two years ago, his mission was to bring the IT department into the twenty-first century. This was no easy task: facing an IT infrastructure about 15 years behind the times, Mike saw that there were no procedures in place to effectively report and resolve IT issues. His solution? The successful implementation of SysAid.
“Before my arrival to BJINS, the time it took to resolve most IT cases spanned over a week. One of the first issues we identified was the need to have an effective way of reporting IT issues. This is when SysAid arrived 18 months ago! My role has quickly expanded into a ‘one-man-band’ IT department which is heavily dependent on SysAid. Since our implementation of SysAid, most cases are now resolved on the day of reporting.”
A Pathfinder with a Vision As an enthusiastic SysAid Pathfinder, Mike is actively involved in the development and testing of every new SysAid release. For Mike, Beta testing is more than a QA process; it’s an opportunity to acquire new knowledge that can help him manage his IT department more successfully on a day-to-day basis.
“There’s always the frustration when you receive a newsletter about an upcoming release and you think, ‘I want it now!’ Being a Pathfinder allows you to get the new release just a bit sooner. I also like that Beta testing helps you learn SysAid a little better. You expand your own skills and learn about the new features in a way that makes a huge difference when working with SysAid day-to-day. Furthermore, it’s so refreshing to see a company that remains in such close contact with its customers and listens to what they want. The relationship you can have with SysAid is what sets it apart from other products on the market.”
An Ever-Expanding Knowledgebase Mike’s contributions to the SysAid Community help make it a valuable place of learning and collaboration for thousands of SysAiders worldwide. Eager to expand his own knowledge of IT, Mike is also committed to following up on questions that other SysAiders post.
“In the SysAid Community, you have the chance for free personal development. It has opened my eyes to different ways of approaching problems, and the Forums are fantastic – just by surfing around, you learn more about SysAid and IT in general. If you have a problem, you can post and find answers from other SysAiders, and you can get that feeling of satisfaction when you help solve someone else’s problem. You can also have good fun with some of the jokes that go around the Forums. Best of all, if you find the right post, you may even be able to get yourself a SysAid mug!” A Bright Future Ahead: What’s Next for Mike Mike’s commitment to excellence bodes well for his IT success in 2010, and he has exciting plans for the year to come:
“I am currently in the process of setting up my own company that provides support and design services, and I will be using SysAid to drive that forward. I have the exciting job of asking the question, ‘How can we use IT to make our processes work better?’ I love being busy and reaching the end of the day feeling as though I have achieved something, and hopefully with these projects, I can do both every day!”
Do you have a SysAid IT Success Story? IT’s a world of learning and sharing, and your own experiences can educate and inspire! We’d love to hear about your achievements. Send us your success story at marcom@sysaid.com.
For ICT Manager Petra Hillaert, working at Guylian is more than a delightful culinary experience (although she does admit to having privileged access to Guylian's chocolate supply!) Like all other organizations, Guylian - the Belgian chocolate manufacturer famous for its delicious chocolate seashells - depends on a strong IT infrastructure to keep business operations running smoothly. For Petra, this requires maintaining organized procedures to keep track of the many service requests that come her way each day. Having mastered the ins-and-outs of SysAid's Reports and Analysis Module, Petra is able to define and analyze important KPIs and pinpoint the specific issues that need special attention. Having established an efficient and precise means of evaluating all helpdesk activity with preconfigured reports, Petra can now more effectively resolve technical issues and provide a high quality support experience. More efficient processes, centralized access to data, and happier end-users - now that's something to really savor!
The Challenge: The Need for a Viable IT Management Solution While establishing and maintaining effective internal helpdesk procedures is no easy feat under the best of circumstances, the IT administrators at Guylian found themselves in a particularly tough situation about a year and a half ago: they had virtually no IT management solution to help them organize, prioritize, and automate their helpdesk processes. “Before our IT department implemented SysAid, we were working with just private email – not even a common mailbox – to track and resolve all service requests,” says Petra.
The Goal: Centralized Access to Data for Better Customer Support Guylian’s IT department did not have an effective means of supporting its organization. “Our biggest IT challenge is that we get many different questions from different end-users via email, telephone, and face-to-face,” says Petra. “We must make sure that we don’t lose a question while always being customer friendly. If end-users have problems, we need to give them feedback about the status of their service requests and when we are going to resolve them.” To provide this kind of support, Petra knew they needed centralized access to all of their IT data – and a new helpdesk solution.
