[ale] Recommended Support Levels

[Thompson Freeman]

Well, you qualify as the first person to _not_ confuse the question with
total cost of ownership (tco obviously). Congratulations! 

Which means you should recognize the answer when/if you run across it. Of
course, technically you did answer with 1 support per 75-100 users,
generally platform independent. And a solid, brief discourse on
influencing factors for staffing levels.

I'm sorry to appear greedy - but is this the industry standard
practice? Do the suppliers of software/hardware suggest the same
levels? Can it be established that there is no support bias between
platforms (on the basis of staffing levels), or is there a real bias
between platforms which is overshadowed by other considerations? My
scientific background is rubbing a burr into my saddle sores...

Still, I _do_ thank you for the first direct answer to the question to
date!

On Thu, 31 Jan 2002, Denny Chambers wrote:

> I believe these numbers depend less on the platform, and more on the
> following:
> 
> Number of Users
> The number of users that are being supported. This number will dictate
> how many server are need. The more users, the more home directories,
> email, and misc. data that needs to be stored. The more servers and disk
> space that need to be managed. Also, more users mean more desktops that
> need to be managed. The knowledge level of you user will factor into
> this as well. Managing a group of developers, is a little different than
> managing a group of data entry people. And I don't care what platform
> you are running on, or what the knowledge level of the user is, USERS
> WILL BREAK IT. Thinking back on past experience I might suggest 1
> desktop person, and 1 server admin for about every 75 - 100 users. That
> is a rough estimate.
> 
> 
> Number of remote location.
> If several remote locations are being supported, managing the lans and
> wans can become a full time position, so a full-time Network admin may
> or may not be needed. It would depend on the work load and skill set of
> you other admins.
> 
> Numbers and Size of Specialty Servers
> If you have servers that handle specific functions. i.e. Email,
> Databases, Peoplesoft, SAP, Mainframes, OS/400, Citrix, PBX....,
> depending on the size of your applications, and the user base, these
> types of servers may require dedicated personnel with particular skill
> sets.
> 
> Then of course you need a manager to keeps this chaos under control.

Hmmm. I've been managed too often by a manager who seemed to enhance chaos
- not keep it under control. <<sigh>>

> 
> HTH,
> Denny
> 
> The number of remote location.
> 
> Thompson Freeman wrote:
> > 
> > The subject came up on another list I'm on, I went looking on the web, and
> > I've yet to see results. For the various computing platforms &
> > applications, what are current industry practices for support
> > staffing? Failing that - the recommended levels?
> > 
> > What I'm curious about, for an office doing office stuff, how many support
> > people are needed when the office is MS based? How many when Mac
> > based? How many when Unix/Linux based? Likewise servers. It seems like
> > these numbers should be available somewhere, but I simply haven't found
> > them.
> > 
> > --
> > ===========================================
> > The harder I work, the luckier I get.
> >                     Lee Iacocca
> > ===========================================
> > Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net
> > 
> > ---
> > This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
> > See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be
> > sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
> 
> 

-- 
===========================================
The harder I work, the luckier I get.
                    Lee Iacocca
===========================================
Thompson Freeman          tfreeman at intel.digichem.net


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