IT Support人员的任务
信息技术是一种资产和资源，需要以与你的建筑、你的员工和你的资金一样的方式进行管理和照顾。把确保计算机系统有效工作的主要责任交给一个人，让他成为你的IT经理或IT支持人员，往往是最合理的。
支持分为两个广泛的领域。用户需要支持，以确保他们有效地使用IT，并帮助他们从不可避免的问题中恢复。系统本身也需要支持，以应对故障和日常维护。
作为一个经验法则，你可以预期50个员工需要一个全职的IT支持人员。因此，如果你有10名员工，期望有人每周分配一天来完成这项任务是合理的。
IT协调员或IT支持人员的工作描述可以包括：
- 作为你的网络的系统管理员（如果你有的话）
- 为办公室内的计算机用户提供IT支持（包括为新员工上岗）。
- 初步排除IT问题，并尽可能地解决这些问题
- 确保数据得到例行备份
- 确保所有员工能够有效地组织他们的计算机文件，无论这些文件是共享的还是供个人使用的
- 管理电子格式文件的分发以及文件的标准布局和模板
- 确保软件许可证得到遵守
- 监督计算机安全和防病毒的预防措施
- 担任数据保护官员（尽管根据1998年的法案，这不再是纯粹的IT问题）。
- 与外部支持机构（联系人）进行联络
- 记录所有IT问题及其解决情况
- 保存所有计算机设备的清单，保持维修记录，并确保提供足够的维修服务
- 识别瓶颈和问题，提出解决问题的建议，不断审查标准的软件和硬件建议，并为未来的IT战略提供投入。
外部支持
很少有组织有足够的资源来满足内部所有的IT支持需求。有些问题，如网络故障排除，需要高水平的专业技能，而且只需要定期进行；在内部开发必要的专业知识是不符合成本效益的。然而，你不能把所有事情都承包出去。有些问题或常规操作太简单，太频繁，或太紧急，不能这样做。
你需要找到一个平衡点，让内部员工处理基本的日常问题，并请外部专家处理更复杂的问题。
在取得平衡时，很大程度上取决于你的机构的规模和其计算机系统的复杂性。规模较大的机构更有可能有足够的工作来证明雇用一名全职或兼职的工作人员是合理的，但即使这些机构也会将其IT支持的一部分承包出去。
无论你的具体决定是什么，你的内部IT支持人员必须有足够的培训来履行他们的职责，并使他们能够与外部服务机构有效沟通。
IT is an asset and a resource that needs managing and looking after in just the same way as your building, your staff and your funding. It often makes most sense to give one person the main responsibility for ensuring that your computer systems work effectively, and to make them your IT manager or IT support worker.
Support falls into two broad areas. Users need support, in order to ensure that they are using IT effectively and to help them recover from the inevitable problems. The system itself needs support to cope with breakdowns and routine maintenance.
As a rule of thumb, you could expect to need one full-time IT support person for 50 staff members. If you have 10 staff, therefore, it would be reasonable to expect someone to allocate one day a week to this task.
The job description for an IT co-ordinator or IT support worker could include:
- acting as systems manager for your network (if you have one)
- providing IT support to computer users within the office (including inducting new staff)
- initial troubleshooting of IT problems, and resolving them wherever possible
- ensuring that data is routinely backed up
- ensuring that all staff are able to organise their computer files in an effective way whether they are shared or for individual use
- managing the distribution of documents in electronic format and of standard layouts and templates for documents
- ensuring that software licences are adhered to
- overseeing computer security and Antivirus precautions
- acting as Data Protection Officer (although under the 1998 Act this is no longer exclusively an IT issue)
- liaising with external support (the link person)
- keeping a log of all IT problems with their resolution
- keeping an inventory of all computer equipment, keeping maintenance records, and ensuring adequate maintenance provision
- identifying bottlenecks and problems, making recommendations to solve them, keeping standard software and hardware recommendations under review, and providing input into future IT strategy.
External Support
Few organisations have the resources to cover all their IT support needs in-house. Some issues, like network troubleshooting, require a high level of specialist skill and are only required periodically; it isn’t cost effective to develop the necessary expertise in-house. You cannot, however, contract out everything. Some problems or routine operations are too simple, too frequent, or too urgent for that.
You need to find a balance, where in-house staff deal with basic day-to-day issues and call on external specialists for more complex problems.
In striking the balance, much will depend on the size of your agency and the complexity of its computer systems. Larger organisations are more likely to have enough work to justify employing a full- or part-time member of staff, but even these will contract out elements of their IT support.
Whatever your detailed decision, your in-house IT support worker must have adequate training to carry out their role and to enable them to communicate effectively with external services.
