Service and Support, long the beaten down step-child of any industry, has taken no more public abuse and ridicule than in the world of Technology. In today's modern internet driven society, the presumed "elite" are those who can write code, de-tangle the inner workings of a UNIX kernel, design and manage relational databases or architect a global WAN. However, when all hell breaks loose with those core technologies, who is that one person responding to a business user to take the bullet for the failure? It is the Service Professional who is dispatched to take up the challenge of facing the end user impacted by the failure.
By no fault of the industry as a whole, the relatively young business of technology has been one designed to enable the users as quickly as possible to provide the business with a technological advantage over its competition. Over the years this has meant a rapid deployment mentality which translated to throwing out all sorts of technology solutions with little thought being given to how that technology would be supported after it is in place. The result of which has been an environment cultivating a culture of reactivity. The goal of these writings is not to address the importance of technology nor the business as the concept of Service can be applied across any industry or technology, but rather the service minded professional that is long overdue in being recognized for their contribution to every industry. The IT Service Profession however, is unique. It is a field that many feel can be performed by any person with a deeper than average interest in technology. "Do you have an email account?" "Yes." "You're hired." What is being realized as of late is that the Service-minded individual is one that not simply understands technology, but has a unique view of how it should be implemented in a manner that may be more effective than one of the core technologist or the pure business user. A cultural shift is in the works within most technology dependent businesses today. The ability to stop viewing technology as purely a body of development and engineering elements, but also that of a third piece, which is a people driven function outside of those core roles. We all know technology breaks. It is the management of those breaks through to the restoration of business processes in which the true value player can be found..... The IT Service & Support Professional.
Technology is evolving. By its very nature, technology is an industry that is full of processes that are dependent on other processes. Whether you are writing code where sub-routines are dependent on other sub-routines or setting up a network where IP Addresses are depending on Routing Tables there is always a need for order and process. This is no different in the world of IT Service. 