Unit 13 - IT Systems Troubleshooting & Repair (P1)

Unit 13 - IT Systems Troubleshooting & Repair

Task A - Troubleshooting and the Organisation (P1)

P1: Impact of Organisational Policies on the Troubleshooting and Repair Process – Report on Nexus' Company Policy and How it Affects IT Troubleshooting & Repair

Within the organisation of Nexus it is important that the policies they have in place are stuck by during the troubleshooting and repair process. Not only does this keep a structure within the company in regards to this process, but it also keeps a good name going for the organisation of Nexus itself.  

 

One of the policy categories that Nexus has put into place would be the likes of security, which plays a big role in the troubleshooting and repair process. The reason this plays a big role is due to the amount of customer's details that Nexus would have to deal with on a day to day basis – the company cannot afford to let the details get into the wrong hands! The technicians who would undergo troubleshooting and repair will have to ensure they stick to the security policies such as "No unauthorised software is to be installed on company machines unless proof of a licence is available" and also the policy of "Internet use is restricted to permitted sites at all times". By having these two policies in place will help with the security of the company and customer details in the sense that it helps to prevent the breach of the computer machines used from malicious files and malware which could take advantage of the computer to dig out important customer and organisational details. These details could include the likes of passwords, bank details, addresses etc. By restricting the internet usage in the company helps to prevent the workers from gaining access to any websites that may potentially download unwanted and/or malicious files, and also prevents unauthorised software being installed, which is the second security related policy the company has in place – these policies could not only help protect information, but also protect people from the DPA (Data Protection Act) and CMA (Computer Misuse Act). 

The impact on the IT Technicians who will be doing the troubleshooting and repairing process for the company however is that it may lead to restricting them from certain software they might need in order to complete a certain job they need to do, resulting in an outcome that might not be the best outcome if the job cannot be done properly. However, it does in fact help protect the Technician's machines from unwanted and malicious files.

The second category of policies that Nexus has in place comes under cost. Within the organisation there is likely to be a set budget for each department – with Nexus only being a small company the budget is not likely to be high, but a budget is set for a reason nonetheless. With this set budget each department can use the money on necessary things to get the job done, whether that be spend on specific hardware or to upgrade software etc. With only having around thirty-five employees in total the IT department – and other departments in general – are likely to be made up from a small number of people, meaning that the money budget each department gets only has to be distributed between a small number of people. If this money has to only be spent on a few Technicians for example, it means that each Technician can make sure they have the best equipment possible to run the daily tasks they are required to do; less people means more money can be invested in each individual machine the Technician's have in work, which could lead to a more efficient and effective work space. The company policies which could come under the category of cost could be the likes of "Hardware replacement will take place on a five year rolling programme". Other policies that will affect the company in costs could be "Hardware under guarantee must be returned to the manufacturer in order not to invalidate the warranty" and also "All other hardware will be repaired on site if possible, otherwise it will be sent to a recognised specialist". The reason this would come under the cost category would be that if the company was to unfortunately make a mistake in the repair process rather than sending the product to a specialist then it will cost them more money to fix the issue. Likewise with the warranty – they do not want to remove the warranty on the product, so sending it back to the manufacturer would be a more suitable idea than voiding the warranty trying to fix an issue themselves. 

However, money costs policies could affect the Technicians on Troubleshooting and Repair in the sense that if the money was to get spent completely then there might not be any left if one of the components of hardware they need was to become faulty and needed replacing. This means that the Technicians will have to have good money handling skills so that they spend only what's necessary to leave some money for replacements etc.

The third category of policies that Nexus has in place comes under downtime/system downtime. System downtime can be caused by a number of things, such as hardware faults or even if the Technicians just need to do a little bit of maintenance within the office. In the case of it not being a scheduled downtime and due to a fault there are ways in which they can be prevented, if the correct procedures are taken prior and all legislations and policies have been followed in the correct manner. One of the company policies that would fall into this category of downtime would be "Requests made by the managing director or accountant must be given top priority". The reason for this is that if there was a system downtime then it is likely that the managing director will try and give certain orders in order for the downtime to be resolved as quick as possible, as if the issue – if not scheduled – is not resolved quickly then it could potentially lead to losing out of profit for Nexus, but would be worse in larger companies.  

System downtime can affect IT Technicians in a bad way however, as if they needed the systems to go down to run a little maintenance or other work which required the systems to be down in order to perform the work then they will need to be granted access first by the person in charge. This might not always get granted however, as to have the systems go down would mean that an entire backup would have to be done in case there was an error in the system when it goes down. Also with the systems going down for maintenance by the Technicians means that all of the other employees would have to stop their work for a certain amount of time as they would not have access to the systems due to the downtime, which as mentioned could lead to less profit being made and less work being done, as there is no saying how long the Technicians will need the systems  to be down for.

From looking at the organisational policies Nexus has in place we can clearly see how the Technicians in the IT department of the company are affected by them, including being affected by security, costs and system downtimes. Overall, although the policies are put into play to keep the structure baseline of the company together, it is evident that the Technicians can be affected in negative ways, such as not being able to get their work done if the system in the workplace cannot be turned off for maintenance when needed to etc.