ITLINKS Center 2014 Year in Review
2014 was quite a year for the ITLINKS Center (formerly known as the MSC). Customer appreciation increased 10-fold because of the ability to “walk-up” to a technican for assistance. Anyone can picture working in the middle of the day and your laptop crashes or will not boot. Instead of panicking or hunting around for that helpdesk number, choosing the appropriate selection, then waiting the next available tech, you can go to an all-service IT Center. That is what the ITLINKS Center is “in a nutshell”; the convenience, Priceless! The ITLINKS Center is not just reactive, we are proactive. We provide product demos, training, and even IT health-check.
The ITLINKS Center was put to the test when the new SAP Academy started. 400 students from around the globe needed support. Whether it was a problem with their laptop, software they needed installed, or simply instructions on “How-To”; the wonderful techs were there to help. To get an idea of what we were up against, take a look at this Snapshot:
Student Stats
Global Students
3 Groups of 100 Sales Students, two session each group
2 Groups of 50 Pre-sales, six months sessions
Events
SAP Academy Recruiting/Boot-Camp
SAP Academy Coffee Corners
SAP Academy Dublin Town Hall Meeting
SAP Academy Executive Summit
Training
iPad Tune-up Sessions
IT Welcome
Support
Special IT Hours – First two weeks of each group
Dedicated Single Point of Contact
IT Support Sessions
IT Equipment – Secure laptop and iPad for both Sales and Presales New Hires
Talk about support on demand!
The ITLINKS Center saw an increase in support for both Macbooks and Linux Workstations. There was a time when we only saw one or two Macbooks a week. Today, we work on several Macbooks on any given day. Surprisingly, before the ITLINKS Center, very few from IT worked with Linux. Now, we support several labs of Developer Linux Workstations. What changed? The focus of the Developers. Mobile App Developers use Macbooks to develop and test internal and external products. HANA and Build Developers use Linux Workstations to develop or test the HANA platform and test builds.
Mobility is why the ITLINKS Center (MSC) was orginally started; what is more mobile than a tablet or a phone? Here at the Center, we support both Apple and Andriod Devices. There is a running joke among us which platform is King but we always recommend whatever works bests for the end-user and their needs.
The influx of new technology, new devices, Domain Migrations and other IT Changes made 2014 a busy but productive year for the ITLINKS Center. 2015 promises to be both challenging and rewarding as we head to a year-round SAP Academy, new Lenovo tablets, and the new Window Standard Windows 8.1.