In 1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter that “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
After being in the IT business for 39 years, I will add one more certainty; in our industry nothing is as important as up-to-date, accurate, and secure documentation.
When you engage with an IT services firm, you place a great deal of trust in that organization. You trust them to keep your users productive without the distraction of IT problems. In order to do that efficiently, your Managed Service Provider (MSP) must keep all the pertinent data about your system well documented and available to all technical employees who may have occasion to assist in supporting your network. It’s OK to ask your current or prospective MSP, “what tools does your firm use to document our systems and what strategies do you employ to keep that information secure?” In fact, I’d highly recommend it.
At NetCenergy, we utilize a highly effective documentation tool, and our employees are disciplined to ensure that any changes made to a client’s network are fully and accurately documented in a timely manner. This tool and the data about the client’s network can only be accessed by a very limited number of our team and requires dual-factor authentication for access.
When you call or send an email to your MSP requesting service, the assigned support resource needs to know all about the system, including any changes that may have been made as recently as the past hour. Armed with this information, the technical resource can accurately and efficiently resolve the user’s issues and get them back to business.
Death and taxes are a certainty. What’s also certain? Attempting to support an IT system without the proper documentation will cause resolution delays and can put your critical data in jeopardy.
For more information on how to select a quality service provider, check out our previous blogs or give us a call.
Authored by Donald Nokes
Nick Eckman joined NetCenergy in 2016 from an international gaming company. Nick’s experience with supervising and implementing secure, fiber and copper wire infrastructure services provides our clients with a team of highly trained and experienced technicians. In addition to the skills required to manage our infrastructure services department, Nick brings a very experienced and focused approach to project management and is a stickler for accurate documentation for every project designed and built by his team.
Peter Lachapelle joined NetCenergy in 2015 and is responsible for leading all of NetCenergy’s operations and accounting functions. Each department within NetCenergy reports through Lachapelle. He brings his years of experience to maintain a pragmatic, efficient, client-focused team at NetCenergy. Lachapelle joined NetCenergy after completing a 27-year career with a Rhode Island, federally-charted bank which culminated in his senior management position as COO and CFO for the bank.
Peter Nelson has 25+ years of technology and management experience and has been with NetCenergy since inception. Peter serves as the VP of Engineering at NetCenergy. His role consists of managing the engineering staff, driving the companies technology strategy, and ensuring NetCenergy keeps up to date on new technologies and solutions.
As a Founding Partner, Dan is a result oriented individual who is always focusing on what is best for his client. He understands that business applications empower an organization and that technology must support those critical business applications. Dan’s technology career started in 1990 at EMC Corporation. Through the years, he has represented technology and consulting services for several organizations until 2003, when he and Don Nokes founded NetCenergy.
As President of NetCenergy, Don is responsible for ensuring client satisfaction, overseeing overall performance, and for providing direction to the organization. Prior to co-founding the firm with Dan Charland, Don held senior leadership positions with IT service firms ranging in size from $3 Billion to $10 Million in annual sales.
With decades of hands-on HR experience, Margery Ahearn is our Director of Human Resources, overseeing all hiring of new positions for NetCenergy with a careful eye on sourcing technology savvy engineers and skilled office-based professionals who fit our company culture, understand our commitment to our clients, and bring their time and talents to our team. Margery has both a BA and MBA in Business Administration from Southern New Hampshire University.