A FEW MONTHS ago, I wrote about the decision to outsource much of our internal technology infrastructure to a unique company
called Centerbeam. (I should note that there are other companies, such as Everdream, offering similar services, but the offerings
have some essential differences. Also, for the record, Centerbeam's CTO is a member of the InfoWorld CTO Advisory Council.)
Since I made the decision, we have successfully implemented the service for our entire enterprise, including our headquarters,
four branch offices, and almost 20 home offices. In the end, the service was delivered exactly on schedule and was better
than I thought it would be when I first signed up.
Simply described, Centerbeam supports and backs up our file and printer servers, supports and backs up all of our PC desktops,
supplies and manages our VPN, provides secure dial-up services, and fields help desk calls for us -- all remotely. That's
right, not one Centerbeam employee is stationed at InfoWorld, yet the company runs our infrastructure as well as I've seen
it run. The system is actually very simple. If one of our users has a problem at any hour of the day and any day of the week,
he/she calls a toll-free number and the phone is answered by someone familiar with InfoWorld's environment, usually in a matter
of seconds.
The Centerbeam person on the other end of the phone either walks our employee through fixing the problem, or remote controls
the system to fix the issue at hand. In the event of a hardware issue, Centerbeam images a system from the user's last backup
and sends it out immediately with little time wasted tinkering with the machine and inconveniencing the user.
One of the things I like most about Centerbeam might seem like a minor detail to some -- it backs up every desktop system
every night. A lot of companies do this themselves, granted, but Centerbeam leverages a service called Connected that securely
backs up your system over the Internet. Not only does this mean that you can back up your system from anywhere (and all of
our remote users do this), it means that a user can restore files from anywhere. Even better, Connected has an easy-to-use
self-service interface, so a reasonably tech-savvy user can restore a deleted file without assistance. Our users can still
call Centerbeam to help if they are uncomfortable with restoring files themselves, but the process is stunningly simple either
way.
There are some who would argue that good IT support should have a face, and I agree that technology folks need to be visible
within any company. But we all know that the best IT support is the kind you never see, because that means everything is working
as it should. As a manager, even if you have a world-class desktop support staff, it's likely that your best people want to
move on to higher-level IT positions as soon as possible.
There are a lot of similarities between what is happening with the evolving service model of desktop support represented
by Centerbeam and what has occurred in the banking industry over the past few decades. When ATMs first came out, the public
was skeptical: How can you do most of your banking with a machine after you've been doing it with a live bank teller for so
many years? Even today, there are people who prefer a live bank teller, but that number is fading, and banks are increasingly
charging extra for these high-cost services. The Centerbeam model is the best of both worlds, an IT support equivalent of
an always-on ATM -- but it's an ATM with a phone attached to it so you can get a live person on the other end of the line
quickly whenever you need it. IT support has changed forever.
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