For a whole host of reasons we use scripts to create access controlled file shares, and to create the Active Directory groups that control access to them. Not only is it easier than doing it manually, it also ensures that the group is created in the correct place, that permissions are set correctly, and that it follows our naming convention. It helps prevent errors and improve the quality of our work, as well as allowing us to push the task right out to our tier one techs, as I described when discussing the ticket cost funnel a while back.
(more…)Category: Tech support
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Outlook: Problems opening and organizing calendars
On a relatively regular basis, I find my days packed with appointments, reminders, and meetings. At other times, I need to organize a meeting, or talk to a colleague, and need to check their availability. For these reasons, and others, I’m an active user of digital calendars. Anything that happens during the work day is listed in some way or another in my work calendar (even if simply showing my availability or lack thereof).
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Excel: Allow dividing formulas to fail gracefully
I’m sure I’m not alone in having had this happen: I was using Excel to make some quick calculations, and got
(more…)#DIV/0!-errors for some rows because one of the fields I’d been dividing by was empty. Sometimes you don’t have all the information you need for every single row, but you still want to have a standardised calculation to run where you do have the information you need. -
Use browser profiles for more efficient operations
One of the complicating factors of my job is that I need to use the same tools, with different user credentials, often at the same time. For example, most of the companies I and my colleagues support use services that have some sort of integration with Microsoft Azure. As a result, I need to log in to the Azure portal for many of them on a daily basis.
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Hide recipients in Outlook meeting bookings
Like so many of you, I arrange a fair number of meetings for various purposes. Among these are the ones I arrange for the members of my union local in my capacity as its head. Now, EU – and thus also Norwegian – data protection law clearly categorizes union membership as one of the numerous special categories of personal data. I understand this to mean that I am not allowed to share the membership list with my members.
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Free text search in ADUC
A critical component to successfully closing a lot of the tickets I handle at work is the ability to search for – and find – Active Directory User, Computer, and Group objects. In about eight of ten instances, I’m able to do so using the standard search types (searching for Users, Contacts, and Groups or Computers). Sometimes, however, I need to find each and every object that has a name containing some predefined string. When that string might be found anywhere in the name, the standard search fails me pretty consistently. Luckily, there is another search type: Custom Search. Here’s how to use it:
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A further metric for support
I have previously written about key metrics for support departments – and I stand by everything I said then. I have, however, come to the conclusion that another metric should be placed under consideration. A quick recap, however, of the metrics I proposed then, as well as what they are intended to measure:
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Longer answers are better support
When working tech support, it is often tempting to give short answers to a ticket, in order to get on to the next ticket. This tendency is particularly problematic when responding in the negative to a request. Though understandable, we should fight this tendency. I have three specific reasons why it’s important, but I would also like to note that this is closely linked to Continual Service Improvement in ITIL, or the Improvement kata in DevOps.
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