SBS Install - Workstation Laundry and Professionalism

Part of what distinguishes us as professionals is in the way we do things and how things end up when we are done.

Some aspects of our professionalism are:

• We are meticulous
• Our results are consistent
• We keep extensive check lists (a blogged SBS example) for all aspects of the work we do.
• We utilize the Wiki feature in WSS v3 in a side-by-side install on our own SBS boxes for:
• Procedural Manuals
• Client Relations Manuals
• Professionalism Manuals
• Technical Manuals
• We have that Wiki accessible via RWW
• We keep WSS based document libraries of all needed base scripts accessible to us via RWW
• Group Policy Software install scripts for Office 2007
• Custom logon batch files
• We keep WSS based image libraries of all screenshots needed for reference
• We keep WSS based folders available for our technicians to upload screenshots to along with some notes on them for later addition to the Wiki.
• Our policies and procedures (P&Ps) are well documented and available to our technicians all the time.
• Our technicians can comment on those P&Ps, updating the P&P Wikis on the go.

No matter what SBS fresh install we do or SBS install we walk into after the fact, our workstations, servers, shares, and other infrastructure aspects are as similar in their structure and appearance as we can get them within reason.

Maintaining consistency makes it much easier for any of our technicians to walk into a situation blind and know with relative confidence what is going on at any given client.

This is what distinguishes a professional from the one who flies by the seat of their pants.

We pay attention to the details.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.