Technician Question

Hey I have a question for pretty much anybody to offer opinions and or suggestions to just as long as they are going to offer helpful advice.

My question is of a job that I currently am working as a tech for a medical transcription company whose employees deal with HIPPA protected health care information and my job is currently to set up and configure the transcriptionists software to allow them to access the information securely. Recently the owner of the company has decided that she is putting out too much money between myself and the other tech and has decided she wants us to put together a knowledge base of all problems and configurations that we have encountered therefore making the end user responsible for their own tech support and configuration of their software not paying them anything extra for doing so. Also not taking into consideration the fact that many of these people will not have much if anything other than basic PC operation skills. I can foresee total catastrophe but would like some outside input as well.

My main question is: Do you think that it's a mistake on her part to leave it up to the end user to do both their job and the job of the tech and what possible outcomes can you foresee. Also working under the assumption that you had hardly no PC skills would you feel comfortable providing your own tech support off a set written instructions?

Thanks for the reply Mosh that's kind of along the lines of what we were thinking was sit back and watch the madness and see if operations go back to normal since I believe a crash and burn is imminent.

and as to your question 1. sorry I don't have access to the good stuff :(

I should be able to do that when they start losing business as we had a meeting with the owners yesterday and they pretty much said they wanted to do away with tech support because they asked if the other tech and I would compile a kb with all the troubleshooting solutions and install and configuration instructions so the contractors could do their own installations and troubleshooting.

I may take part in the creation of the kb but unless I'm mistaken I believe that I own the rights to the documentation as I am a private IT contractor and there is nothing in the contract stating that anything I create becomes the property of said business. I'm pretty sure they will crash and burn over time as they had previously offered support to 200+ transcriptionists and now they are deciding to have them solve their own problems so there is more than likely a huge "I told you so" waiting on down the line.:p

I dunno, I think this might be useful in some situations. A lot of users have really basic questions, and they seem to commonly trip up in the same places. Of course this method isn't going to be useful in the event of something mildly complicated happening, or protect the users who keep forgetting that you have to press the power button to make the computer work (I've seen this at my school).

It would definitely save some time and money, but the idea of removing pretty much any and all actual people who know what they are doing is just a horrible idea. A balance would probably work not bad, though.

I'd be interested in finding out how this turns out.

I will keep you posted as time moves forward, and I agree it's a great idea to have a kb for the redundant issues that most users could easily fix themselves. I was told yesterday that the company wants to phase out the IT dept. which I don't foresee going over too well with the 200+ users we support.

Dude, you need to make sure you know your rights for copyright. Make sure you know before anything gets settled. Who knows, maybe you can get a lot of money for each of the troubleshooting catalogues plus extra when they come back thirsty for more. ;)

If there is ever going to be a situation where a the transcriptionist needs to find something immediately, then you probably need tech support. Even if the problem is something where you might think "Oh, that's a stupid question." A manual or FAQ can't hurt because it helps the user solve their problems, but good tech support guarantees that they can keep the user busy with their own work/problems.

So far it's looking like this person isn't going to know she had good tech support until it's too late as it's looking like I may be without a contract and without a job here soon the way things are going. From what I've been told and am beginning to understand from communications I've had that the knowledge base for all software that the company deals with needs to be put together and put on the company website within one week, I've got half a mind to say "Hey you want a quick solution that can solve a good portion of your problems well here it is!" <leaves link to www.google.com on website>:angry: I know I am supposed to do what is necessary to make the client happy but in this case it seems the client just simply can not be satisfied. I am also aware that there are a good portion of the MT's that are contracted with this company that will not work for them if they know they don't have tech support to turn to for help for their major issues.

I think that you do should email (so it's documented) the boss that this is a sinking ship and that you will do what she wants, but can't support it. It's not like you can loose the contract for saying this, and it makes sure the blame goes to her if something happens.

maug wrote: I think that you do should email (so it's documented) the boss that this is a sinking ship and that you will do what she wants, but can't support it. It's not like you can loose the contract for saying this, and it makes sure the blame goes to her if something happens.

Oh yea all conversations are sent via email with tracking so there is no chance that the blame will fall on me when the company loses business, and that's actually along the lines of what I told her. If memory serves me well I believe I told her that

" I always try to ensure that I make every attempt to adhere to the wishes of my clients, but I also want to make sure my clients proceed with their eyes wide open. and "You refer to “simple” and “redundant” issues and having the enduser refer to a knowledge base for solutions. The simple fact is that what we may see as “simple” and “redundant” does not appear that way to the majority of end users. In point of fact, there is already a knowledge base available to the end user – the HELP file included with all programs. In addition, Google, Bing, about.com, ask.com, just to name a few, are excellent resources for information."

That sound like an I told you so and ass coverage or what? :p

Missing one thing. You said there is already an alternative, the help document included with the software and search engines. But you didn't say that by it's self isn't enough.

Maybe she's planning on using the software companies tech support.

Does this mean your going to get sacked?

GeorgeTatnell wrote: Does this mean your going to get sacked?

htmldesigner wrote: …it's looking like I may be without a contract and without a job here soon the way things are going…

No, it definitely looks like he will be keeping his job for the long term. Why else would he say that, right? He must be trying to trick us. :angry:

I'm honestly not sure at this time but I don't foresee any longevity with the company :p, but stuff is already starting to go majorly wrong so I may keep my services available to them if they do let me go…just at a much higher rate :o, but so far there have been major errors that are causing a loss of both time and money on this new account they have so my job may still have purpose to them if their pockets begin to feel the pain…which will probably happen soon enough.

Here is text directly from an email from the owner as pertaining to my invoice and service she originally agreed to pay for per my contract.

We do not pay for email time, conferences with contractors or other techs or planning sessions with other techs.

We send a ticket to be resolved. The time it takes to resolve that ticket is what ******* pays for. Anything OTHER than that is the cost of DOING YOUR BUSINESS.

If we paid for your conferences, email time, etc., you would be an EMPLOYEE of ********, and we would have to deduct taxes, etc.

I am sorry I have only started reviewing these invoices.

Consider past invoices a "gift".

When I originally contracted with this company they agreed to pay for email and phone support for which I normally charge and now all the sudden I'm told that I will no longer be paid to answer email from her contractors or answer the phone for her contractors, or talk about company software issues with the other IT contractor, and mind you phone and email are the primary methods of support at this company prior to remote desktop assistance.

I honestly think I may as well cancel my contract with this company and watch it sink just as it is doing now. :happy:

Go for it. Drop their greedy asses.

Yeah, I may not know a whole ton about the corporate IT world, but no nobody should take that kind of abuse from an employer. I'm sure there are way better people you could be giving your time to.