As you have a jack of all trades role be prepared to have all the **** jobs dumped on you.
I have had first hand experience of this. They said my main role will be to look after IT but we may ask you to help out on the side if needed. Guess what, I spent more time stuffing envelopes and preparing point of sale items then I did IT. It was only after people started complaining that their IT requirements weren't being met that they called me in for a meeting (non formal disciplinary) because I "wasn't pulling my weight". The only reason I got out of it was that I kept a log of what my time was spent on and the long list (over 50 items backlogged) of outstanding IT jobs that needed doing but couldn't because of all the the other jobs. But to this day people try and shove non-related work onto me just because I'm the IT guy therefore I must know how to do anything on a computer (every IT guy knows how to lay out and modify architectural plans in autocad right!)
Outside of that:
Get to know your suppliers by placing orders over the phone with your account manager. You would be surprised how well people respond to having someone call up and treat you like a human being rather than some order processing machine. This pays back when you need something urgently.
Get to know active directory and exchange (assuming thats what your email server is running). It wasn't long before people wanted access to other peoples in boxes when they were on holiday or out of the office. Likewise management wanted certain folders to be accessed by certain users only, it's not always a straightforward as it seems.
When people ring up with an issue I give them a time frame. I'll be 10 mins or can I come over this afternoon and have a look at it or I'll be right over if it's urgent. And I stick to those times. I am looking at getting a ticket based system in place but this would be overkill for you.
I also second getting to know other peoples jobs and documenting everything. Knowing jobs will help as people assume you know everything that they do and documenting things is obvious.
I probably have more to say but this is pretty long already!
I have had first hand experience of this. They said my main role will be to look after IT but we may ask you to help out on the side if needed. Guess what, I spent more time stuffing envelopes and preparing point of sale items then I did IT. It was only after people started complaining that their IT requirements weren't being met that they called me in for a meeting (non formal disciplinary) because I "wasn't pulling my weight". The only reason I got out of it was that I kept a log of what my time was spent on and the long list (over 50 items backlogged) of outstanding IT jobs that needed doing but couldn't because of all the the other jobs. But to this day people try and shove non-related work onto me just because I'm the IT guy therefore I must know how to do anything on a computer (every IT guy knows how to lay out and modify architectural plans in autocad right!)
Outside of that:
Get to know your suppliers by placing orders over the phone with your account manager. You would be surprised how well people respond to having someone call up and treat you like a human being rather than some order processing machine. This pays back when you need something urgently.
Get to know active directory and exchange (assuming thats what your email server is running). It wasn't long before people wanted access to other peoples in boxes when they were on holiday or out of the office. Likewise management wanted certain folders to be accessed by certain users only, it's not always a straightforward as it seems.
When people ring up with an issue I give them a time frame. I'll be 10 mins or can I come over this afternoon and have a look at it or I'll be right over if it's urgent. And I stick to those times. I am looking at getting a ticket based system in place but this would be overkill for you.
I also second getting to know other peoples jobs and documenting everything. Knowing jobs will help as people assume you know everything that they do and documenting things is obvious.
I probably have more to say but this is pretty long already!
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Funnily enough, the guy I'm replacing is leaving for almost that very reason. He's a very experienced network guy and is moving to an IT management role at another company. I've spoken to him and he said the company I'm joining is a fantastic place to work, but it was a bit of a backwards step for him (in terms of IT) as he just needed a job when he moved to the area. He did say it will be a great place for me to learn stuff on the job.
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