08 Business Connect - Expert view, 11th November

Expert View: Cut the jargon and IT support does not have to be so complicated Judith O'Brien

"Do you know your Kibibyte from your Daemons? Don't worry if not. Maybe it would have been easier if I said 'the measure of computer storage or memory capacity equal to 1024 bytes' and 'a computer program that runs in the background'..." Judith from IT Answers shares her thoughts.

Having spent thirty years working with computers, I continue to see new 'jargon' words appearing within the industry on a monthly basis, which do nothing but baffle customers and add even more confusion to the world of IT support.

Essentially, for any business to truly fulfil its success, I believe there needs to be an IT support company on hand to look at their specific needs. Our customers, who work in sectors such as legal, construction, charity and manufacturing, want to focus their time and energy on building their business and maintaining their competitive edge; not trying to solve IT problems.

They want their IT technology to work for them; not have IT give them extra work!

Words such as GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), Malware (Malicious Software) and PSU (Power Supply Unit) help to create a mystery around the area of IT, which some people might like, but my approach is to keep things simple; tell your clients about the process, what their system is all about and find answers for their requirements.

Modern businesses need their IT infrastructure to have maximum uptime. When a problem arises, it needs to be resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible. The root cause needs to be identified and that's why we are in place to reduce the possibility of it recurring.

For the past four years here at IT Answers, we have continued to do this and that's why we have a real mix of different clients. Some use us just for a single service, such as remote backup, however, the majority use all of our services and products, which I believe shows an established relationship and a great deal of trust.

When we develop bespoke products using our Chameleon framework, it's okay to use jargon language when speaking to the right audience, but even techies don't need to use words like Kibibyte (which the team and I here at IT Answers think is completely made up!)

Judith O'Brien