Marco Klein, Support Engineer for Exigo gives the key of a perfect support : using his efficiency at its highest, provide good advice to deliver perfect solutions and be perfectionist, tracking down the problem to the cause.

Being a support engineer is dealing with being efficient. What kind of issues do you face?

My issue is time. I use my efficiency at its highest, by working on 3 PC’s simultaneously with
several remote access tools. Nevertheless, even after a successful day, the next day you face
different problems or a different constellation of problems. Getting the time to document
every single step is difficult. The challenge is to multi-task and keep a high-level of support.

Which part of your job do you prefer? Why?

A right mix of everything, is what I prefer. During audits I already have different solutions in
mind. Combined with 17 years of support and troubleshooting experience I can provide
good advice to deliver perfect solutions. This mixture of tasks keeps me to be flexible and
motivated.

Why did you become a consultant for exigo? What is the most interesting project you did
until now?

Why not exigo? At our first meeting we discovered a lot of common ground. Along with
some social aspects, they were also interested in supporting my private project. Their belief
in me that I could directly step into a big challenging project was another great sign of
confidence. In this particular case, it was to bring back a customer’s outdated, stone-aged,
weak running system to the future. Similar to the movie “Back to the future”, from the 80’s
to 2015 with all the surroundings like planning new server room setup, cabling, TCom
contracts, Geo-Clustering etc. Sad but true it cannot be done within that 1 minute as in the movie, but we are in progress and in time.

How do you see global IT support vs. local IT support?

Some companies realize nowadays that the small all-rounder IT-guy around the corner is
way more reliable, faster, flexible and in the end way cheaper than a helpdesk-agent from
the Far East with their static questionnaires and loss of time listening to elevator music. The
IT-guy should be part of the company and live the company in order to most effectively fix,
grow and support the business, while being on the spot.

You mentioned earlier that you are working on a special IT project. How did it come
about?

The re-use of equipment can cause issues in a complex environment. In our modern world
we face issues such as “a Windows XP machine is officially not able to connect to a Win2k12
Terminal Server”. From a cost perspective, it’s not worth reinstalling this machine, probably so they buy a new one. Faster CPU’s, faster harddisks, more memory, so less work
and less time-consuming for the IT-guy. But the old equipment can be re-built and re-used.
Together with a few friends, we started a project in Cameroon. We decided to support
schools, colleges and training centers in central Africa. In 2016 we plan again to do
research on the spot and decide, which 4-6 school buildings we can equip with donated
computers, switches and servers.

Is it in your nature to understand how IT works, to find out what the problem is and to try to find solutions?

I used to work for a company where the philosophy was, to quickly give up and reinstall. I
personally prefer to track down the problem to the cause. Analytical thinking is one of my
key competencies and understanding the cause results in less mistakes next time around. I
am a person who enjoys to understand the cause and effect and therefore I will always
spend the extra time.