Planning for Your IT Guy’s Vacation

It is extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the IT guy of a small business to go on vacation. If the business owner acts as the IT guy, then it looks like vacation is not happening for them either. There are just too many things that could go wrong, and too many responsibilities that cannot be ignored. The maintenance and uptime of business systems are essential to the continuance of the business. If systems go down and the IT guy is not there, no one else can do their job, either. This downtime can lead to a massive loss of profits.

The fact remains, though, that once in a while the IT guy does need a vacation. Here are a few things that must be done in preparation.

Delegation

When the IT guy’s vacation begins, his jobs and responsibilities still continue. The best way to handle this is to split up the essential jobs/responsibilities between several different people. If everyone has a small extra responsibility, then the burden of the IT guy’s vacation is less severe. Not only does it ensure that the work gets done, but it shows the company how essential the IT guy is to the company, and reminds the company that IT is no easy job. Get the right job to the right people, and give them the resources they need to do it.

Seamless Process Documentation

The most important part of being prepared for your IT guy’s vacation is to have in place seamless processes that can be followed in their absence. All the delegation in the world is useless if the employees who were given extra work don’t know how to do it. If something happens (such as the website going down), the responsible party must know how to troubleshoot, who to call for help, where to go for access to all necessary credentials, etc. All of this and more should be described in detail throughout the process documentation in a way that anyone can understand.

A Partner

Honestly, even if complete delegation and process documentation are carried out perfectly, it is unlikely that everything will run smoothly. It is more complicated problems, like ISP issues and malware/virus attacks, that cause the catastrophic problems. When things don’t run smoothly, the IT guy’s vacation gets cut short or constantly interrupted. The only way to ensure a smooth process is to partner with a company that specializes in this. Companies like Swift Systems provide a seamless backup to ensure that those companies are covered during their IT guy’s vacation. From complete IT management to a simple backup, working with an IT partner allows you to sleep at night, even when your IT guy is away.

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