Shared Desk versus Shared Resources

by Chuck Harwick on May 2, 2012

In today’s economy companies are looking for ways to be more efficient with support costs and still maintain the desired level of quality to its customers. An option available for those small to medium companies that are outgrowing their current support team is to look at a shared staffing model. Is this always the best option though?

Does your company meet a shared environment requirement? If you don’t know, can you say yes to any of the following?

Our support team is unable to cover the support hours we require adequately enough.

We need after hours support but the amount of contacts is minimal for the staff required.

We are unable to handle standard contact peaks.

But which shared model makes sense for you?

 

Shared Desk

A typical shared desk set up consists of multiple support personnel handling calls from several clients. In this model, a support person may take so few calls during a period of a month which rely on their proprietary knowledge of a specific client that it could impact the quality of service. Also, if there are required licensing for an incident management tool or any proprietary applications, the cost of licensing and administration may be costly.

If you are looking for support of a few basic and repetitive tasks, then the shared desk option may work best for you needs.

 

Shared Resource

If you are looking for support that not only addresses the repetitive call types but also provides support of proprietary applications and knowledge, then a shared resource model would present itself as a better option.

The difference in a shared resource model over a shared desk model at Idea is that a support person represents only one to two clients. The value gained in this situation is: keep your costs low and also allow personnel to retain specific knowledge. Since the support team associated with your project is dedicated to your company, they have a greater repetition of your call types and more consistent exposure to your environment.

If your contact volume is higher during certain support hours then a combination of dedicated and shared could be an option. For example: during certain standard peaks in contacts you may need more than one support representative. Idea could potentially staff a dedicated person to your company or project and include additional support from a shared resource. You will meet your contact and quality needs without the cost of bringing on additional and unneeded staff.

Oversight to the project is done through a shared manager so you retain the personal touch that you and your company have come to expect.

 

Conclusion

If you are looking for solutions on how to address your support needs and the contact volume isn’t substantial enough to warrant hiring additional resources, then a shared solution may be your best option.

To view case studies on successful support solutions, visit  www.idea.com/case-studies/.

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The Spectrum Crunch

by Amy Benes on April 18, 2012

the-spectrum-crunch

The telecommunications industry is quickly approaching a daunting obstacle in their race toward fast, reliable performance: spectrum. Spectrum is the range of all possible radio frequencies, which are the mediums in which data is transmitted to wireless devices. The big problem with spectrum is that it is limited.

For example, think of your car FM radio. You probably have some weak stations in the upper 80s and a variety of stations up into the early 100’s. That range, 87.5 to 108.0, is a range of spectrum specifically allotted to FM radio broadcast by the Federal Communications Commission.

Similarly, spectrum allotted to wireless communication devices is also a limited range. The FCC assigns and controls all spectrum in the United States, from submarine communication to garage door openers to satellite television. With only a range of frequencies available for wireless communications, mobile operators compete for spectrum since the carrier with the most spectrum can transmit more data at faster rates to data users.

To further complicate matters, there are more data users and data-using devices than ever. As of mid-2011, the number of data-using devices such as smartphones and tablets actually outnumber the entire U.S. population. Additionally, users are using more data than ever before with no signs of slowing. Steve Largent, president of CTIA, estimates that demand for data will increase by more than 50 times just in the next five years. All while the amount of available spectrum remains the same, creating a very real and very serious spectrum crunch.

While several solutions exist, the following are receiving the most attention.
Incentive auctions. Congress recently passed legislation that will give the FCC the ability to hold spectrum auctions, a move that could raise $25 billion, which will be used to pay for the payroll tax cut extension. An incentive auction is an auction in which the government provides financial incentive for broadcasters who have unused spectrum to sell that spectrum back to the FCC, who will in turn sell it to mobile operators. This recent legislation will improve communications networks throughout the country and relieve pressing spectrum issues.
Wi-Fi offloading incentives. The reality is that there just may not be enough spectrum to meet consumer wireless demands. Wi-Fi offloading offers an alternate solution. Small carriers such as MetroPCS are starting to offer Wi-Fi switching. When the mobile device detects a secure and strong Wi-Fi, it will switch from the operator network to Wi-Fi, thus freeing up more space on the operator’s spectrum. 2012 might be the year large operators begin to offer offloading incentives. Up until this point, carriers have been reluctant to encourage offloading, but as spectrum pressures mount, large carriers may turn to Wi-Fi.
Unlicensed spectrum. Some spectrum is not licensed by the FCC. This spectrum has pre-established rules that users agree to in order to operate. An example is your common coffee shop WiFi. As long as the coffee shop follows simple user guidelines, they do not have to pay licensing fees to the FCC. There is pressure for congress to create more unlicensed spectrum on larger scales to allow a “common” open spectrum model. Proponents believe that such an open model would create an environment that promotes innovation by allowing all users to access the same resources. Unlicensed spectrum is strongly opposed by the FCC, who wishes to retain spectrum control and hesitates to give up revenue generated from licensing.
Whitespace. TV whitespace offers a whole new field of spectrum opportunity. Whitespace refers to the unused spectrum that exists between two TV channels. There is a push to convert those spectrums from TV broadcast to WiFi. In December, the FCC approved the first device to operate on whitespace frequencies, paving the way for a future of more devices and advanced wireless networks.

