Hi John, Our company (Syzygy Incorporated) fully supports more than 70 sites remotely, all over the world. On top of that we provide partial support for another 60 to 70 sites. Some are large (300+MSU) and some are quite small (8 to 10 MSU), but they all need our expertise and not being "on-site" has never been an issue. We also have a suite of system automation products that we maintain at several hundred sites.
Even 10 to 12 years ago, it was very unusual to be "at" a site or if you were physically there, to be anywhere near the actual computer room. Once a site realizes that the systems programmer doesn't need to be in that room, it's only a small jump for them to understand that you get just as much support from the next floor, or the next building, or the next city, etc. I can still remember some knock-down drag out fights between the systems programmers and the operations group on whether or not the systems programmers should ever be allowed into the computer room. We (systems programmers) always won that argument, but now I wonder why I fought it for so long. :) The important thing, and the the clients expect it, is that we are always productive. We aren't there to baby-sit the site, we are constantly moving forward on whatever it is that we need to get done for them. You have to always have a plan and be able to show progress. You can't just bill the hours, you have to show what you did. You can't sit around and talk about the kids/wife/parents with anyone. When you are off-site, you're not there to just generate hours, you there to get things done as well, actually better than it can be accomplished by someone at the site. Sometimes the clients will be amazed at the "speed" that we get things done, but some of that is just that we can focus on the project without a lot of interruptions. Some of it is because we have enough people here that if you run into a problem you can't get a handle on, someone else you have access to will likely already have the solution. I don't use video chat, we have it, but I don't think it's necessary and just plain don't use it. I generate a LOT of email and I document everything that I do. If you can't type well, then get one of the PC based typing/dictation programs. You need to have a way to keep track of EXACTLY what you are working on, especially when you are supporting several sites at the same time. You must be able to communicate and you have to make sure that you stay in front of the ball at all times, you can't be reaction-oriented, you must be proactive. You have to use (if they have it) or set up (if they don't) a problem control system, or you will become so bogged down in "little" things that the big issues will slip away and you will become ineffective. Each site has to have at least 1 progress meeting a week that tends to be about 1 hour long. There can be more, but 1 is the minimum. It's the place to lay out what you have completed, and what you are going to complete, plus it give you (and the site) a chance to stay on the same page. It's very easy, especially with multiple sites, to lose positive control, and you have to stay on top of EVERYTHING at all times. Every site I work on has a substantial to-do list divided into short and long range items, and that's just the things I plan to work on, there will also be a number of "problems" that need to be resolved. If you want to talk about this, feel free to call me and I'll be happy to go over things with you. Brian ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
