Tech support blues

One of the most common whinges we hear from small businesses and home is "we can't get decent tech support".

It's true, they can't.

But they only have themselves to blame. Imagine you owned a car that you never serviced, never checked the oil or water and, when it did break down, you picked up the Yellow Pages to find the cheapest mechanic that could do it now. That's exactly what people do with their IT.

I had a client call at 8.00am this morning, Easter Thursday, who's moved offices and finds their computers won't work. They need them fixed now. We can't get anyone to them.

The problem I face, along with the entire industry, is that this idea of picking up the phone and hollerring for a tech just doesn't work. I can't employ staff if I don't know how much work I'll have on next week. Equally, you can't expect to get 24/7, two hour response support unless you are prepared to pay for it.