The spectrum crunch cannot be ignored. Data-hungry consumers will not stay quiet as their downloads speeds slow. The government, mobile carriers and tech companies alike are working to resolve the spectrum dilemma in any way possible. Until then, we look to key government and technology leaders to resolve the crunch, watching videos, checking our email and updating our status while we wait.

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Mobile Application Testing

by Will Hurley on April 4, 2012

Recently, I had the opportunity to present a Mobile Application Testing topic at lunch ‘n learns held in Atlanta and Tallahassee, FL.  MicroFocus, Microsoft and Idea hosted these events with speakers covering a wide variety of topics.  What struck me about our audience was the interest generated when discussing the requirements of mobile applications.

I’m a free market kind of guy so I’ve decided to describe techniques that quality assurance groups can use to improve requirements.  Tools, requirements creep and specific domain knowledge are side bared for this discussion.

I’m not discussing requirements creep since the root cause always rests outside the assurance or test group.  Paraphrasing Reinhold Niebuhr, ‘give us the grace to accept the things that cannot be changed, the courage to change the things which should be changed and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other’.  Tools are out since the approaches I’ll describe are tool agnostic.  Specific domain knowledge will not be covered since, like tools, the approaches I’ll discuss are not bound by a particular domain.  I do believe that domain knowledge is a must for effective test development.   That being said, I and having worked in a number of industries and these techniques may allow testers with domain knowledge to build better requirements and test cases.

Anyone interested in improving requirements must first understand that improving requirements starts with questioning why.  Why this requirement? The method called the five whys. Five is an arbitrary number. You never know exactly how many times you’ll have to ask why, but you need to ask why until you discover how the requirement satisfies the need. The five whys techniques helps you:

  1. Identify the roots of a problem, issue or solution.
  2. Eliminate gold plating.
  3. Move form complexity to simplicity. This is sometimes called separation of concerns.

Always focus on process (when is it needed and by whom) or information (what data are needed) aspects of the requirement, rather than the personalities involved.  If the answer doesn’t translate to a clear test objective, ask why again. You will know when you’re done when asking why again doesn’t yield any more useful information.

After driving the team crazy by asking why, review requirements with risk based evaluation methods.  These methods can follow an inside-out view or an outside-in view. The inside-out approach is can use vulnerability, threat, victim analysis, or cause and effect analysis.  For each requirement under review ask:

–     Vulnerability: What are the weaknesses or possible failures in this requirement?

–     Threat: What inputs or situations could be exploited to trigger a failure?

–      Victim: Who or what would be impacted by the failure and to what extent?

Cause and effect analysis can be used to document and prioritize factors and sub-factors that would influence the outcome of a requirement meeting a need.  The outcome may be positive or negative.  Cause and effect analysis can be captured graphically in an Ishikawa or ‘Fishbone’ diagram.

Outside-in analysis starts with a set of potential characteristics and matches them to the details of the requirement. The approach is more general than the inside-out approach, and somewhat easier.  Outside-in analysis is best applied to non-functional requirements. Standard quality characteristics can include:

Capability. Can it perform the required functions?

Compatibility. How well does it work with external components & configurations?

Installability. How easily can it be installed?

Localizability. Can be release in another Language easily?

Maintainability. Can be built, fixed or enhanced by others?

Performance. How responsive is it?

Portability. Can port or reuse in different environments?

Reliability. Will it work well and resist failure in all required situations?

Supportability. How economical will it be to provide support to users of the product?

Testability. How effectively this be tested?

