Resources For The Macintosh IS Professional
In order for the Mac to survive in the corporate world,
support resources need to be available for IS professionals.
Apple offers a good set of resources that are poorly
marketed. Several companies also have resources available
for Macintosh IS professionals, both free and pay-as-you-go.
As always, there is also room for improvement. Most of these
resources would also be good for smaller companies that need
occasional troubleshooting assistance.
Getting Help From Apple When You Need It
The best program Apple has to offer is the Support
Professional program. This program is a comprehensive suite
of services offered on a yearly contracted basis. I have
been using this program for over three years now, and have
found it to be the most useful support resource available.
The services offered include a quarterly mailing of Apple
software and an extended (Tech Info Library) TIL, a helpdesk
with trained support professionals, escalation paths to have
serious problems resolved, web access to an extensive amount
of training material, and email notifications on support
issues. There are a variety of levels to the program that
offer different service packages and access to one or more
employees at a company. Check it out at the
Support
Professional web site.
At $2,000 - $9,000/year, the Support Professional program
is a bargain. Comparable programs from Microsoft start at
$45,000 and have a yearly limit on the number of incidents.
If you support more than about 50 Macs, you should be on at
least the base membership package for this program.
Another excellent program Apple offers is their hardware
certification. This program allows an IS professional to get
trained on the latest Apple hardware repair techniques. Once
you have passed the certification program, you get access to
the Apple Service Source CDs and web site which provide an
extensive amount of material on repairing Apple products.
Traditionally, this program is reserved for Apple Resellers
and VARs, but large sites can be classified as self
supporting. This means their technicians can be trained to
diagnose and repair their equipment. Contact your Apple
representative for more information on this program.
Apple also provides several resources for locating an
Apple Authorized Service Provider at 1-800-538-9696 or an
independent consultant as part of the
Apple Solutions
Professional Network.
When Support From Apple Is Not Enough
As we all know, Apple does not have all the answers, even
for their own products. As support professionals we need
somewhere to turn for support in these situations. There a
variety of third-party support options.
Helpdesk Services
One of the first concerns when supporting several hundred
or thousand Mac users is providing adequate and capable
helpdesk or call center services. Outsourcing of helpdesk
services has become a very large industry over the last five
years, and in this case the Mac wasn't left out. There are
several companies who offer Mac support services in their
helpdesk packages. Most work by providing a 800 number that
either the IS staff can call or that can be handed directly
to the end-user for support.
Outsourcing companies can offer high volume low cost
services, while still retaining high levels of personalized
service. Support for the most common third-party
applications is readily available and generally of good
quality. When looking for an outsourcing company, get
competitive bids and service level agreements. Outsourcing
companies come in all shapes and sizes, and finding one that
matches your needs should not be difficult.
Some of the companies that offer helpdesk services
include:
On-line Support
The quality of on-line support has skyrocketed over the
last two years. There are so many web sites that offer
quality information for Mac professionals that any kind of
list is certain to leave off an excellent site. The key
thing to remember is that most of these sites are small and
rely on users to not only post their problems, but to also
provide input on support issues they encounter and resolve.
Also, no one source will have all the answers. Many
third-party vendors have been expanding their web site
offerings to cut down on the number of support calls. I
realize this is not earth shattering news, more of a
reminder of the value of some of these web sites.
Some excellent Macintosh web sites:
What's Still Missing?
Even with all of these resources, there are still some
things missing in the Macintosh world that IS professionals
have come to expect from the Wintel world.
Certification: Apple had a certification program,
Apple Certified System Engineer (ACSE), that provided
training on the fundamentals of network design and
implementation, server support, backups, and client
management. Say what you will about certification programs,
they set a base competency and are an effective marketing
tool for the vendor's products. The goal of the MCSE,
Microsoft Certified System Engineer, program is to train
people into believing that Microsoft has a solution for
every need. One walks out of the certification program as a
trained MS sales representative who knows the MS product
suite, and has some level of knowledge about supporting
those tools. Apple needs to revive their program.
Account Representatives And Consulting Services:
One of the things lacking in the Support Professional
program is a true account representative. As a corporate
customer who is committing millions of dollars to Apple
products, I need to feel as though someone within Apple is
on my side. Apple has had such a fluid strategy on account
representatives, that there is no stability and value in the
position. As Apple refocuses their marketing energies and
addresses each market segment, they need to carry forward a
stronger account representative strategy.
Not to offend any independent consultants out there, but
Apple either needs to directly offer some level of
consulting services for implementation and management of
their products, like they do with WebObjects, or they need
to integrate the ASPN more tightly into their product
portfolio. IS customers need to know that an Apple certified
and authorized resource is available. The recent cleanup of
the Apple Reseller and VAR programs may be a step in the
right direction. With Apple's help, the VARs that remain can
focus on building a stronger team that can deliver
integrated customer solutions.
Please direct all feedback to
pshields@applelinks.com.
I keep a web page dedicated to each article with updates and
reader feedback. The feedback can be found at
http://www.cyberramp.net/~pshields/webtech/articles.html.
Paul
Shields has been supporting and
using Macintosh computers since 1985. He is currently
working at a major telecommunications firm supporting a
mixed installed base of Macintosh, Windows, and UNIX
workstations. He has been dealing with the issues of
integrating the Mac into the corporate world for the last
five years. For more information please visit his website at
http://www.cyberramp.net/~pshields/
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