The Solution: Implementing SysAid for Better IT Helpdesk Procedures In Guylian’s search for an IT management solution, “we were looking for a tool on the Internet that had both a good price and good functionality.” The tool they found that fit their criteria? SysAid. Now, a year and a half later, not only has SysAid helped Guylian implement better helpdesk procedures, but its Reporting module plays an enormous role in Petra’s day-to-day tasks. “I find the Reports and Analysis Module extremely helpful,” says Petra. “You can build as many categories as you want, such as a hardware list. I use this list to update my PC replacement plan, for example.”
The Strategy: Analyze, Prioritize, and Evaluate with Customized Reports If you ever wondered how the Reporting Module can work for you, just talk to Petra. With SysAid Reporting, she has developed IT procedures that are so methodical, so precise, that there’s no risk of a single issue slipping between the cracks. So how does she do it?
“With the Reports and Analysis Module, I have one place where I keep all open questions,” says Petra. “At any time, I can check on the status of these open questions – what the promised due dates are, for example, and other important information. I use SysAid to define KPIs such as the number of service requests opened versus the number of service requests closed every week. I can then analyze this data to see if I need to reevaluate and change the due dates. Perhaps there are issues that are less urgent and we can plan a reasonable timetable to resolve them. Furthermore, there’s a report that tells me the number of service requests that are not only unresolved but overdue. With this report, I address these issues in our weekly team meeting, and we’re able to give them our special attention.”
The Result: The Sweet Success of an Organized IT Infrastructure Guylian’s successful implementation of SysAid has done nothing short of transforming their day-to-day tasks and their ultimate IT performance. Before the implementation of SysAid, the only way Petra received service requests was via her private email. She had no way of knowing what other service requests were waiting in the in-boxes of her three other colleagues, and had no centralized access to crucial information. Now, not only has Petra implemented an infrastructure for effective helpdesk processes, but she also gets the most out of SysAid’s Reporting module to make these helpdesk processes work even better. With the data these reports provide, Petra analyzes her IT department’s performance, pinpoints the configurations that should be readjusted, and ultimately provides her end-users with better support.
One challenge SysAid has not yet helped Petra overcome? Access to an unlimited supply of irresistible Belgian chocolate! Like many of us, Petra faces the dilemma that Oscar Wilde so famously phrased: “I can resist everything but temptation!” Luckily for Petra, she has plenty of healthy distractions – running after her three young children, a hobby of playing badminton, and of course, the thrill of being a successful IT pro!
Accomplished something great with SysAid? Want to share it with others so they can do it, too? We’d love to hear about your achievements! Send us your story at marcom@sysaid.com and we just may feature you in an upcoming newsletter!
They say that March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb, and we hope that this saying is true for those of you who've been snowed in by blizzards over these past few weeks! In case weather conditions have kept you cooped inside for too long, we thought we'd create a special tech-focused newsletter to help you turn this downtime into an opportunity for IT success. (For those of you who've been lucky enough to enjoy warmth and sunshine, you'll of course benefit, too!) No matter the conditions outdoors, there's no better time to learn how you can get more out of SysAid, set new goals, and see how SysAid can help you achieve those goals. Let's kick-start this March with a bang of productivity!
So what's on the agenda? First up, tighter asset control - not only to increase efficiency, but also to save the environment! This month we're releasing not one but two flash tutorials on how you can achieve better asset management. One tutorial shows you how to quickly and efficiently track your software products; the other comes as a green IT tip on how SysAid can help you implement more eco-friendly practices in your organization. Learn how SNMP monitoring can help you reduce paper waste - it's better for the environment, and better for your budget, too!
Next up: how automated are your helpdesk processes? With a new IT Benchmark result now available, you'll see how organizations are using email integration to more efficiently handle service requests. After that, you can consider: are your helpdesk configurations as precise as they should be? Learn how Petra Hillaert of Guylian uses SysAid's Reports and Analysis Module to define KPIs and pinpoint the exact values that need readjusting in her helpdesk set-up.
Finally, SysAid's very own Director of Customer Service and Support Sarah Lahav gives us a lesson on SysAid's API and how it can help you centralize many of your IT processes - automatically. Regardless of your climate or time zone, this newsletter provides something for every tech preference!
This March also marks a significant anniversary for John Dix, Editor-in-Chief of Network World and host of the CIO panel discussion at the SysAid Technology Conference. Don't miss the exclusive Q&A session in which John reveals that March 10, 2010 marks his 30th year in the IT industry! With insights into tech trends, the dos-and-don'ts of the trade, and the evolution of computing, John's IT expertise is refreshingly down-to-earth. Learn more about what he'll discuss with the top IT executives of Clayton Homes and LG Canada and save your spot at the Conference now - registration ends on April 2. That's exactly one month away!
We wish you a successful and productive March, and we truly look forward to seeing you in warm and sunny Las Vegas next month!
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