Your role as a system administrator is directly related to the success of your organization. When employees, vendors and customers are able to communicate quickly and easily, it helps the organization increase productivity and performance by keeping costs down and ensuring customer satisfaction.
As an administrator, you have three basic responsibilities:
Making sure the employees in your organization have the phones and features they need and helping them make the best possible use of the telephone system. Managing and administering access to private and public, local and long-distance
services. In other words, maintaining the connections between your organization and the outside world.
Monitoring the security and performance of the telephone system. As a system administrator, you are responsible for preventing toll fraud by seeing that hackers and thieves cannot penetrate your telephone system and steal services for which your organization will have to pay. You are also responsible for keeping both electronic and paper records of your system configuration so you are prepared in the event of a disaster.
Of course, the role of an administrator is much more than just being the "phone person" or simply making changes to the telephone system. An important part of the role is to solve communication problems and reinforce business policies related to
telecommunications that keep your organization running at peak efficiency.
As the administrator, you can help your organization gain a competitive edge if you understand your phone users' needs. When you understand your phone users' communication needs, you can apply the appropriate technology and create effective solutions. So, build relationships with your phone users to encourage clear
communication about their needs and problems.
When you build relationships within your organization, you are able to work with others to solve problems and create better solutions. It is essential that you work with management and department heads within your organization to improve business performance and support the goals, needs and strategies of your organization. Work closely with upper management and others to learn about your organization's future directions. This is critical for long-range planning, equipment purchases, wiring, and upgrades.
Develop strategies to increase the efficient use of your Communication Manager system/
Publicize your role.
Meet regularly with management and department heads to find out how they work. Establish a system to educate new users and provide refresher training for others. Set up a communications channel, such as e-mail, messaging system mailbox, or a
web site for employees to make suggestions, ask questions, or make requests. Keep your end-users well-trained and up-to-date to ensure that the system is being used effectively and efficiently.
To provide your organization with appropriate communication solutions, it is important to know your Communication Manager system. Because there are a variety of system configurations, you should know the capabilities and limitations of your system. This is critical in order to be prepared for any contingency. In the event of a disaster, you will need to know exactly what configuration you have, so that it can be restored properly.
needs. One of the best ways to maintain your knowledge is to keep printed records related to all elements of your organization's communication system and services. You should also build relationships with your telecommunication vendors. This will keep you up to date on new products and current offerings from your vendors. For example, if you discover that a number of trunks are not being used by your organization, you can work with your vendors to analyze your situation and come up with a more effective trunking plan.
Another reason to build relationships with your vendors is to keep them familiar with your system. If you frequently experience a particular problem with a piece of equipment or a service, your vendor will be aware of the problem and better able to help you find a solution.
As a system administrator you have myriad responsibilities and multiple constituencies to whom you must answer, so it's important for you to streamline your job however you can. There are several proven methods for doing this:
Create a system to stay abreast of employee changes
Employee-related changes are one of the greatest challenges that you will face as a system administrator. Existing employees depart or change departments or positions, and new employees are hired. All of these changes have implications for you as a system administrator.
Keeping track of employee information is too big a job for a Communication Manager software administrator alone. You need to establish a partnership with the Human Resources department. In concert with HR, you should work out a system to keep abreast of these changes.
Require end-user training
To ensure that end-users acquire a common body of information about the voice system, you may want to require end-user training in some instances. In the long run it is easier and more efficient for you to train groups of employees than to respond to individual requests for assistance with Communication Manager features. To guarantee employee follow-through, many organizations make end-users' voicemail access contingent on completion of training. Of course, instituting such a policy requires Management's approval.
Standardize telephone feature configurations
Use standard button configurations for initial phone set up
While the Communication Manager software allows easy customization of buttons to satisfy individuals' needs, starting from a common base can simplify end-user training and troubleshooting. Also, having a standard button configuration means that
employees will feel more comfortable using phones other than their own. Set up consistent abbreviated dial lists on each station
Any way that you can standardize procedures or features on end-users' phones will ease your workload. One way to standardize is to set up consistent abbreviated dial lists on each station. Consider assigning the lists as follows:
List 1: primary personal list
List 2: group list or secondary personal list List 3: system list
Establish station templates for different types of end-users
Station templates are lists of features designed to accommodate the needs of particular categories of end-users. The templates should match end-users' work tasks, and be consistent for all end-users within a given category. Such templates help you establish consistency in phone use and set-up in your organization, and save you time.
Templates help you troubleshoot problems and manage change in your voice system.
Involve end-users in planning for new system and departmental changes
No one has more experience with your phone system than the end-users themselves. They can be an invaluable resource when you are contemplating Communication Manager software upgrades or other phone system changes. Involving end-users in the planning process will promote their loyalty and make your job easier in the long run.