Need Advice on Number of Staff to Hire

[mdsurfrider]

I know this is off-topic, however, I thought it to be the best place to find the answer to my question.

I'm in the planning phases of staffing-up for a small network support contract. The requirements are to extend the corporate netowrk to support a multi-site software engineering lab and provide end-user support to corporate personnel located in separate buildings.

My problem: I'm looking for industry data regarding how many support personnel it takes to support X many users.

I estimate that there will be approximately 50 - 75 users in 3 locations (city-wide). The network will likely consist of a 4-5 site hub/spoke VPN configuration w/ T1s at each site.

The BIG question: Is this too much work for 1 senior engineer and one junior engineer?

Your thoughts and advice are welcome.

Thanks,


Michael Law - MCSE, CCNA, SCSA, MCIW
Qualatech Computer Consulting, LLC

http://www.qualatech.com

 

[Shift838]

you will probably need a couple of extra support staff just to handle the support calls from users.

 

[ShackDaddy]

My opinion is that the support needs will depend completely on how well the network is set up and how effective the remote management tools in place are. I and a junior tech support 150 users in one location and another 50 around 20 minutes away. One of us spends 4 hours a week in the other office. Everything else is done via remote control. System policies lock enough down that things don't shake loose.

I think that two people could handle the scenario that you describe. There will also need to be a good work-flow process in order so that the important things can be handled first, and there should be a point person at each hub location that can handle standard problems from a worksheet.

Shackdaddy

 

[mdsurfrider]

Thanks for the reply. Allow me to elaborate: I anticipate usign Terminal Services to manage most server-related configuration issues (All Microsoft) and the network will be firewalled (Netscreen) and Cisco-based (switches/routers).

WRT to policy, however, I haven't given it much thought. I always have difficulty navigating the political waters of a tight domain/desktop policy but I see that it could an efficient way to reduce end-user support requests.

That said, does a senior/junior 2-person staff sound logical? Would it be a full-time job for the senior or do you think the senior could bill, say 20%, elsewhere?

Thanks again,

Michael Law - MCSE, CCNA, SCSA, MCIW
Qualatech Computer Consulting, LLC

http://www.qualatech.com

 

[ShackDaddy]

I personally think the senior could bill elsewhere. I know I do ;-)

I would lock down Terminal access just to the admins and use complex passwords, then make them accessible from anywhere on the internet, so that even out at another billable client's site, you could zip in and take care of things as needed.

ShackDaddy

 

[burlgoat]

Sounds similar to our setup here, We have just installed a VPN network on Cisco routers throughout our 7 sites coving the whole of the UK. There is our manager and one systems administrator (myself) and one technician managing the lot using Windows 2000 terminal services...

We don't have strict desktop policyu in place but do have access over the WAN to all client machine using VNC, the users set the password on VNC (to allow peace of mind for themselves) and it's working fine for us.

 

[aco636]

Just to add a vote of suuport to burlgoat, I run a very similar setup making use of VNC

http://www.realvnc.com.

I look after about 70 users over a multi site setup accross the UK. I do this with about 50% of my time and 100% of a junior.
Database, application, reporting, network support, etc.
THe most important thing for me is to have the time to evolve the setup as the company is growing. THis involves writing scripts, security audits, performance monitoring.testing.

 

[mdsurfrider]

Thanks to all for your valuable input. Happy New Year.



Michael Law - MCSE, CCNA, SCSA, MCIW
Qualatech Computer Consulting, LLC

http://www.qualatech.com