There are a few key challenges with respect to troubleshooting your remote site networks. The primary one being the profile of your on-site personnel. Lack of expertise at remote sites often results in travel by senior IT staff to gain the visibility needed to identify the root causes of problems. But, of course, travel is not an option in many cases. Your evaluation of the on-site support situation will guide you in creating a plan and strategy. Ask yourself these key questions: Is there any IT staff on-site? What is their expertise level? What is the criticality of that site?
But even for organizations with no IT support on-site or lower-skilled technicians, we’ve worked hard to develop different technologies and methods with simplified workflows and remote visibility that will help you to get the job done – fast.
Step 1: Automated Testing
There are several benefits to automated testing. First, it’s much faster than a typical trial-and-error methodology. Second, it’s more thorough than a manual approach, which means it can find problems that the technician may not have even considered. Third, it allows anyone, regardless of skill level, to run tests and identify problems. Lastly, it creates a standardized process and workflow, which will be useful if an escalation does occur. The escalation team doesn’t have to start from scratch. There is a standard set of tests already run that can be referenced to identify the problem domain so triage can begin immediately at the failure point – without retesting – saving significant time.