July 28 is System Administrator Appreciation Day. That’s when we should make a special effort to thank the unsung heroes at the beating heart of business operations: our IT administrators! Once upon a time our IT rockstars may have worked in a silo, but today they are more visible and important than ever. Today they have a fundamental role to play in maintaining smooth, safe, and secure work in a world that won’t stop evolving. With remote or flexible work now deeply integrated into the lives of global workforces, it’s clear that we need our IT superheroes more than ever. They might prefer to fly under the radar but – let’s face it – what would we do without them?
Without IT administrators, employees would not be able to securely and seamlessly work remotely. Quite simply, in a job market where employees increasingly hold the cards, the flexibility workers demand depends almost entirely on IT’s ability to manage and support our systems remotely. Add to that the persistent threat of evolving and continual cyberattacks threatening businesses, and the writing really does appear on the wall: IT teams are fundamental to business success and survival.
Enter a whole new level of burnout
IT teams were never short on workload but the long-term shift to hybrid work has opened up a whole new raft of challenges for administrators. In GoTo’s latest IT Priorities Report, 65 percent of UK based IT managers reported a sharp workload increase in the past year. Across the globe IT teams are contending with work-from-anywhere habits and all its entailing complexity, including an infinite number of devices, surging volumes of data, and that’s all while digital transformation just keeps rumbling on.
The end result? More demanding hours and smaller teams as businesses also struggle to weather macro storms like the cost-of-living crisis and huge talent shortages. The reality is that IT teams now find themselves at an inflection point where opportunity knocks to map out a whole new tech powered future which delivers masterfully on smarter, streamlined, and consolidated ways of working. This System Administrator Appreciation Day, here’s a few simple yet powerful steps that should be in every IT team’s roadmap.
1. Clever Consolidation
An enormous 83 percent of UK based IT decision makers consider the consolidation of communication, collaboration, and IT management and support tools to be among this year’s most critical solutions. Thankfully, IT teams are waking up to the benefits and they are beginning to vote with their feet en masse. GoTo’s research reveals that an incredible 93 per cent of UK respondents have either completed, planned, or are in progress with their consolidation efforts.
The benefits truly speak for themselves: it simplifies the tech stack, strips away a layer of complexity from operations and gives IT pros back more hours in the day. Increased simplicity means teams no longer have to juggle with multiple tools and can concentrate efforts on proactive unified management and better more meaningful engagement with their teams.
The act of consolidating all the tools of the trade from help desks to ticketing systems, to visual support tools and remote access solutions into one centralised system ultimately saves time, cuts costs, and helps give IT teams the time they crave. When the chance of a decluttered, smarter, and more streamlined approach is available, why wouldn’t you jump on it?
2. Automating Updates
It’s a similar story when it comes to the regular recurring tasks like the routine performance of manual operating system updates. If the admin must coordinate access and updates with each user this comes at a huge cost in terms of both time and money. If, on the other hand, such work is automated and can run in the background without disturbing the end user, our everyday heroes are freed up to invest more time into solving higher value IT problems and nurturing customer relationships.
Furthermore, automating other routine tasks, such as monitoring network usage, brings efficiency to proceedings and a smoother, more effective way of working to life, at a time when burnout just keeps biting at IT’s heels. Business critical updates for device enrolment, configuration, and software updates can all become fast and efficient through automation. If your business isn’t already reaping the benefits, you can be sure that your competitors are.
3. The rise of visual remote support
Hybrid and remote working habits have now stabilised and with that comes the ongoing need for IT teams to keep extending their reach far beyond the four walls of the office. Businesses must be able to quickly diagnose and solve an infinite number of tech headaches.
Faced with this tall order, quick and easy remote resolutions can be the only answer. Remote access applications integrated into ITSM (IT service management) solutions make it easier than ever to provide hands-on support to remote employees. There are also huge benefits for customers too who can quickly and easily troubleshoot and problem diagnose or receive equipment installation guidance without any in-person support by simply turning on camera share.
Today, many issues can be resolved via remote guidance, eliminating the need for resource-intensive approaches. Overall, leaning into this approach is helping IT to level up to secure and seamless remote working with increased simplicity.
4. Unleash the power of Mobile Device Management (MDM) and fuel employee choice
Mobile device management software is among the top gamechangers IT teams can leverage today. There are practically limitless benefits than can all be turned on at speed. It puts power in the hands of IT pros, enabling them to control devices and usage, to automate tasks, and to ensure device and data security. Furthermore, it brings ease to fleet management and reporting like never before and it can be used anywhere via one simple platform. What’s not to like?
There’s also a central role that increased IT team visibility into devices can bring to the employee experience. Today, it’s critical for IT managers to ensure that all employees can easily access corporate infrastructure, and work seamlessly whatever the device, whether running iOS, Android, macOS, or Windows OS. All employees have their preferences when it comes to work devices and operating systems, putting the onus firmly on IT to meet the new golden ease and convenience standard employees demand.
5. A helping hand: Boosting end user support
User-friendly solutions rolled out through IT management and support software can make a big difference, saving teams valuable time and resources in day-to-day operations. It also opens up a world of options designed to reach, support, and provide critical service to all workers, at every level of an organisation. Younger employees are typically more adept at using self-service bots and remote access software.
Non digital-native colleagues, on the other hand, often prefer personalised support via traditional phone or chat-based tools. If all communication channels are possible, we’re putting power in our people’s hands to utilise the service that best meets their needs and level of comfort. At a time when the world is turning to tech to take the mundane, manual, and miserable away from day-to-day tasks, this tech is provided unparalleled choice.
Also Read: Exploring the World of Tech Gadgets Development and Developers
Celebrate the unsung heroes
IT professionals should be shown the appreciation they deserve. They are often the ones at the frontline, charged with keeping businesses running. Even small changes such as the consolidation of applications can support our everyday IT heroes in the long term with little effort.
“By making IT easy, teams can work more efficiently and can get back on top of workloads that have been increasing for years,” comments Paul Carolan, AVP of Sales EMEA, GoTo . “Visual remote support applications and MDM provide organizations with all the functionality they need to effectively manage company-owned and BYOD devices in a user-friendly way. This enables IT to better control and secure devices and data, automate tasks, and provide remote support from anywhere.“