emea10: e2c welcome and opening keynote

E2C Conference

John McGlinchey

UK Director, CompTIA

Platinum Sponsors

Gold Sponsors

Silver Sponsors

Thank you to the advisory committee

• Andrew Smith, Open University

• Gerard Craughwell, Senior College Dun Laoghaire

• Richard Cotton, Cornwall College

• Ian Green, Liverpool Community College

• Terry Salt, Barnfield College

• Kirk Redhead, ITEC Learning Technologies

• Stuart Philip, Highlands College

• Ken Lamb, Milton Keynes College

• Robin Brown, Telford College of Arts & Technology

• Fiona Baxter, Warrington Collegiate

Over the past 12 months...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

A Couple of Reminders...

Use #EMEA10 if you tweet during the

EMEA Member Conference.

Set your ringer to vibrate

The User Advocate

Or, How to Gain Power, Glory and Money in the IT Industrywith Relatively Little Effort

Mike Meyers, Total Seminars, LLC

Techs are Reactive, not Proactive

We see a problem and react to it

The classic “Break/Fix”

Reactive attitudes lead to stagnation

“I know what I need to know”

There’s a better way to think…

The User Advocate

Recognizes the processes, the Zen, of the

organization and actively works in an

advocacy role to promote the benefits of IT

and to aggressively implement IT solutions

to that organization.

The User Advocate’s Policy

User Advocates are proactive

User Advocates are “part of the team”

Break/Fix “with a twist”

Respects, but does not rely on channels,

chains of commands or established policies

Why User Advocacy?

Personal growth

Advancement

Reduced workload

Job satisfaction

Manifesting the User Advocate

Defining your organization

Searching for IT shortcomings

Personal training to create solutions

User training

Development a support spy ring

Defining your Organization

Pick your organization!

– You don’t have to take on the entire system!

– A section, a physical plant, department

“We” – not “Them”

What do we do?

How is IT manifested?

Understanding the Organization

Access - The power of IT support

The service call – your primary tool

What application’s does your organization

use?

Searching for IT Shortcomings

Chasing complaints

– Your customers

– Your customer’s customers

Observation

IT Shortcomings

Application

User Training

– Failure to use provided tools

– Failure to perform basic personal support

Resource Access

Personal Training to Create Solutions

Learning the applications

User Advocates can write code!

– Macros

– Scripts

– “Real” Code

Learn the hardware

Certification!

Certification

No such thing as a terminal certification

Learning is a life-long process

Certifications are the de facto CEUs of the IT

industry

“It’s what we do!”

Manifesting Personal Training

Classroom Instruction

Seminars

Personal Training

– Books

– Magazines

– Websites

User Training

Application Training

General OS Training

Personal Maintenance

Personal Backups

Developing a Support “Spy Ring”

Every organization is filled with nerdy

“wannabies” – help them!

Adhoc support training

Level 0 Techs

User Advocacy Is Hard!

You have to love IT - “CIC”

Long hours

You'll be loved – and hated

The more successful your program, the

less fun you'll have -The “M” word!

Contact

Mike Meyers

800-446-6004

michaelm@totalsem.com

www.totalsem.com

”desweds” @ everything