Over the years, organizations worldwide have realized the power of technology for effective and efficient day-to-day functioning. Technology has eased, smoothened out and streamlined many a function. While on the one hand, as organizations continue to evolve by embracing technology, the realm too has been witnessing a plethora of changes with new technologies emerging almost every other day. At the same time, these evolutions and advancements have not been without its fair share of complexities warranting constant monitoring, pre-empting and preventing any kind of disruptions/outages to prevent stalling of business continuity. It is here the role of IT support services assumes prominence – a team without whom, it is even difficult to fathom to keep an organization chugging on its tracks.
But the IT support teams have never come to the forefront and have largely remained ‘backstage artists’ or the unsung heroes. The role of the IT support team came to limelight when the COVID-19 pandemic set in warranting overnight shifting of work places from offices to homes and other remote locations. If, on the one hand, IT support teams had to ensure availability of all the necessary infrastructure and services and make them available for multiple departments/functions, they also had the dual responsibility of ensuring business as usual. Sudden movement from a secured environment to an unsecured one exposed networks and data too many vulnerabilities. IT services team also had the responsibility of ensuring data protection and privacy and put in place systems and procedures so that vital data is not compromised. With so many responsibilities, had you asked an IT support professional “how was it during the peak of the pandemic?” and more often than not, the response would have been the same - “have never sunrise or sunset” or “working without knowing if it was day or night”. It is this determination and commitment of these teams which set us, at Symphony SummitAI to recognize them for their contribution and who continue to do so and get their fair share of sunlight.
Aptly titled ‘IT Heroes’, the initiative stemmed from our realization that they have remained under the radar and that they need to get a fair share of their recognition. This is a maiden initiative by Symphony SummitAI to recognize IT and IT support/helpdesk professionals for their unquantifiable contribution they have been making. In the words of Satyen Vyas, CEO, Symphony SummitAI, “more than anything else, our key objective is to create a platform to curate and host their stories, experiences, inspire and encourage others. We want their passion and commitments to be seen and acknowledged by the larger community”.
For the initiative to be successful and draw a large pool of such professionals, www.it-hero-rises.com - the website for professionals to know more about the initiative and file their nomination, went live as the first step and promoted across all social media handles.
Talking about the response to the initiative, Vyas says, “The response to this initiative has been encouraging and motivating. We have received many interesting stories. For eg A manager of a leading consulting firm shares how their IT function enabled VPN for the 16K users in a week and delivered laptops in places like Jammu & Kashmir to a small village in Bijapur. Their team walked kms to deliver laptops to new joinees. To ensure support, they had to make arrangements for the IT team to stay in their data centre for 5-6 weeks”.
What makes the IT Hero Rises is the fact that this is not a contest and thereby there are no winners and runners-up. Symphony sees all IT support professionals as the lifeline of an organization and over the next few years plans to take it other countries like South East Asia, Middle East, etc. “Our objective is to bring their good work to notice – which in turn we hope will help them to get the rightful attention they deserve. Going by the responses we have received, we certainly see this as an ongoing project”, adds Vyas