Reviews & Profile for XL.net

Strategic IT - 5 Departments

Service Desk (Help Desk)

You need a Service Desk to fix issues and answer how-to questions. When you contact a Service Desk, there are only three things you and your staff care about:

Fast - Immediate service and immediate resolution. You want 100% of your calls to be picked up, and a 100% of your emails to be answered within a few minutes.
Accurate - Fix it right the first time for good.
Friendly - Your day got interrupted and you need help. You are probably not feeling so great. You need a friendly person to have compassion and to be mindful of points 1 and 2. You don’t need to feel inadequate for not understanding technical jargon, or to be made to feel that you are the problem. 

System Analysts (Technology Auditors)

You need a proactive technology environment. One that reduces risks and prevents disruptions. The only predictable way to deliver it is with a System Analyst that focuses exclusively on prevention. There are only three things you need the System Analysts to accomplish:

Stable - Technology disruptions cause 10%-25% productivity loss to your staff.  You need to reduce this loss quickly.
Safe - 76% of small and medium businesses were attacked last year by hackers in the US. 69% reported losing sensitive corporate or customer information. You want to reduce your security risks quickly.
Documented - Without accurate documentation, the Service Desk will struggle servicing your staff and your Technology Officer will find it difficult to steer technology. 

Technology Officer

You need a Technology Officer to steer technology at your company. There are only three things you need from your Technology Officer:

Aware - Your Technology Officer needs to be aware of within budget solutions that exist in the market and of the needs of each of your departments.
Strategic - To have a technology alignment plan that maps annual goals and projects to priorities across your organization.
Successful - Results. Technology without results is waste. You need technology to help you achieve your business goals faster and more efficiently. 

Central Services (IT Tools)

You need Central Services to keep your environment running and protected. This department, or function in some instances, is accountable for the deployment and management of tools like: Backup/Disaster Recovery, Antivirus, Patching, Monitoring, Content Filtering, Vendor Management. There are only three things you care about in regards to Central Services:

100% - Like insurance, you want to know 100% of your environment is accounted for and protected 24/7/365. Anything less than that, could severely damage your company with the possibility of putting you out of business.
Invisible - You want to know it’s there in the background, but without it slowing you down and requiring your attention.
Affordable - You want these tools to cost as little as possible, while being 100% and Invisible. 

Project Department

You need a Project Department to implement changes. When you work with a Project Department, there are only three things you care about:

Transparent - In business terms, you want to know exactly what the project will deliver, what it won’t, what you have to invest before you make a commitment and to know where the project stands without needing to ask. 
Efficient - You want to know that you are getting the best value for your overall investment in a project. Overengineering, lack of expertise and poor processes are the culprits that work against efficiency. 
Flawless - Zero issues from a change. You invest in most projects in order to improve the efficiency of your staff, or reduce the risk to your organization. If there are hiccups you get the opposite, and hearing excuses doesn’t help.