In any position that demands a fair amount of exposure to customers, whether face to face or done remotely, it takes a certain kind of personality to thrive. This is especially the case in IT, namely our managed services unit, where customer interactions waver between general questions and status updates to troubleshooting and incident management – the latter of which is where the skills of the technician are truly tested.
James “Jim” Harsh, a Tier II Technician for The ScanOnline Managed Services Group is at the forefront of handling escalated support requests, as this role usually sees matters that pass the threshold of being a quick fix. No matter how proactive, how overboard our managed services goes to ensure issues do not occur within the network, enterprise-issued mobile devices, printers or other hardware we manage, we all know that technology by nature can go down without reason. Customers undoubtedly want to get to the bottom of where issues arise to minimize business impacts, and Jim has the well-balanced attitude and complete skill set it takes to be effective. Not only does Jim do a great job assuring customers that everything possible is being done, but that the customer has the full force of his abilities and the rest of the team to find a positive resolution. You just need to take in a couple of calls he handles to know this.
Speaking of Jim’s technical savvy, Harsh’s career has set him up nicely into the position he currently holds. As a United States Marine, Harsh was an electronics technician and radio repairman in the 1990’s, right as the Internet began to make the world a lot smaller for consumers and the business world alike. From that point on, his past includes roles as a Field Service Technician, System Administrator, MSC Tech II and System Support Technician. His list of skills and certifications behind networks, software, firmware, business systems, telephony, computing and more span over 20 years.
Around the office, many have stated that Jim has a “voice” for tech support. Some have even said he has a voice for radio, but luckily for ScanOnline, he’s settled in very nicely into the Managed Services Group in his 2nd year with the company. Originally a Buckeye from Greenville, Ohio, Harsh now calls Lancaster, SC home. When not at ScanOnline’s Locust office, he loves spending time with his family, namely these days watching his young daughter grow up. With the time he has left, he enjoys tending to his yard and getting a game of pool in when possible.
A task oriented, process minded tech, Jim finds that even though each customer and their IT infrastructure is unique, it’s the journey he takes to understand further that ecosystem, including vendor relationships, that makes his days particularly interesting. “What I appreciate most about my role at ScanOnline is that we are not always working on the same piece of equipment day in and day out.” Harsh says. “There are a wide range of devices that we are involved with, and through working with different groups and vendors, we become familiar with their piece of the ‘puzzle’ as well.”
Jim’s dedication to our customers extends outside of the office. It’s important to note this is something you won’t see very often from managed services providers in general, as many prefer to operate only as a remote unit. Harsh was more than happy to have the opportunity not long ago to visit a customer site to help familiarize its workforce with technical training on standard procedures the MSG team operate behind. “After completion, the customer expressed how impressed they were with the amount of information we were able to provide and the ease with which they were able to perform the task independently,” Jim stated.
If you have kept up with our blogs, you would know that almost all of our managed services technicians and professional services engineers share a similar affinity to learning more about enterprise IT, outside of their roles and responsibilities. Jim is no different: “Since IT is a vast and ever-changing field, I enjoy that we are encouraged to delve into other areas and expand our knowledge.” One of the things Jim keeps his eye on these days is cloud computing. Though he himself loves keeping up with best practices in the field, his customer-first attitude even shines through when discussing this topic. “We have minimal but increasing exposure to this (cloud computing) through the inclusion of Meraki switches and AP’s,” Harsh mentions. “…and most recently, with our interoffice migration to Office 365. There are many features and applications available, through this service, that will improve the productivity and support that we are able to provide.”
ScanOnline is a proud supporter of our troops and continues to strive to employ veterans, as their strong character, discipline, problem solving skills and ability to reason in challenging situations are the types of attributes that vastly improve our workforce. Jim embodies all of those traits and more; we’re very fortunate to have him as a key member of the Managed Services Group.