A Day In The Life

I normally leave home at around 7.30, jump in the car and fire up the blue-tooth phone connection, on my way into the office or to the client site I like to catch up with the guys in the team, usually discussing issues that might have arisen yesterday or overnight and to help them with any problems. As I get closer to the office I will speak with any clients who I have had messages from, and if I’m heading onto a client site, catch up with the helpdesk about any issues that are either open or have been spotted via our remote monitoring tools.

Typically I arrive at the client site around 8.30 and as soon as I get there I head off to find my client contact and spend 10-20 minutes chatting through how I’m going to spend my day, agree what the priorities are for their business and discuss the agenda. I’ll usually send an agenda document through a few days before any site visit, just so the client and I can plan the issues we need to discuss and work on for the day.

Once we’ve had a catch up and I’ve got a cup of coffee, I’ll head off to carry out proactive server inspections. This will typically take around an hour per server, depending on how big the servers are and what they’re used for. Some of my sites have upwards of 10 servers, so this can sometimes take a great deal of time. However, regular server maintenance is critical to ensure the smooth running of the IT infrastructure and helps to avoid big issues cropping up – so it’s a really important part of my job. By this time it’s usually time for lunch – and I’ll try and grab something quickly before getting onto the next task. After lunch I’ll spend some time looking at any issues the client may have with their PC’s or Software to ensure that everything is running as it should be. It’s important to get to know all the users at our clients, so we can be proactive in resolving problems before they arise. We like people to feel that we’re as much a part of their business team as an internal resource and being visible in the business is a key part of that.

I’ll then have another catch up with my contact on site to run through any issues I might have found. We also discuss plans for the business so I can update the IT Roadmap we maintain for every client and which helps us plan for their future IT needs. Once home or back in the office I’ll write up my notes and update our CRM system so the helpdesk and other members of the team are up-to-date with any changes I have made or issues I’ve found on site. After that lot, I am usually pretty tired, but still find time for my hobbies of Am-Dram lighting and a bit of DJ-ing!