IT vs. Tonerheads

[nmfaxman]

Why is it we have to understand their paranoid, secure network, but they think MFPs are HP/ Dell/ Lexmark/ Brother - throwaway technology?

I can't tell you how many times I have had a (higher paid) IT guy, (geekier than me) call me to walk them through reinstalling a print driver when they can't tell the difference between a client server and a p2p.
I can't see what they see.
I can't magically interpret what they have done and wave a wand to fix it.
They want free phone support but they are 60 days past due on the last invoice.

Buggin me had to vent.

Thanks for reading.

[TheOwl]

This one made me laugh.

I can remember the good old days when I would finally walk back into the workshop after an install from hell. The first thing you would yell is "Bloody IT people. They don't know s*&t".

They used to make everything difficult, all because they couldn't be stuffed doing what you asked them to such as getting an IP address or creating a mailbox for the copier. The simplest jobs became hell.

After years of putting up with it, I finally turned around and became an IT person myself so I can now argue with other IT people about how easy it is to get a copier on the network.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em and then stab them in the back! hahahaha

[mrwho]

Although I earn my living working with copier machines, I'm a geek at heart and, in my spare time, toying around with my computers is the hobby I enjoy the most.

Even so, I get quite surprised when I get one of those higher-educated and handsomely-paid IT people asking me "Hey! How did you do that?"

The best example so far - and this could go into the dumb-questions-asked-by-customers thread - was this IT woman (also with a good paycheck and with a job position I would kill for) who was having trouble with the scan-to-email function. As I sat on the computer and fired up telnet to manually test the SMTP server, she leaned over my shoulder and asked "Hey! How did you do that? What's that? How is it done?"

[fixthecopier]

Every once in a while I have to ask questions to IT people in my shop, and sometimes they can make you feel dumb just for asking. I took enjoyment at watching three of them trying to set up and test a new fax machine. For some reason they just could not get it to work. They were very perplexed. I watched for 10 minutes and then I held up the end of the phone cord they had not plugged into a phone jack. I mention that incident whenever they get condescending.

[blackcat4866]

I've been there too, fixthecopier!

[TheOwl]

I still get the "How did you do that?" when I install and print driver on a client machine by using the Run box.

The best one recently was for a big government agency. They ring me up and say that the scanning feature on their Kyocera wasn't working anymore. So I go for a drive and meet their IT people who then show me where the machine was. Two seconds after seeing the machine I told them that the scanner NIC wasn't patched in.

Their IT people had a huge laugh about it cause they had been trying to resolve the scanning issue for three days. lol

What about Mac people? I find that Mac people are easier to get along with out in the field and over the phone. Show a Mac person how to install a print driver and they are happy to install the drivers on the rest of the Macs. Show a PC person how to install the driver and then they expect that to be done for 50+ PC's.

[KenB]

You would think that IT would take a more vested interest in printers and MFPs on their network.

A study done ( I think about 3 years ago), indicated that 42% of IT's bane was print related. That's a bunch!

It would only make sense that IT would want to work more closely with us, but sadly, that's not the case.

When was the last time , if ever, that you had an IT person set up a driver on their server, and actually managed to get the correct accessories configured, or even ask, for that matter? My pet peave, BTW...

And good luck on finding one who actually knows the difference between RGB and CMYK; I just heard that one (again) yesterday.

[Mr Spock]

I think we have had a bunch of _________(insert derogatory comment here) IT people. I know I have had a few (a couple of them even called asked that I not come back after humiliating them in front of the company owner), that were dumber then my kids. However I do have an account that I went in spent 1 hour with the IT department setting up the first of 5 machines (scanning, dual fax lines, printing, email, address books, network faxing, and printing) Toshiba's 3500c machines. The next day I returned to help with the rest of them and they had them already configured and the network drivers setup (one b/w locked down and one color) and logged into Active directory and distributed to the employees so I set the rest up in under an hour total. When I have a question on a network issue they GLADLY tell me how and show me on their equipment and they also buy new equipment every 4-5 years depending on lease terms. So there are good ones out there it is just harder to find them.

[mascan42]

Just yesterday I had an IT guy call me wondering if the default printing preferences could be set on the copier or if he had change them in the driver. Seriously? When was the last time you ever saw printing preferences set anywhere besides in the driver or the application?

And the same idiot called me this morning asking why turning the copier on & off didn't reset the external Fiery. Um, because the Fiery has its own power cord and switch, dummy?

Let's not even get into the supposed "IT" guys who don't even know what SMTP authentication is.

[KenB]

I agree with you, Mr. Spock; there are good ones out there. Good job on developing such a good relationship!

I realize what I said in my previous post, but there are a few things that can be done to make IT less adversarial.

I think one of the best ways to get IT on your side is for your dealership to work with IT before the sale, don't just involve them in a post sale role.

If IT is brought into the picture before the installation, they feel a lot more a part of the deal, and they actually have a say in what's going on their network.

That way, when you arrive to do an installation, the proverbial ice has already been broken, and you aren't working with a total stranger.

Unfortunately this rarely happens with most installations. It seems that once the salesrep inks the deal, it's out of their hands, and it's all up to us to make it work.

I really don't want to get started on how most sales managers and sales reps handle connected deals.... Grrrrrrrrr