1. Introduction to Unit 12 – IT Technical Support BTEC NATIONAL 1st YEARS ANNE SEWELL

2. What is IT Support? The provision of technical advice, guidance and support is a cornerstone of the IT developments in technology have created a demand for technical support personnel who can offer support for individuals and organisations in different ways. This can include on-site help desk support or remote support (connecting to the client machine and attempting to resolve the problem), field support and call centre support.

3. What is IT Support? The continuous development of technology and changing work patterns requires IT professionals to keep up to date with how to deal with technical problems and how to access and provide support where and when needed. In addition, organisations now seek to employ new mechanisms, systems and technologies and this changing organisational practice has had a direct impact on the individuals who provide this support.

4. What is IT Support? By completing this unit, learners will be able to use their technical knowledge to help clients to resolve technical problems and improve the performance of IT systems. In order to do this, learners will discover how to select the relevant and reliable information from different sources. This unit focuses on help desk/desktop support but includes an awareness of other kinds of support.

5. It is common for calls to helpdesks to be made by people under some pressure — perhaps because their workflow is interrupted by a system failure and potentially involving loss of data or communications breakdowns. This means that support technicians need to develop good interpersonal skills in order to interact positively with customers and provide technical support. What is IT Support?

6. Learners will come to understand a variety of methods to provide the support and present information to meet customers’ needs. At this level, learners need also to develop an awareness of generic issues, perhaps identified through analysis of referrals for support over a period of time. What is IT Support?

7. This unit is directly related to providing advice and guidance within a business context, although learners will mostly be responding to individuals. Learners will develop an understanding of any constraints and implications of any relevant organisational policies to provide advice and guidance. What is IT Support?

8. The IT sector is changing rapidly and an important part of this unit is to look at new and emerging technologies that relate to the areas they support but also to see how these new technologies might impact their work. What is IT Support?

9. Looking at the Unit scenario and table showing faults reported by ITSMAGIC employees choose three of the reported faults. Add a column to the table explaining what information you think the support technician needs to be able to help each user. Activity 1: Working as a group

10. Read the unit Chapter 12 “Recording faults and remedies” (pages 8-10 (up to 1.3 Future Trends) Decide what information should be kept about faults reported to an IT support team. Write brief notes. Assume this information is recorded in a database for example – what reports might this database provide? Create a data collection sheet or record that you, as an IT Technician could use. Activity 2: Working individually

11. Create a data collection sheet or record that you, as an IT Technician could use. Activity 3: Working individually