Usability. How easy is it for a user to learn and use?

Outside-in analysis does not have to be tied to standard quality characteristics.  The list below can also be used to evaluate requirements and their effect:

Buggy: Known to have problems.

Complexity: Anything disproportionately large, intricate, or convoluted.

Criticality: Anything that could cause substantial damage.

Distributed: Spread out in time or space and must work together.

New and improved: No history in the application or “improved”.

Popular: Used a lot by end user.

Precision: Anything that must meet exacting requirements.

Recent problems: A recent history of failure.

Strategic: Has special importance to business.

Third-party: Anything used by the product, but developed outside the project.

Upstream or Downstream Dependency: Sensitive to or will cause cascading failures in the rest of the application.

When using any of these techniques be sure to make the distinction between a risk and problem. Risk is a probability that some undesired situation may occur.  Risk is what can go wrong.  A problem is when the undesired situation has already occurred. Problems are what have already gone wrong.  Spend more time correcting problems.

 

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Congrats to our Curve Ball Blog Contest winner- Bill Graham!

by Ashley Dains on March 23, 2012

Congratulations to tech writer and blogger Bill Graham for his insightful response to our Curve Ball blog contest!  As winner of our first ever blog contest, Bill won a Bose SoundLink.

Thank you to all who submitted entries.  Read Bill’s response to the Curve Ball and tell us what you think!

My gut response is to turn this scenario into a case for reducing the amount of paper the company uses. It’s time. We’ve talked about a paperless world for decades, but cut down millions of trees to copy everything under the sun. Now, we have a case for implementing a company-wide policy for sending, receiving and reviewing information in Portable Document Files (PDF) instead of printing paper copies. With Adobe’s tools for reviewing and marking up PDFs, we don’t have to print anything anymore.

Moreover, with our current high-resolution, handheld devices, we don’t need to make additional investments to read PDFs or web-based documents with the ease and comfort of paper-based documents. What’s more, I’m assuming our company has already invested in SharePoint or Office 365, and everything is readily available to the right people at the right time for any purpose. That would be my first response for dealing with this situation.

But what about the investment we already made up front with Canon? I’d explain that this was what the insurance industry calls an act of God. No one could have foreseen or planned for such a catastrophic event, but we can recover from it in a way that will eventually make sense. We’d give Canon enough time to recover enough time to recover, all the while negotiating with its lawyers on a plan to recover our investment.

One option would be to ask for a partial settlement. We’ll take a hit, but we won’t lose everything. Another option is to wait for Canon to rebuild and improve over current its current technology. For the favor of waiting patiently, we ask Canon’s lawyers to give us an even deeper discount on future generations of printers that will cut down our IT footprint and give us a greater bang for our buck.

Finally, we turn back to Ricoh and other vendors and lay on the charm. Money is money, we explain. If you keep us afloat during the next few years, we’ll buy your current generation of copiers, but we want to downsize the number of copiers we’re going to buy over time. We’re still considering Canon, but we give Ricoh and the other vendors a chance to make their cases. This gives us additional leverage with Canon, and we’re in a position to turn this disaster into a win-win for everyone.

That may be a little optimistic, but I think it just might work with the right people saying the right things, at the right time.

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How To Explain Your IT Job To Your Parents

by Ashley Dains on March 7, 2012

(Photo Source: Adrian Perez w/Shutterstock Standard)

“What is it that you do, again?” “IT, Mom. I’m in IT.” The question may seem innocent enough, but it can be frustrating if, after answering the question multiple times, you still get asked by your parents. You may have answered with: “You know that big box on the desk with the screen? Well, I make sure when you search for stuff…you can find it.”

With the vastness of the information technology field, it is easy for people to get confused with exact job descriptions. In fact, IT professionals do everything from maintaining databases for businesses and organizations to ensuring that all computers on a network are running efficiently to “monitoring overall system health” to troubleshooting computer problems, according to InformationTechnology.net.

( Photo Source: Yuri Arcurs w/Shutterstock Standard)

The Nuts and Bolts of What You Do and How To Explain It

Tech Support Specialist: Holds Hands

In very basic terms, you can explain that tech support specialists helps people use computers. Businesses may have tech support specialists on staff or can contact someone via phone or email at an off-site location. If you get a puzzled look from your mom, go on to explain that tech support specialists help people at home or at the office get the most out of their computer or software programs.

