Friday, September 14, 2012

SOP Friday: Client Personnel Changes - New User Checklist

You have a process for bringing a new employee onboard (well, you should anyway). So what about when your clients hire new employees? They will be added to the network and to managed services. As with everything else, your life will be easier if you have a standard process for this. 

Before the Hire

 This is a bit of a minor point, but it's one of those little things that can be very irritating: The client should give you as much advance notice as possible before they hire a new employee. The worst case scenario is when you get a call at 8:01 AM on a Monday to tell you that the new hire is showing up at 9:00 AM for training. Can you please set up a new workstation for her?
 Oh wait. The worst case scenario is that she needs a new PC as well.
 In most cases, the hiring process will include defining the job, advertising the job, gathering resumes, weeding through resumes, one or two interviews, and a job offer. There are few "emergency" job hires. So clients need to engage you well before the new hire shows up. Luckily, managed services makes this easy. See the New Hire Flowchart. Basically, then can create a service ticket at any time. It can sit there for weeks if needed, as long as the due date is set correctly.

New User Checklist

The actual New User Checklist has three sections. As you can see, there's a lot less if you have the User's name before you start. But you need to adjust as needed. In many cases, you need to set up the PC in advance and add the user at the last minute.
 The three sections are:
1) Client / User Information
2) Set up the Computer (hardware and software)
3) User-Specific Setups
Section One: Client / User Information
Technician (work performed by):
Date:
Client Info:
- Company
- Address
- Contact
- Phone
New User Name:
New User's Logon:
 and Password:
New User's Machine / Workstation Name:
Local Administrator password:
Section Two: Set up the Computer
(Note: This section will be replaced by your "New PC Checklist." I'm just giving an abbreviated example here.
 1. Set time and Region within Windows
 2. If machine is not part of the domain, add machine to domain
3. Log on as domain administrator and add domain users to local administrators group
4. Map drives required by this user (if not handles by logon script). Install cloud drive if needed.
5. If things need to be copied locally, create C:\!Tech directory
6. Install Adobe Acrobat Reader latest version
7. Install printers to be used by this user
8. Install Anti-Virus and updates. Schedule scans.
9. Install Microsoft Office products
10. Apply all Windows Updates
Section Three: User-Specific Setups
(Perform these tasks while logged on as the new user)
1. Set up Outlook to point to client's Exchange Server
2. Connect user to shared calendars and resources within Outlook
3. Set up Company Contacts as an Outlook address book
4. Verify that drives are mapped (this is controlled by logon script, not locally)
5. Set up Line of Business application shortcut and all other shortcuts normall required by this client
6. Verify that you can browse the Internet
7. Verify that you can send and receive email from an outside address (preferably a domain on a different Internet Service Provider and on a different hosted spam filter).
8. Verify that you can access company data drive(s)
9. Verify that you can print to each printer

The Human Connection

We love our clients. They love us. That starts on Day One when they learn to use our system properly. When they learn to use our system properly, they get the fastest tech support. When they call and call and never create a service ticket, they get a slower response. Because we want their love, we need to train them to use our service efficiently.

So - you guessed it - training the new employee about our system is just as important as showing them how to log on to their computer. We give them a link to our Client Service Portal. We walk them through entering a service request. And we give them a human connection along with their new job and their new computer.

Implementation

Implementing this process is pretty easy. It assumes you have a New PC Checklist for each client. THIS process will also be customized for each client. You may even enter IP addresses for printers and other devices that don't change often.
Unlike most processes, the first part of this one requires you to engage your client and ask them to give you notice as soon as possible. You can show them your flowchart, like the one above. Describe enough of the process that they get the message that planning makes everything easier. (Don't describe so much detail that they fall asleep and smack their head on the desk.)
You might create a folder on your company's shared drive of SharePoint site to hold all the client New User Checklists along with the New PC Checklists. You really should customize these for each client.
Don't forget documentation. That means that the info from Section One and all other relevant information go into your PSA system and into the client's on-site documentation.
After every new user setup, the last item on the checklist should be to update the checklist! That way, it is always as useful as possible. When you added that new network scanner, you should have documented it - but you probably didn't update the New PC Checklist or New User Checklist. This will be apparent when you go through the checklist, so just make sure it's updated for next time.
This kind of policy requires that everyone on the team

1) Be aware of the policy

2) Practice the policy

3) Correct one another's errors

4) Support one another with reminders

Your Comments Welcome.

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About this Series

SOP Friday - or Standard Operating System Friday - is a series dedicated to helping small computer consulting firms develop the right processes and procedures to create a successful and profitable consulting business.

Find out more about the series, and view the complete "table of contents" for SOP Friday at http://www.smallbizthoughts.com/events/SOPFriday.html.

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Next week's topic: Client Personnel Changes- Employee Departure Checklist

:-)

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