Stuck in the middle
It's pretty interesting how much things have changed over the years. When I first started working in the public school system, technology had been around for quite some time, but it was still trying to find its place in the Education world. I can still remember walking into my current job and finding out that many of the tools that teachers used every day were self hosted on a desktop PC that had been thrown together over a weekend using a standard LAMP configuration (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP).
Software as a service wasn't really a thing back then if the software you needed even existed in the first place. To be honest, we were all kind of fumbling through and learning as we went. It was actually a kind of cool time if not mildly frustrating. Even then, there was a plethora of knowledge on the Internet, and if you had decent Google skills you could often find someone who had already experienced what you were going through and someone else who had discovered a fix for it.
In present times, things have started to move to a software as a service (SaaS) model for a lot of technology products. It seems to be pretty rare that entities actually host their own applications anymore, and in many cases, they don't even have hardware on site as things have started to move to platforms like AWS and other similarly hosted server and network environments.
Through all of this, as the key point of support for the school district where I work, I have found my position has evolved over time. Over the past several years, it has started to become a bit clearer to me that I am really nothing but a middle man for many of these services that are offered to us.
If I am being honest, I initially balked at this sort of thing. It was kind of nice to have certain things out of my hands and to be able to just tell people to reach out to support when they needed help. The problem is, in their mind, I am the support. It's slowly been starting to sink in that although it isn't best for me, and it doesn't always make sense, they may need me as a bridge to get the support they need.
It's horridly frustrating at times. Here is a typical scenario:
Teacher reaches out to me that they are having an issue with a specific service. In turn, I reach out to the company and submit a ticket with the current information I have about the issue. It never fails, the company replies back asking more detailed and specific questions about the incident. Questions that I don't have the answer to. So then I need to reach out to the teacher and get more information, hoping they have even the slightest clue what I am asking for.
Typically, they don't get back with me right away, so I have to wait most of the day for their response. I then send the answered questions to the company and since I am now gone for the day, their reply doesn't get addressed by me until the next day (it's usually just more questions from them anyway). This goes back and forth a couple times before the issue is finally fixed. Usually, a couple days to weeks later.
I drives me crazy!
It would be so much easier to have the staff member submit the ticket directly or use the support chat in the application to get their issue fixed. Especially since the service is hosted to begin with and I have zero access to any of it. At least not anymore than the staff member does.
And you know what, sometimes I do that. I have them reach out to support and I wash my hands of the matter. However, then I am sure there are questions on their end like "what does he even do then", or "why are we even paying him". Trust me, we have enough other infrastructure, that I have plenty on my plate without being the middleman, but like I said, I am starting to realize that is just part of the job these days.
In positions like mine, technology seems to be less about being the guy that can actually fix it, and being the guy that can get it fixed. Do you see the difference there? I'm still trying to wrap my head around it myself. It all seems to tedious to me. It seems like so many extra steps and quite honestly a waste of my time at times. SaaS is not going away though, and therefore being a bridge for getting those issues fixed is also not going away.
I fully acknowledge this is one of those instances where the circumstances are not going to change, so instead I need to change my perspective on it and instead of pushing back, embracing this new paradigm. I'm still working on that part... It's so hard, and I am old and stubborn.
Do you work in tech or some other industry and you have seen this shift? Are you an end user and you have first hand experience with having to reach out to support on your own vs. having someone in house do it for you? I'd love to read your comments!
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Interesting. When I re-entered the job market in 1988 I took a job with a private school. The principal grabbed me for special duties because I was one of the few people who could use a word processor. How quickly times change. There was no Google. My son at home used a dial up service for his Internet connection and he cost us a bundle until we realized what he was doing. Of course, that was almost 40 years ago, but what a world we are in now. Another universe entirely.
It really is! I remember the days of dial up well. I am actually glad I had the opportunity to experience both sides of things.
Spent over three decades in Communication Systems and IT and watched this same shift happen everywhere. The move to XaaS changed everything. We went from owning the problem to managing the relationship with whoever owns the problem now. Different skill set with different frustrations. You're not fixing things anymore. You're chasing vendors and translating between people who don't speak the same language.
The middleman role feels useless sometimes. You know you could solve it faster if it was on premise and you had access. But you don't. So you wait and follow up. Then wait some more. Meanwhile the customer just wants their shit to work.
Here's the upside though. You become the person who knows how all the pieces connect. The vendor only knows their product. The customer only knows their business. You're the one who sees the whole picture. That has value even when it doesn't feel like it.
At least you are still in the game friend.
Yes! That's exactly it! Those are some good points too. I'm glad I was able to write something that resonated with someone. I wasn't sure if I was expressing myself clearly.
oh, you were very clear. Loved the post.
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I suppose you have always been Mr Fix it and this is never going to change whatever happens with technology going forward. You must just be happy people want your help even though you know it is a slight mission each time.
Yeah, it just feels kind of redundant at times. Inefficient is probably a better word. Especially when I know that there is going to be more information required that I do not possess.
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