NONFICTION · IT LEADERSHIP · BY BRIAN P MCCOPPIN
The Hell Desk Series
Every organization has IT Demons. Here's how to exorcise them.
// THE CALLER
Your laptop won't log in. The Help Desk number goes to voicemail. The person who finally calls back says, "Sup?"
// THE TECH
Hasn't slept in a week. Juggling 300 tickets. Reports to a manager who's never there.
// THE BOOKS
Tell both sides of the story. Built on 25+ years of IT leadership, interviews with dozens of IT pros, real organizations and real research.
BOOK 1 · SALVATION FOR YOUR IT SUPPORT · OUT NOW
Hell Desk to Help Desk
Why is IT support so painful? You have IT Demons.
The tech who answers every request with "not my job." The executive who insists the ten-year-old server is "good enough." The employee who can't understand why his laptop needs a VPN at a coffee shop. And the IT manager who's never in the office, until the day he wipes every system in the company on his way out the door.
Brian P McCoppin leads you through the Seven Circles of IT Hell, from the Hell of IT Expenditure down to the deepest pit of all, the Hell of Leadership. Each chapter opens with a story you'll swear happened at your company, then shows exactly why it happened and how to fix it, usually without massive budgets or mass firings.
INSIDE
- The six systems every Help Desk must have
- The 5 Rules for IT Dress Code, and why appearances matter more than IT wants to admit
- How to hire for customer service, problem-solving and skills, in that order
- A practical on-call guide that protects both your users and your team
- The 7 Tenets of the Help Desk Leader
- A field guide to the IT Demons, and how to convert them into IT Saints
Whether you're an employee who's had it with IT, a tech who's simply done, or a leader trying to hold it all together, this is your path out of IT Hell and into IT Heaven.
BOOK 2 · SALVATION FOR YOUR IT SECURITY · COMING SOON
Hell's Gate to Help Desk
Your friendliest Help Desk agent is your company's front door. The attackers know it.
FRI 4:52 PM — A vice president calls the Help Desk from the airport. Phone broken, flight boarding, a two-million-dollar deal on the line. Your best agent, the one everyone loves, gets him back into his account in minutes. He leaves her a five-star review.
He wasn't a vice president. And by Monday, he's read eleven years of the company's email.
This isn't a technical manual full of firewalls and acronyms. It's about people: the employees who click, the Help Desk agents who hold the master keys, and the leaders who aren't ready for the worst day until it arrives. You'll travel through the Seven Circles of Security Hell, from the Hell of "It Won't Happen to Us" to the Hell of the Unready Leader. Old friends return (yes, Gary is still Gary), and you'll meet a new kind of enemy: the Outside Demons.
Every lesson is backed by real cases and real research, including the casino breach that reportedly began with a ten-minute Help Desk call, and the federal warnings telling Help Desks they're being targeted.
INSIDE
- Five Signs It's a Trap, the security poster every breakroom needs
- The Gatekeeper Script: how to verify a caller without making them feel like a suspect
- The Reporting Promise: how to get people to speak up the moment they click
- The Worst Day Binder: the seven pages every leader needs before ransomware strikes
- How to take back the "keys to the kingdom" before an ex-employee, or an attacker, uses them
Kind is not the same as careful. Verify, then help.
FIELD GUIDE
Know your demons. Meet your saints.
INSIDE DEMONS · BOOK 1
- Sloppy Steve
- Not My Job Nick
- Good Enough Gary
- Right-Now Rita
- Bob the Boss
OUTSIDE DEMONS · BOOK 2
- Wire-Fraud Wanda
- Masquerade Max
- Extortion Ezra
Ezra arrives with a ransom note and surprisingly good customer service.
THE SAINTS · BOOK 2
- Vigilant Vera
- Double-Check Dana
- Saint Krystal the Keykeeper
Written for everyone who touches IT
The frustrated employee
Who has had it with IT and wants to know why it works this way.
The burned-out tech
Who is simply done, and deserves a better way to work.
The leader in the middle
Trying to hold it all together, without waiting for a bigger budget.
COMING NEXT · BOOK 3
The board wants to cut the Help Desk in half. The vendor has a chatbot. Gary has a spreadsheet.
What could possibly go wrong? Artificial intelligence comes to the Help Desk.