I’ve already mentioned one aspect of my job when I talked about being a Good IT Trainer. But training users in how to operate the software isn’t the only aspect of my job. Another part of my work is the installation of the software, hardware and setting the software up to client specifications. The setup and installation of a software can be more trouble some than training people it’s use (although that of course depends on the caliber of the user you are training).
I’ve gained a fair bit of experience in this field over the past few years, some of it good and some of it bad (sometimes the bad stuff has been really helpful to learn from), so in a similar vein to my IT Trainer post here is some of my tips for making a good installer.
- Be Confident – As with training someone it is important to be confident when going on site to install, nothing. The client is paying good money to have the expert come and install the software for them, if you turn up and act like you have no idea what you are doing it doesn’t reflect well on your company or you, nothing looks worse than some one who doesn’t know what they are doing. Plus, installing software will probably mean you have to deal with the customer’s IT department. If you don’t appear to have some knowledge of IT they will be less likely to trust you to interact with their infrastructure. Speaking of dealing with IT.
- Make friends with the client’s IT – Your relationship with the client’s IT department could easily make or break your project. Get them on side and they will be a great help, they know the network and the infrastructure after all so they can help with permissions and other problems. Get on their bad side and they can make life a lot harder for you, if they give you minimal cooperation you could be in for problems. Making a good relationship with them now could come to be helpful once your off site too, work well with them and you increase the chances of them being helpful when it comes to support issues. In a future post I will give some pointers on how to build a better relationship with the clients IT.
- Dont’t rush the install – You are on site alone, the pressure is on you to make the job happen. The installation of the system takes a given amount of time for a reason, rush it are you are liable to miss some part of the setup maybe a permission set wrong or a tick box unticked either way rushing increases the probability that it will happen. Rushing leads to being untidy, and untidy work is never impressive.
- Get the client specifications signed off before install – I cant stress how important this one is. I’ve learnt the hard way what happens if you don’t follow this piece of advice. With complex softwares that have a lot of features its especially important. Get from the client what they want to the system to do as soon as possible (before even setting foot on site with an installation CD if possible). Once you have them get the client to sign off on them and make sure they are aware changes to the specification could be chargeable. I’ve had a few times where the client has started off saying they want the system to do one thing and then halfway through (or even at the end) changed the specifications. This can be for a number of reasons, the most common I’ve found are the client sees the software and sees that it can do a lot more for them than they initially thought or the client doesn’t have a clear idea of what they want. Either one can cause you a big problem, from an engineers point of view it can lead to a lot of wasted time. On a similar note
- Don’t commit to something if you’re not sure you can do it – This tend to be more of a problem with sales people than installers, but if you tell the client that your software can do something be damn sure that it is capable of doing what you say cause if it cant you are going to have a very awkward client to deal with. When a client gives you a needs/want only commit if you are sure you can do it, if you’re not tell them you will check and get back to them or call some one there and then. If you tell the client it can be done and it turns out you cant then you have already damaged the client’s trust in you.
- Appearance is key - When you are on site with a client make sure you look the part. Dress smart, look smart, be clean and tidy in your work and if you install hardware clean up after yourself as much as possible. A good appearance can go a long way to building a good relationship with the client and a good relationship leads to more work from the client. Remember when on site you are representing your company so any impression you give is of the company not just you.
- Take the lead – In any install, particularly one involving hardware, there are going to be choices that need making. Sometimes this is as simple as where to site the piece of hardware, other times it can be more coplicated than that. Don’t be afraid to push for things to be done the way you want. When it comes to your software and your hardware you are the expert, they are paying good money for your help and expertise they want your advice and experience to benifit them.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, I’m sure there are plenty of other installation engineers out there that can add their own advice to this but these are guidelines I’ve found it use full to stick as near to as possible over the years. If you’ve got your own to add or you disagree with mine please let me know in the comments.
edit: see my follow up post dealing with an it department