Thats gratitude for you! Comments after Exchange 2007 upgrade

[Edu-IT]

That is the one thing that's stopping me from doing something like that.

We have a noticeboard in our staff room which shows the status of different things like web access, email, file access, sims etc... but people still ask me, whilst I am actually in the staff room, why they can't get online. People don't seem to read anything IT related for some reason.

I think it's perhaps because they don't have to. They know that they can call you and you'll come running.

[srochford]

We have a noticeboard in our staff room which shows the status of different things like web access, email, file access, sims etc... but people still ask me, whilst I am actually in the staff room, why they can't get online. People don't seem to read anything IT related for some reason.

I think it's more general than that - people don't read most of the stuff that's available in the way of notices, newsletters etc. Often, that's because they just get too much stuff and much of it's not relevant.

I suspect that if you talk to anyone who's trying to get out information about events or changes you'll get the same sort of message - no matter what they do, some people just don't take it in.

I don't think that means we should stop trying - there will be some people who will read notices etc and act on them and we should make sure we put out info when we can for the benefit of those who can be helped :-)

[john]

Ah, there we go then

They don't necessarily need to have input into it; they just need to be made aware of what will happen, when, and how it will affect them. For example, I created this document for our users and gave it to them well before we migrated our email platform.

Feedback on this from staff was very positive, and that it "was a good thing we had that PDF".

Very nice, someone has too much time on his hands though hehe

[webman]

Very nice, someone has too much time on his hands though hehe

Yeah. I don't have any MS updates to install or problems to sort

[john]

Yeah. I don't have any MS updates to install or problems to sort

What you mean you don't have projectors going pop to chase I aint been MS patching or MS problem hunting in weeks

[gshaw]

Yup I'm in the "document the lot" camp as well. I sent an email round immediately after the upgrade called "email uggrade... how will affect you?" with some of the benefits of Exchange 2007.

So far I've already had people asking about the remote file share access and pleased with the OWA 2007 enhancements. We'll make more guides for how to use the features then it all goes on our IT Services intranet site. Some people might think no-one reads the guides but if they're well written and easy to use I've seen people printing and using them

Also made a CD for our staff conference with the new SmartBoard v10 software on plus documents about changes to the PC setup so that way if anyone says they didn't know about the changes we're well and truly covered

[plexer]

I agree with the principal of informing users but have the same problem of people not reading stuff or not listening.

I once explained an issue in a staff briefing one morning which I think was to do with laptops and offline folders being moved.

Later in the day someone asked me about this problem and I asked if there were in the briefing becuase I had explained it all then, she said that she was but I hadn't started to say something technical so she switched off.



Ben

[plexer]

Another time....

I offered all staff a 5 minute lunchtime training session on how to log jobs on My Little Helpdesk.

I did this 3 times over 3 days and had in total about 6 members of staff I think it was.

I did the same last week albeit only 1 session for new members of staff starting this year which there must be a dozen or so, 2 new staff turned up and 1 existing member of staff.

So I give up.

[srochford]

So I give up.

Don't give up - talk to individuals and find out why they didn't come along. I suspect part of the reason will be the timing. Lunchtime is either a time when teachers (and most sane people!) want to try and get a break but it's often also frantically busy (all sorts of things go on in schools at lunchtime!)

Start with the people you think are reasonable (there will always be those that no-one gets through to!) It might be that they'd tried the software, found it easy and didn't want to spend time at lunchtime. It could be that they were busy that week but could have come before school/after school/at some other time. It might be that they would prefer to just read some instructions (I much prefer to be given a set of instructions I can read in my own time for anything new; I can then try things out and, only if I get stuck, ask for help)

I know it can be very disheartening when you think you've made a lot of effort to get things across and it's not taken up but as a couple of people have said in this thread it does benefit in the long run - people don't feel left out and can see you've put in the effort to make things work and explain what's going on.

[plexer]

I also gave up my lunch break to run these sessions to help them out.

If they can't be bothered to turn up I am not going to run around asking why they didn't come.

Ben

[srochford]

I also gave up my lunch break to run these sessions to help them out.

If they can't be bothered to turn up I am not going to run around asking why they didn't come.

Ben

and people wonder why IT staff are looked down on ...

There's no point in you providing a service which is the wrong kind of service or at the wrong time - you (or your manager or someone senior) has got to find out what's needed and then make sure that's provided.

[plexer]

What is needed is for all staff to be comfortable using the helpdesk which we expect them to use from day 1 therefore providing training on it from day 1 I see as very relevant.

If they don't want to put in the effort to learn why should I run around after them?

Ben

[pallen]

The problem does not only come down to timing. It also covers things such as people are only interested when it affects them. People would come in for a 5 min session if they were interested in learning how to do things themselves. Unfortunately there are still poeple who find it easier to ring IT support and get them to setup a projector instead of learning to press a FN key.

I can appreciate that people are busy, but so are IT techs. If people are not interested in helping themselves then there is not a lot you can do. Maybe write an online intrsuction sheet so you cover yourself, but you cant waste more time trying to get people do things they dont want to do. Not without the support from SMT anyway.

[CyberNerd]

It's just basic project management -
working out the customers requirements (not exchange 2007 in this case), testing on small groups of users, handing over the project with some training and documentation.

Training on new systems shouldn't be voluntary, its something SMT should be insisting training happens on new equipment, as it does in almost every other industry. Training budgets and times should have been organised as part of the initial project management.

[plexer]

There are also online tutorials that walk them through the task of creating and tracking their requests.

Ben