Operating system programs like Microsoft Windows, software programs like Microsoft Office, and even game systems like Xbox and Wii have dedicated support personnel who are available, often 24/7, to answer questions, provide support, and troubleshoot. You can give the example of the tech support specialist as the person who holds your hand as he guides you through why your Internet is not working, why your document won’t print, or where the product license key is for the new software your mom picked up at Costco.

While your mom may “get” what a tech support specialist does because she has perhaps called a 1-800 line when she couldn’t get the cursor to stop twitching, what about other jobs in the IT field? How will you explain some of the less well known jobs in information technology? Examples of these jobs include information technology manager, network engineer, computer systems analyst, software engineer, hardware engineer, and information systems specialist.

( Photo Source: espensorvik w/Royalty-free License)

Information Technology Manager: Manages Computers and People Who Work on Them

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) sums up the job of the information technology manager as managing the “implementation and administration of technology within their organizations.” But what does that mean exactly? The BLS goes on to describe the IT manager as the person who, first, determines “the goals of an organization” and, second, implements “technology to meet those goals.”

The IT manager is the person in charge of everything techie at an organization, “software development, network security, and Internet operations” and information storage. You can explain that an IT manager also supervises other workers in the IT field, including tech support specialists; network engineers; computer network, systems, and database administrators; computer systems analysts; and computer software and hardware engineers.

So, you’ve explained that an IT manager manages computers and people who use computers. Now, you can go on to describe the jobs of people who use computers to manage information.

( Photo Source: Oleksiy Mark w/Standard License)

Network Engineer: Builds Databases to Manage Information

The Bureau of Labor Statistics lists the key function of the IT field as the “efficient transmission and the storage and analysis of information.” As you are explaining your job to your parents, you can say that network engineers design computer networks for storing information. Do you see your mother’s eyes glazing over? Quick! Chime in that, without the network engineer, her home computer would not have an Internet connection.

So the network engineer is responsible for setting up, connecting, testing, and evaluating all types of networks as well as managing the day-to-day operations. The daily running of these information databases falls on the shoulders of network administrators, who are also known as computer system administrators or database administrators.

( Photo Source: Oleksiy Mark w/Standard License)

Computer Systems Analyst: Helps Build Better Computer Systems

If you answer calls from the non-tech savvy, or you set up a network of computers, your mom will at least be able to visualize what you do in terms of the phone you answer or the bank of computers you keep running, but what about the job of computer systems analyst? How will you explain this job?

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, computer systems analysts “consult with an organization’s managers and users to define the goals of the system and then design a system to meet those goals.” Huh? What does this even mean? You could give an example to clear the fog. The systems analyst for an online seller, like Amazon, may decide to manage orders efficiently through the creation of a new delivery system. You essentially help find better ways to use computers.

(Photo Source: Pavel K w/Standard License)

Tips for Explaining Your IT Job or Getting Rid of the Jargon

If your attempts to explain your job fall short or if your parents ask more questions about what you do, you will want to be prepared. Your mom or any other person you meet may be genuinely interested in what you do, so use these tips to explain it in a way they can understand.

It’s easy to fall in to the trap of using technical words or industry jargon to your folks. To the parent you are talking with, this can seem like mumbo jumbo. Explain what you do in clear, precise terms. Avoid talking over people’s heads.

TechRepublic also cautions against slinging around acronyms. You may spew out a veritable alphabet soup of acronyms – CIT (computer information technology), CAEN (computer aided engineering network), or NCA (network computer architecture – but your mom may not be the most technologically savvy person.

Your parents probably have a number of questions to ask, and these questions may lead to a greater level of understanding for them about what you do. So, stop, breathe, and listen to what your parents are saying. Answer their questions. Also, from time to time, throw in a question or 2 of your own to gauge how well they understand.

Don’t be afraid to do something other than talking. What about pulling up your company’s website or showing your mom a cool YouTube video about what you do? You could even use an analogy or 2 to break down an unfamiliar tech term.

Whether you explain your information technology job in detail or give a Cliffs Notes version, listen to whom you are talking to, know their level of knowledge about the field you are in, and let them ask you questions.

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Bringing Tech into the Third World

February 22, 2012

Technology is an integral part of the growth in many countries these days, and Third World countries are certainly not the exception. As technology becomes more and more affordable, it has become possible for developing countries to use cell phones, laptops, and other technology. Several programs also exist to help the spread of high tech, [...]

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